John McEwen
In this year of the Japan Festival the most revealing book on the Western infatuation with Japan has been Wandering Ghost: The Odyssey of Lafcadio Hearn by Jonathan Cott (Knopf, $24.95). Cott's cool but sympathetic and exhaustiv,ely researched narrative is the perfect counterpart to the lavish quotations from Hearn's always romantic writings. Hearn's life took many twists before he arrived in Japan, where he remains a household name (there's even a monthly called Hearn), while here and in America he is barely remembered. Cott's overdue biography should help redress the balance. It is also extremely handsome. Why can't we produce nice, old-fashioned- looking books? Art catalogues tend to be books these days and the pick of the catalogues I have seen is Gericault (Reunion des Musees Nationaux, 350 fr;
'Hi/ You must be the new kid on the block!' the exhibition at the Grand Palais finishes 6 January 1992). It should serve as a model for all writers and designers — the text succinct, the lay-out unfussy and generous; best of all, illustrations overwhelm words. A worthy tribute to one of the greatest of painters.
As for the most overrated book(s) of the year, the Lord preserve us from the smoothly smug and artfully self- deprecating banalities of anything about poor old Provence by Peter Mayle.
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