Customer Reviews

Shaman Winter

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

A third generation Japanese-American, agriculturist David Masumoto farms peaches and raisins. He celebrates nature, savoring seasons when "The air is filled with the smell of drying grapes - a caramel fragrance mixed with an earthy aroma."

He is a champion of hard work, viewing calluses as "badges of honor earned only after years in the fields,...The hands tell a story of worth..."

And, as evidenced in his affecting memoir, Harvest Son, he is an author whose fluid pen scrolls as gracefully as kanji, the ancient Japanese script in which each word is a picture. Evocative descriptions of abundant harvests and the delicately limned shade of a near-ripe peach are lyric testimony that farming is not only his occupation, it is his modus vivendi.

Writing with spare yet lustrous precision, Mr. Masumoto traces his life's journey in flashbacks, exploring the past to chart his future. Having learned that in 1942 his grandparents, along with some 16,000 Japanese-Americans were relocated to internment camps, Mr. Masumoto embarked on a painful quest, searching the Arizona desert for traces of the Gila River Relocation Center, his family's four-year home. "A few low cement pillars sunken into the ground" and "a pile of broken thick white dishes" were the only remnants of those interrupted lives.

Another pilgrimage was to Japan, where he found his grandmother's brother. Held hostage by rice paddies, his uncle's farmhouse "looked like the face of an old man with wrinkles and age spots." The floor was of packed earth..." But, blessings of all blessings, there was the "ofuro" or Japanese hot tub, which "Following a day in the fields, ...tempered worn and broken spirits. The soothing water fostered a benevolence and a feeling of optimism."

Mr. Masumoto eventually returned to the California valley of his childhood, where he found satisfaction and a connectedness in tending the vines planted by his grandfathers. From the author we learn a Japanese word "shoganai" meaning "it can't be helped." This is a word borne of forbearance, we are told, as despite their painful past Japanese-Americans accepted their new country "with a bow of humility. Not weakness but silent strength."

When a surprise hailstorm destroyed what promised to be a bumper crop, Mr. Masumoto asked himself why he continued to farm. His answer may be "shoganai."

Today, Mr. Masumoto is a leader in his local Buddhist community, one of the few sansei or third generation Japanese-Americans who remain in the farmland that nurtured them. It is left to him to serve as chairman at many funerals, as one generation honors another. Harvest Son is a joyful, poignant reminder that it is both duty and privilege to do so.

After reading EPITAPH FOR A PEACH, I hungrily hunted down HARVEST SON. This is nature writing at it's finest! At once a touching and poetic account of family life on an organic peach farm and vineyard. The reader is likely to run the gamut of emotions as Masumoto describes losing a crop of peaches to a damaging and wicked storm, makes a pilgrimmage to Japan to learn of his family's history and culture, or has a blast while fertilizing young peach trees "by hand" - his wife and son riding with him on the back of a wagon throwing organic fertilizer at the trees with old coffee cans. His 10 year old daughter jerks them along as she learns to drive the tractor. HARVEST SON is a warm, funny and insightful book that will not disappoint!

This is the third book in the series by Anaya involving his heros Sonny Baca and Rita Lopez and their battles with Sonny's opponent Raven. To appreciate this book, you really need to start at the beginning and follow the story through the various phases. The first book "Zia Summer" sets the stage with the principal characters in the context of the New Mexico Pueblo Indian culture. The second book "Rio Grande Fall" takes you through the battles of Sonny and Raven in the context of the multiple layers of culture (Native American, Hispanic and Anglo) in the Rio Grande Valley. You get a wonderful tour of the cultures in each of these books. This third book "Shaman Winter" is the height of the mystical battle and the Pueblo Indian cultures interpretation of dreams. In this book there also is more of a direct message to the Nuevo Mexicano people that your existence is destroyed by those who rob you of your dreams and who rob you of your historical context. "History belongs to those who write it." Certainly this is a powerful message to the Hispanic people who must feel acutely the loss of their heritage in the Anglo culture and the denial of their dreams of a homeland and a peaceful existance. One of the most powerful moments in the book is the depiction of the Long Walk of the Navaho people and the impact on their women. This is conscience-raising but not distracting from the story line. The story is fascinating in the mystical interpretation of dreams. You have to be willing to suspend disbelief and go along for the ride to enjoy this story. If your are able to do so, the journey is a wonderful one, full of twists, and goes off like the finale of a July 4th fireworks display in all the plots and subplots at the dramatic ending. Note that the ending leaves room to look forward to another book in the series.

