Books: Tokyo Cancelled

I finished this book Sunday evening. The cover blurbs describe it as the 1001 Arabian Nights of the 21st century or Canterbury Tales for the global citizen. I enjoyed it, though maybe not quite as much as I thought I would. Each story is wonderful in the real sense of the word: full of wonder. The 30K' summary: 13 travellers are stuck in an unnamed terminal when Tokyo get snowed in. They pass the night telling each other stories. Much of it feels stream-of-conscious, as if the narrator isn't quite sure exactly where the story is going or where it will end. A number of scenes are vulgar or gruesome - few would actually feel comfortable telling a story such as "The Doll" to a group of just met strangers. There is minimal crossover between the stories. I suppose coming from a long background of role-playing (which is itself just storytelling with oddly shaped dice) I'm used to weaving tales out of what seem to be disassociated pieces, and thus expected that perhaps each narrator would build on the last, or at least incorporate a character or two. My favorites were "The Store on Madison Avenue" and "The Changeling" but that may simply be my bias for sci-fi. All the stories are fantastical - only the first one could plausibly happen and even it reads more like a fairy tale or one of Aesop's fables. I'd recommend it to adventurous readers.