Notes on "The blue-eyed salaryman" by Niall Murtagh
Niall Murtagh spent most of his 20s travelling round the world and enjoying himself. He worked when he needed to, earning a little extra money to pay for further adventures. Sounds like a wonderful time. He's one of life's free spirits who deliberately shuns the norms, the things society expects you to do like get a career, get married, buy property, and so on.
This book is about what happened when, rather to his own surprise, he finally embraced all those things. But not in his native Ireland; in Japan.
If you've ever had any interest in Japanese culture and lifestyle, you'll find something interesting in this account by an outsider. But you have to keep in mind that, as a salaryman in a huge Japanese corporation, much of Murtagh's account is about life in an office. A bit of a weird office by UK standards, but an office nonetheless.
Given that he makes a pretty good job of keeping office life interesting; making the odd rituals and all-to-familiar office politics the centre of the story. His account of marrying and moving in with a Japanese woman, and later having children with her, is reduced to a sub-plot.
If there'd been too much detail, or too many chapters, this would have ended up something of a struggle to read. But Murtagh keeps it short and his writing style is relaxed and easy. You can get through this book in a couple of evenings with no problem.
Still, it's not a book for everyone, simply because not very much happens. An Irishman goes to work in Japan, spends a lot of time in an office, gets promoted a few times, and starts a family; that's it. He confidently speaks Japanese and understands much of the culture, so this is not a fish-out-of-water story; it's observation from the inside, and all the more enjoyable as a result.
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