Customer Reviews

21st Century Manzanar

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was not predisposed to like this book. My mother is Nisei and spent the war in the camps (and like the author, I had two uncles already serving in the U.S. Army when Pearl Harbor was attacked), but I'm ambivalent about dwelling on the experience, I don't think a similar internment will happen in this country again, and going in, the plot of this book seemed to offer a strong whiff of unseemly paranoia.

But it turns out, given the outrageous premise of fierce economic war between Japan and the U.S., resulting in the revival of Executive Order 9066, and a couple of unbelievable plot turns, that _21st Century Manzanar_ is a surprisingly engaging book. The plot and style shift easily between lyrical reminiscence, action thriller, character studies, and even the somewhat surreal (both drug- and faith-induced).

When the story opens, David Takeda, a Sansei (third generation Japanese-American) in his late 40s from the Venice Beach area, has been reduced to earning his living by delivering eulogies for deceased relations and friends -- their numbers cut down by disease and racist violence. His brother Johnny is beaten to death before they get to Manzanar, in the desert of eastern California, but sister Kate and her children make it to camp. The bulk of the book recreates camp life and the characters' hopes for escape.

Though there is naturally much Japanese-American content (even a 6-page glossary of Japanese and slang terms in the back), this is a highly multicultural novel. David's best friends are a black man and a Hispanic lesbian; also, Miyake significantly plays up the similarities in physiognomy, behavior, and values between Japanese and Southwest Native Americans. In camp one gets to know an alleged half Chinese, half Korean character -- a gay man named Bradley Kuwata, who serves as both a clown and an eventual saviour.

The villains of the story -- particularly a Nurse Ratched-like camp director and a recurring soldier-guard figure -- are a little too unidimensional and caricatured (but this IS a satire), however the "good guys" are complex, ambivalent, and given to fatal changes of mind ... and their body count jarringly high.

Even more surprising, Miyake mixes a fair amount of the lyrical with the profane. This book is not only a love letter to Japanese-Americans (the author reportedly included much of his own family's biographical details in the background of his hero), but also to Los Angeles. There's a strong sense of place in the opening chapters, and Miyake names names and recreates businesses that actually existed and he remembers fondly.

Obviously, anyone with a Japanese background will easily slip into the milieu of this story, but I think even gaijin may find it worthwhile, for its grittiness, detail, and odd shifts of style and perspective.

From Chapter One there is a natural flow to the writing. I came to care about the characters and wondered how I would face these same circumstances if they came to pass. This book opened a world to me that I knew very little about. Perry Miyake's book entertained and educated. He made the reader question and explore their world and at the same time, he kept the reader wondering what the next paragraph would bring.

This is a wonderful book on lots of levels. The description of growing up in Venice is what I enjoyed the most, the food, the people, the geography, the little tid bits about the language. Venice, and I mean the Venice that the author describes, as opposed to Venice Beach, is a community of many different people -- Japanese Americans, Latinos, African Americans, Whites, and his attempt to capture a sense of that world is honest. The story, about a return to Manzanar due to fall out from economic competition with Japan, is a clever way to relate the point of view of a Sansei, one who never experienced the camps, but who (like any thinking Sansei) has imagined what life was like there, who also must have sensed, if not heard from his parents, the pain, confusion, and general oppression they experienced. Those interested in learning about such a perspective will enjoy and appreciate this book. One only hopes this is the first of many attempts by this author.

From Chapter One there is a natural flow to the writing. I came to care about the characters and wondered how I would face these same circumstances if they came to pass. This book opened a world to me that I knew very little about. Perry Miyake's book entertained and educated. He made the reader question and explore their world and at the same time, he kept the reader wondering what the next paragraph would bring.

I heard about this book through the East West Players theater group, for which Perry Miyake has staged several plays. I had heard about the author, but didn't know what to expect. From page 1, I was thoroughly engrossed in the story of a family whose lives were turned upside down by an economic was with the Japananes and its byproduct: the reissuance of an exective order banishing all Japanese to inernment camps--Manzanar, in California. While this book has strong political undertones, the writing is what drew me in. It's smart and spare and left me wishing for more--despite a very satisfying ending that I won't give away.