Middle Son: A Novel [Paperback]

Deborah Iida (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 10, 2000

For Spencer Fujii, Hawaii is not a vacation paradise but a place of hard work and heartache, the transplanted home of his Japanese-American family, and the site of a long-ago tragedy that changed his life forever. Now, as an adult returning to visit his ailing mother, he is rediscovering what it means to be a middle son in a world where duty shapes destiny. An ALA Notable Book of the Year. One of The New York Public Library's 1997 "Books to Remember". Winner of the Grand Prize from the Maui Writers Conference Fiction Contest Award.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This restrained, elegiac first novel is at once a feat of imagination--a man's childhood recalled, written by a female novelist--and a fictionalized history of the Japanese-American community in Hawaii. The narrator, Spencer Fujii, grew up among the sugar cane cutters of Hawaii and lost his brother when the latter drowned at age 12. That tragedy forms the core for Spencer's reminiscences and his coming to terms with inevitable loss and sorrow--for his aged mother is dying as well. The dialogue is written in finely tuned patois and the novel explores the customs and personalities of a world that most of us will never experience directly. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Meticulously crafted and heartfelt, this first novel about the bonds of brotherhood among the sons of a Japanese laborer on a sugar plantation in Maui during the 1950s is raw, precise and indelible. "My family lived in Japanese camp, Row three," says the narrator, Spencer Fujii, "and so, like the sugar cane that surrounded me, I grew to maturity in a row." The adult, narrating Spencer is the last of three sons left to comfort and distract his mother as she succumbs to cancer. His older brother, Taizo, died in a childhood accident. His younger brother, William, was given to the boys' uncle by their father?who felt his duties as an oldest brother to his childless sibling superceded those of husband and father. Iida's prose alternates smoothly between Spencer's polished narration and the rough pidgin English spoken by the island's Japanese-Hawaiians. This juxtaposition of local dialect and eloquent narration works powerfully as Spencer tells of his stern, unyielding father; the pleasurable rhythms of the sugar cane and family life; his escape from Maui by joining the army; and his marriage to a white woman, in defiance of his parents. With children of his own, Spencer now returns to Maui to make peace with his mother, with himself and with his "cousin" William?with whom he shares a secretive burden of guilt over Taizo's death. This is a polished debut, in which Iida writes assuredly of the complexities of guilt and familial love.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade (July 10, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425174433
• ISBN-13: 978-0425174432
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,045,051 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Maui Reads Middle Son, March 24, 2002

By 

Linda Boyden (Redding CA. United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Middle Son: A Novel (Paperback)

The Maui libraries as well as the Center of the Book, Maui, have chosen Deborah Iida's lyrical novel, Middle Son, for all of Maui to read and discuss during April. What a pleasure it is to have a new excuse to revisit this poignant story! I have read it three times already and each time I discover a deeper layer of satisfaction. The first time I read it, I had just moved here and it helped introduce me to local pidgin and to gain a deeper understanding of things Japanese-Hawaiian which I learned is different from Native Hawaiian, which is different from Haole-Hawaiian, Chinese-Hawaiian, Portugeuse-Hawaiian, Korean-Hawaiian, and etc! To live Hawaii is to live multiculturally. One kind of pidgin is different from all other kinds. Which adds to the uniqueness of Maui.
Ms. Iida's characters remain with you long after the book is returned to the shelf. Every time I pass a cane field, I think of the workers' lives in the camps; of Mariko undressing baby William and looking at him for the last moment he belongs to her; of cutting her hair; of Spencer, William and Taizo at the reservoir, the last moment of their childhoods, simply kids on the verge of committing an adult mistake. This book is a modern classic which we on Maui are lucky to have to share with the world.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant Cultural Portrait, February 17, 2003

By 

"lindzmf" (Ames, IA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Middle Son: A Novel (Paperback)

When I told a couple of my friends that I was in the mood for a good story but had a limited amount of free time in which to read it, they both highly recommended Deborah Iida's Middle Son. After hearing them gush about the poignancy of the characters' interactions, the vibrant descriptions of the Maui setting, and the authenticity of the dialect, I picked up the book and dove in.

They were accurate on all accounts. As Spencer tries to confront the painful faces of his childhood, we are allowed to share in his struggle for acceptance and peace within his memories. Iida's tale is both haunting and moving, and Spencer's simple, honest questions resonated with me long after I'd finished the last sentence.

Aside from the satisfaction that comes from a skillfully-told family saga, the book's greatest triumph is its vivid portrayal of Japanese-Hawaiian culture. As someone with little to no exposure to this portion of our country's heritage, I relished the lush island imagery, the rich Buddhist influences, and the engaging regional tongue. Spencer captures the dialogue's concise eloquence when he remarks that his Caucasian friend uses "many words for a short idea" (71).

Overall, I enthusiastically add my praise to that of my friends. Middle Son is a touching account of one man's reconciliation with his past, and the Hawaiian narrator presents a voice too often overlooked in American literature.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Read this book to your son, and grow closer to him., February 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Middle Son (Paperback)

I lived in Hawaii for ten years while a graduate student and grew to love the Hawaiian cultures. This was a story I could live and at the same time get a better understanding of the immigrants who worked the sugar cane fields. I bought three more books and sent one to my son, who was raised in Hawaii -- his friends were from families like Middle Son. I sent one to a dear Japanese Hawaiian woman, and we will write to each other about the meanings she sees in the story. It was a well written book, simple, but touched my heart deeply. I liked the way the Iida gave me hints into the drowning a little at a time, chapter to chapter. It is a book worthy to be next to Hemingway's short stories. I plan to read the book over again and again.