The publishing world has been buzzing about Trainman, the supposedly true story of a young man who spies his true love on the train…and the chat room denizens who help him capture his heart. “Densha Otoko,” or “Trainman” by the pseudonomynous Hitori Nakano has Japanese (and surely United States) publishers scrambling for more stories of love in our high tech world.
Some Japanese book publishers have formed new divisions, with researchers spending their days searching chat rooms for good narratives. Surely there must be “writers” with names like jimboT436 who aren’t yet aware that their messages to cynthias2ndhusband, met by a witty put-down from Pocket- Rocket, are actually a perfect opening chapter for a story with the paperback sales punch of Jackie Collins.