Third in the series after well written Zia Summer and Rio Grande Fall, I found this book to difficult at times and down right hokey.

The opening chapter 'tries' to set the stage of this 3rd tale, but when your done you're trying to figure out if you picked up a sequel or not. Events go way back, many centuries to when the America's were newly discovered and we are introduced to the 'Dream World of the Spirits' if you will. At this point you notice this novel will be a big departure from the previous installments. Then throughout the book, the current story is suspended as the reader is forced to shift gears and read about the Dream World and the going's on there.

Soon after the strange opening, your favorite characters return only few short weeks where Rio Grande Fall left off. Sonny, now in a wheel chair takes a very spiritual or supernatural turn of events that the reader may have trouble adjusting to, as these elements were not as strong in the first two novels. At the very least you can see that Sonny Baca makes a huge spiritual transformation, but this gets way out there....Sonny and nemesis Raven now do battle on the plane of Dreams. Sonny now has `the power' (?) to enter dreams at will and how the dreams play out ends up affecting reality! When did this detective series become Science Fiction or a X-Files episode?

Also like the previous novels, you need to have a working Spanish vocabulary, as the author tends to switch from English mid sentence to Spanish. You may get the gist of what the characters are trying to say, but when it is in paragraphs you get frustrated because you have no idea what is being talked about.

The hokiest part of the novel is this...Sonny has a morning epiphany that in this day and age you need a computer with access to the Internet to help catch criminals. Just so happens (coincidence) that he dials a friend at a Library who just so happens to have a cliché latch-key kid expert who hangs out on the net all day. So of course when Sonny visits young 'Cyber' (how original), the computer just so happens have been donated by the same agency Sonny is investigating (gee...another coincidence). Even more eye-brow raising is the fact that Cyber is also there doing his own research in the same field that Sonny is seeking information on. To make it even worse Sonny gives Cyber some very minimal information and by the time Sonny gets home from the Library and has a meal Cyber calls and has like 90% of all the info Sonny needed in like 2 hours! The author basically has no idea on how the Internet works, and anyone who does, your eyes will roll at the absurdity of these events.

Finally, nothing is really new in this novel. It's Sonny vs. Raven again, thick in metaphors, a never ending battle that has now spanned three novels. The climax was a let down, and there were two events that just miraculously fixed themselves with nor real or pliable explanation.

If you were a fan of the 1st two, (which I was) you will definitely have to suspend your obvious intuition of logic and reality to truly enjoy this.

I have read all of Anaya's books. I loved this one as I loved them all. I read them all in order of their writing and found doing that the most interesting way to follow Anaya's thoughts and the development of his writing. This book is the last of a trilogy - hopefully there will be many more. His writing is such a wonderful way to discover the history and essence of New Mexico and to get a real feeling for the soul of the area. Anaya writes using many analogies and metaphors and with very deep meaning. Rudolfo Anaya is a joy to read and his writings have enriched my life profoundly.

Still physically healing from his last encounter with the Bringer of Curses, the evil Raven, New Mexico private investigator Sonny Baca is confined to a wheelchair. Sonny begins to suffer from weird dreams. The first dreams stars his late sixteenth century ancestor, Owl Woman, who is abducted by his enemy Raven. The malevolent one has learned how to enter Sonny's dreams. Raven's plan is diabolically simple. He plans to eradicate one by one every one of Sonny's antecedents until none remains, leaving his only righteous foe to vanish since he will never have been born.

Sonny turns to his mentor to teach and guide him on how to combat Raven on the dream plane. However, the fight with his foe is also taking place in the mundane physical world as Raven has kidnapped several girls. Not fully recovered from their last bitter battle and with limited experience on that other plane, Sonny's chances of thwarting evil again echoes nevermore.

