The three words used in the title, Panama Sushi Coup, turn into an engrossing true story; a narrative
about friendship, betrayal, foreign business development and sushi, by James D.
Evans as he described a part of his life most people couldn’t imagine in their
wildest dreams. He purchased, along with
some of his friends, a fix-it-upper combination brothel and strip club in
Panama.
From the comfort of a Southern California
“out-to-lunch-bunch” of friends that meet every Wednesday at their favorite
sushi bar in Long Beach, the group began traveling to South America as an
escape from their frustration with the dating scene in L.A. On multiple and frequent trips to Costa Rica
and Panama, they uncover the social acceptability of prostitution in South
America as legal and in many ways stimulating. So Jim, our faithful narrator, takes the reader on a candid and quite
descriptive adventure assimilating carnal knowledge amongst the local working
girls. Caution: This part of the book is
a bit shocking; written from a masculine point of view for a male audience or extremely
liberated feminine reader, but definitely not for the church-going-Sunday-tea-sipping
group. I would classify this as R- rated
for this very short portion, although there is a valid reason for Jim’s candid
writing. He explained within his book as
being necessary to provide a true understanding of what goes on during those
paid sexual encounters. What impressed
me most is when Jim meets Vivian, a soon to be girlfriend, he doesn’t reveal a
thing ungentlemanly about their relationship, hence the shock value of the
prior lustful episodes were just for that sole purpose – to shock.
The next third of the book dwells on what Donald Trump would
call “The Foreign Apprentice”- having 3 guys, drinking buddies from America,
not speaking any Spanish, somehow going into business together as partners buying
a penthouse condo and renovating a strip club/brothel in Panama City. The pages “flew by” as this became such an
interesting shift in the story with legitimate observations, decisions,
frustrations and success stories of achieving a Herculean task of daunting
proportions. As Donald Trump would say,
“You’re fired!” to the shenanigans of Angus, a dysfunctional overweight
alcoholic with the gift of gab, Jim would chalk it up to “friendship” and
overlook far too many “red flags.”
The best part of any true story is that it is often better
than fiction, as James D. Evans recounts episodes and antidotes of unimaginable
circumstances. He ardently tries to
bring some suspense into the storyline with the possibility of being stopped at
customs, arrested and put in a Panamanian jail, however due to the honest and
unassuming candor of his narration, some of the suspense is lost. Let’s face it, it’s not a James Bond novel or a Tom Cruise
film. Nevertheless the reader is drawn
into his intimate thoughts and reasoning, living vicariously through Jim’s
exploits one gains a firsthand knowledge only few ever experience.
As all good books have a beginning, middle and an end. Jim ends with some of the lessons he
learned. I felt his “pain” over the
betrayal of his, what were believed by him to be, closest friends. He felt forgiveness as a hard emotion to
muster; easily said but next to impossible to believe. An insult tossed his way from a verbal spout
when Angus called him “mentally ill” Jim later took to heart; agreeing with the
fact that he needed to be crazy to have done what he did against his better judgment.
Shocking at times as a lightning bolt, James D. Evans learns
a lesson he pontificates to all that read Panama
Sushi Coup; which is that friendship, like sushi, has a freshness date that
can expire causing nauseating consequences.
Buy this book at Amazon.com
