Shuker, Carl

PERSONAL: Male. Education: Graduated from University of Canterbury, 1998, and Victoria University.

ADDRESSES: Home—Tokyo, Japan. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Shoemaker & Hoard, 1400 65th St., Ste. 250, Emeryville, CA 94608.

CAREER: Writer.

WRITINGS:

The Method Actors (novel), Shoemaker & Hoard (Emeryville, CA), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: In his first book, The Method Actors: A Novel Carl Shuker tells of the disappearance in Tokyo of Michael Edwards, a man conducting historical research into Japanese war crimes, and the search for Michael by his sister Meredith. As she encounters Michael's friends—such as the wealthy Simon, a homosexual, and Yasu, who grows psychedelic mushrooms—she recruits them to search for her brother. In a review of The Method Actors in Publishers Weekly, a contributor wrote: "Shuker's dizzying debut shimmers with authentic detail, an uncanny, otherworldly sense of place and a cast of believably hardcore hipsters." Writing in the New York Times, Neil Gordon commented that the effort is "an ensemble piece that jumps back and forth in time, point of view and tense, swimming deeply into its characters' consciousness, then out into cultural critique." David Cozy commented in the Japan Times that the novel is "as close to being a purely postmodernist novel as one is likely to find." A Kirkus Reviews contributor called the book "a carefully plotted tale of a decidedly postmodern bent, with plenty of hip name-checking and lots of mind-altering substances to keep things moving."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Entertainment Weekly, May 27, 2005, Gilbert Cruz, review of The Method Actors, p. 103.

Japan Times, June 26, 2005, David Cozy, review of The Method Actors.

Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2005, review of The Method Actors, p. 384.

New York Times, July 31, 2005, Neil Gordon, review of The Method Actors.

Publishers Weekly, May 23, 2005, review of The Method Actors, p. 60.

ONLINE

Straight.com, http://www.straight.com/ (May 26, 2005), Blaine Kyllo, review of The Method Actors.