This one of several novels and histories dealing with the shameful relocation of thousands of Japanese citizens from west coast areas to interior prison camps following the bombing of Pearl Harbour. This is narrated by a young boy whose family was broken up and moved to a small community on the Fraser River, then moved again. Chapters detail these events from the boy’s recall of that trauma at the time and from the longer remove of his life as a successful print artist in Ottawa in 1997.
Apt descriptions of this story by critics and reviewers include ‘lyrical’, ‘poignant’, ‘wonderful’, ‘masterfully sustained’, and ‘brilliantly lucid’. I would add ‘carefully integrated’- there are few plot surprises or loose ends. The plot, broadly predictable from early on, is secondary to the characters, developed with the aid of numerous reminiscences and flashbacks. The narrator’s recurring musings about and obsessions with the imagery of animals, water, and the life and music of Beethoven add a unifying symbolic, almost existential quality to the story. His ability to see music as colours as well as hear it suggests that he has the neurological condition known as synesthesia, which is possibly most common in artistic individuals. Only a nature artist and musician would ever think up this description: …”the wind swayed and rocked the trees as if they were outdoor instruments being finely tuned.”
The political message of the cruelly and injustice of the relocation programme is powerful but is balanced with abundant local colour of places featured across Canada, as well as some snippets of dry humour.
In my estimation this story is not quite on a par with this Ottawa novelist’s 2014 Tell, but is still a very good read and a sobering reminder of an embarrassing episode in Canadian history.
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Thanks, Michelle.
The Passionate Reader 