Literary Notes: Tokyo is home to Japanese authors as diverse as Kenzaburo Oe, 1994 Nobel Laureate in Literature, and Banana Yoshimoto, author of the cult novel Kitchen (1993). From the great 'interpreter of Japan', Lafcadio Hearn (an early foreign resident of Tokyo) and from the diplomatic wives of the 19th century, who delighted in the cherry blossoms and the dainty manners of the people, to Angela Carter, who pronounced Tokyo 'an exceedingly pleasant place in which to live', Tokyo has merited inclusion in a host of memoirs. These include the writings of William Faulkner, Aldous Huxley, Jean Cocteau and Charlie Chaplin. William Gibson's novel, Idoru (1997), explores Tokyo's technological future, while the darker side of the city is vividly portrayed in Speed Tribes: Children of the Japanese Bubble (1994) by Karl Taro Greenfeld. A Booker-shortlisted novel set in Tokyo is the wonderful Number 9 Dream (2001) by David Mitchell. Although written by an American author, Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden, ignited worldwide interest in Japan and Japanese culture when it came out in 1998.