Please Enjoy Your Happiness: A Memoir

by Paul Brinkley-Rogers Narrated by James Langton

Overview

A beautiful and evocative memoir based on the author's summer-long love affair with a remarkable older Japanese woman in the wake of World War II-“the most romantic memoir you're likely to read in a lifetime” (New York Times bestselling author Elin Hilderbrand).

Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent Paul Brinkley¿Rogers has lived an adventurous life all over the world. But there is one story he cannot forget: that of his haunting love affair with a mysterious older Japanese woman in 1959. Paul was a sailor aboard the USS Shangri¿La that long¿ago summer when he met Kaji Yukiko in the seaport of Yokosuka. A fierce intellectual, Yukiko shared her astonishing knowledge of literature, film, and poetry with Paul and encouraged, even demanded, that he use his gifts to become the writer he is today.

But theirs was not a quiet love story. When a member of the yakuza, Japan's brutal crime syndicate, attempted to kidnap Yukiko, Paul realized that there was much more to her-and to Japan in the devastating wake of World War II-than he saw at first glance. Through the searing letters that Yukiko wrote to him and Paul's vivid telling of a history made all the more powerful and poignant by the weight of time, Please Enjoy Your Happiness reaches across decades and continents, inviting us all to revisit those loves of our lives that never truly end.

Editorial Reviews

APRIL 2017 - AudioFile

In the words of the American lyricist Alan Jay Lerner, "There's always one you can't forget." Narrator James Langton bears listeners on the waves of memory with a lightness in his polished British voice that belies the sadness of a love affair never meant to last. Brinkley-Rogers recalls his profound relationship with an older woman named Yukiko while stationed in Japan in 1959 at the age of 19. Langton gives Yukiko a lilting, sweet voice with the subtly clipped tones of someone whose first language is not English. Even the raw parts of the story are told with an earnestness that speaks to the goodness of the world, and the listener can't help but fall into the tale. This is a work that is profoundly human and lovingly rendered. E.E. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

Daily Mail (UK)

"[A] haunting memoir."

Elin Hilderbrand

"Please enjoy...the most romantic memoir you're likely to read in a lifetime."

The Lady (UK)

"A moving memoir exploring the last imprint of his first love."

Daily Express (UK)

"Enchanting."

From the Publisher

"Please enjoy…the most romantic memoir you're likely to read in a lifetime."-–Elin Hilderbrand, New York Times bestselling author of HERE'S TO US

APRIL 2017 - AudioFile

In the words of the American lyricist Alan Jay Lerner, "There's always one you can't forget." Narrator James Langton bears listeners on the waves of memory with a lightness in his polished British voice that belies the sadness of a love affair never meant to last. Brinkley-Rogers recalls his profound relationship with an older woman named Yukiko while stationed in Japan in 1959 at the age of 19. Langton gives Yukiko a lilting, sweet voice with the subtly clipped tones of someone whose first language is not English. Even the raw parts of the story are told with an earnestness that speaks to the goodness of the world, and the listener can't help but fall into the tale. This is a work that is profoundly human and lovingly rendered. E.E. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170566525
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	08/02/2016
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos