The Climate Of The Country [Hardcover]

Marnie Mueller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1999

This new novel by award-winning author Marnie Mueller tells the tragic and dramatic story of Tule Lake Japanese American Segregation Camp during World War II. It is narrated from the unique insider view of Denton Jordan, a conscientious objector, and his wife Esther, who are both living and working in the camp. 

In this gripping tale of the disintegration of loyalty, love, and friendship, we experience a disturbing piece of American history. Violence erupts when Camp Director Ted Andross imposes repressive and culturally insensitive measures against the Japanese American detainees. Already imprisoned Issei are asked to renounce the Emperor - their God - in order to prove their loyalty to the United States. Their children, even though they are U.S. citizens, are forced to make the agonizing choice between family and country. The crisis pits Andross against his staff, husband against wife, and friend against friend. In the midst of this tension, Denton, a pacifist during a time when being a man meant "shouldering a gun for America," is struggling to save his disintegrating marriage with Esther, the daughter of Jewish intellectuals working to get Jews out of Europe. 

The novel explores the difficulty of living up to one's own principles and the psychological impact of trauma on personal relationships - dramatizing how intense pressure can lead to anger, self-doubt, infidelity and murder.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In 1943, almost a year after 120,000 Japanese Americans had been rounded up and placed in relocation camps, the United States government asked them to sign a loyalty oath renouncing all allegiance to Japan. Those who refused were once again moved--in some cases separated from their families--and placed in Northern California's Tule Lake Segregation Center. Marnie Mueller was born in Tule Lake, to a teacher and a camp administrator. Now, in The Climate of the Country, she transforms her parents' experiences into a gripping tale of violence, political intrigue, and even erotic love.

Mueller's protagonist, Denton Jordan, is a conscientious objector, so conscientious that he neglects his wife and child for his new work in the relocation camp. When one of Denton's protégés, embittered by the loyalty oath, becomes a leader of the camp's militant pro-Japanese faction, tension escalates. After a riot, the army takes control and lays down a set of draconian rules: curfews, passes, and, worst of all, no speaking Japanese. Intrigue surrounds Denton's job, his marriage begins to falter, and he finds himself torn between his heart and his head--only one of many conflicting loyalties animating this complex and lovely book.

Struggling to make sense of their place in a country that considers them enemies, the Japanese internees must balance family and country, tradition and modernity. Meanwhile, Denton--married to the daughter of European Jews--learns what his pacifism truly means. In the end, he finds it's not about being courageous ("That was too romantic and naïve a way of looking at an ugly, messy, tormenting choice") or, conversely, about being afraid. Instead, his pacifism is "about believing to the bottom of his soul that there was a way, other than committing extreme and cruel acts, to make change in the world." The Climate of the Country is that rare thing, a novel of conscience that brings ideals to life. --Chloe Byrne

From Publishers Weekly

A rare night's reprieve away from Tule Lake Japanese American Segregation Camp ends alarmingly for pacifist and conscientious objector Denton Jordan and his wife, Esther. They return to camp to find that martial law has been imposed. Forced to sign oaths of loyalty to the United States and to assure enmity toward the Japanese emperor, the camp's Japanese American adults riot out of anger and resentment. Tule Lake, which under Denton's careful guidance was once "a place where imprisoned people made decent lives and a semblance of community for themselves" during the exigencies of WWII, becomes harshly militarized: Japanese is not allowed to be spoken in public, driving is forbidden and a curfew is established. Denton's workaholic neglect of Esther and their three-year-old child threatens the stability of their relationship. Mueller's second novel (after Green Fires) begins awkwardly but soon transforms into an engrossing character study of two highly principled people forced by their patriotism and wartime duress to act against their beliefs?and at the expense of their marriage. Simple, unadorned prose illuminates the starkness of the setting and the ethical and emotional dilemmas faced by the protagonists. (Feb.) FYI: The author, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Choice, was herself born in Tule Lake Japanese American Segregation Camp.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 305 pages
• Publisher: Curbstone Books; 1 edition (February 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1880684586
• ISBN-13: 978-1880684580
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,718,867 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars personal ethics on trial in an American concentration camp, December 15, 2000

By 

Bruce J. Wasser (Lake Bluff, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Climate Of The Country (Hardcover)

The Climate of the Country is a painful, difficult book to read; it deserves a wide audience but will probably become a staple to those who worry about social justice and agonize over our nation's heritage of racial oppression. Set in the bitter winter of 1943, the novel's admirable protagonists struggle not only for physical survival at the Tule Lake Relocation Camp, but attempt to live with decency, community values and individual morality. The novel's unusual perspective derives from its focus on Denton Jordan, a white conscientious objector married to a Jew. Jordan's sense of justice and empathy compel him to work with the displaced and despised Japanese-Americans (Nisei) and Japanese resident aliens (Issei). He lives a morally conflicted life, unsure of his own commitment to pacifism and wavering in his marriage. Exhausted and overwhelmed by a repressive camp administration and challenged by a surging and angry minority of prisoners who are abrasively challenging the very nature of their confinement, Jordan is a tremendously affecting character. The author's motivation to write derives directly from her own experience. Born in Tule Lake (as the first white born in that camp), Marnie Mueller has fashioned the central characters around her mother and father.

The novel is well written and the plot derives energy from the exceptional characterizations. Ms. Mueller's sense of detail and powerful descriptions of the physical nature of winter at Tule Lake combine to give her novel a sense of authenticity and urgency. My only reservation about this work is its tendency towards melodrama, especially in scenes where Jordan's marriage is disintegrating. Otherwise, Ms. Mueller's treatment of other signficant themes is superb. She directs our attention to the frustration articulate Jews felt at the silence of the national government to the Holocaust. She is wonderful in detailing the terrible inadequacies Jordan and Esther (his wife) carried in the face of their quite different childhoods.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars compelling simplicity, June 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Climate Of The Country (Hardcover)

The story is told with litle embellishment. At first the writing seems too straightforward, but as the story progresses you are drawn into the lives and ideas of the characters. The story seems to accurately portray life in our internment camps, and how it affected everyone. It gave me pause about the changing climate of our country, and to consider how I would react in similar circumstances. Ms. Meuller does not allow us simply answers to the questions she raises. And importantly, in the end - as with any great story - I wanted to know how the characters' lives continued.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting drama of love, politics, and history in WW II, March 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Climate Of The Country (Hardcover)

In Tule Lake Japanese Internment Camp, Esther and Denton Jordan must cope with their marriage, their politics and the shocking and terrifying violence that erupts among the unfairly imprisoned Japanese Americans. Denton's personal demons, both psychological and sexual, emerge under the stress.