The great Rudolfo Anaya (see BLESS ME, ULTIMA) returns with his most endearing yet weirdest character, Sonny Baca (see RIO GRANDE FALL). The fast-paced story line of SHAMAN WINTER is fascinating and absolutely eerie as the master paints a vivid picture of the spirituality of another culture. Sonny and his support cast, especially the evil Raven (not the wrestler), are a fabulous crew that maintains their freshness even as they renew their battle. Sonny's relatives add a historical touch to the thriller. Anyone who enjoys a brilliant tale that is a bit different needs to try the Baca novels or for that matter any of the works of Mr. Anaya.

Harriet Klausner

Harvest Son is a fantastic memoir. While Dandelion in the Crack (retitled Kiyo's Story: A Japanese-American Family's Quest for the American Dream) recounts the Nisei (second generation Japanese Americans) experience, Mas Masumoto tells the story of his Sansei (third generation) experiences growing up in the Central Valley. Unlike most Sansei, Mas returned to the family farm after going to college and grad school. Although some his experiences are uniquely Japanese American, there are many parallels to the changing fortunes of family farmers throughout the Central Valley.

It is a must read book for those interested in the Japanese American experience and those that lament the rise of new varieties of peaches will not bruise after bouncing on concrete. If you are a refugee from a family farm, like me, you may find scenes in the book that mirror your experiences.

Epitaph for a Peach: Four Seasons on My Family Farm is next on my reading list.

Vignettes from the book (stop reading here if you want it to be a surprise): There is also the story of his sojourn to Japan to learn of his ancestors he never knew. A journey into the countryside to visit relatives leads to Mas working and living on a Japanese family farm. Back in California, he works the land, decides to farm organically and to continue farming an "heirloom" variety of peach. Mas anguishes over a late season storm that destroys a year's labor. He worries about how to preserve the Japanese American heritage of his community as fewer young Japanese Americans remain. And, finally, there is the story of his grandfather that closes the circle.

I've read all three books in this trilogy: "Zia Summer," "Rio Grande Fall" and now "Shaman Winter." Each book was more disappointing than the previous. I had picked up "Zia Summer" because I'd heard good things about Anaya's work and wanted a "different" mystery than the type I usually read. Although "Zia Summer" was a good "long-plane-ride" book, the other two got extremely involved in Sonny's spiritual side and became increasingly "hocus-pocus"; they didn't spend enough time developing the now flaky mystery with Sonny and his nemesis, Raven. The problems Sonny got himself into seemed misplaced and didn't move the mystery along very well and the ending, especially in "Shaman Winter," seemed too make-believe. From now on, I'll stick with Agatha Christie's Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot!

I like historical novels of the American Southwest, especially those with an associated mystery. That's why I read this novel and, ironically, why it deserves at least a 1.0 rating. (That's good!) If, however, you want to read a most illogical, totally unrealistic, and (apart from the occasional fictional historic interludes) idiotic prose, this is your cup of tea (that's very, very bad). Plutonium pits, ancient grandmothers, the ebola virus (which has no consequence apart from mention in the text), and kidnapped female youths all conspire to send wheelchair-bound Sonny Baca in quest of Raven (go figure? ) In most concise terms, this book is awful. Don't waste your time. A personal note: After having read 7/8ths of this novel, I thought that I had inadvertently lost (yes? ) my hardcover copy of it prior to boarding an overseas flight. I was disapponted to discover that I had not left it behind. As expected, the last 1/8th of this book was as bad (perhaps worse -- no interesting historical scenes) as the rest. To be as positive as possible, let me say that if you seek the hispanic perspective to the anglo occupation of New Mexico, this book has a point of view. Above all else it is, perhaps, the book's sole redeming feature. If, however, you seek a reasoned, plausible and possible mystery scenerio you should find something else (Jake Page -- even Tony Hillerman). On the other hand, if you aspire to write something even worse than this lemon or, perhaps something MUCH BETTER, this novel is MUST READING, documenting what not to do!. Enjoy (not).

J. Britton