BEFORE AND AFTER SUPERFLAT: A Short History of Japanese Contemporary Art 1990-2011, by Adrian Favell. Blue Kingfisher, 2012, 246 pp., $24.95 (paper)

A book about Japanese art with the word "Superflat" in the title may repel those of us who find much of the work clustered under that rubric super-dull.

The good news is that Adrian Favell's "Before and After Superflat" is not fan-boy enthusiasm over the careers of Takashi Murakami, Yoshitomo Nara and others associated with that movement.