Panama Sushi Coup

The title, "Panama Sushi Coup," turns 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.