{"id":18895,"date":"2012-10-15T11:27:15","date_gmt":"2012-10-15T15:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/?p=18895"},"modified":"2017-12-14T17:13:55","modified_gmt":"2017-12-14T22:13:55","slug":"requiem-by-frances-itani","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/requiem-by-frances-itani\/","title":{"rendered":"Requiem by Frances Itani"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Requiem\"<\/a>While I can hardly estimate the many, many books I\u2019ve read about the Japanese American experience during World War II, I know few details about what happened to Japanese Canadians. The lone fact that looms is that like their Japanese American counterparts on the West Coast, more than 20,000 Japanese Canadians along Canada\u2019s west coast were also rounded up and imprisoned without cause to harsh camps. The one title I\u2019ve read that puts a face to the unjust experiences of our northern neighbors is the modern classic, Obasan<\/i><\/a>\u00a0(and its middle grade version, Naomi’s Road<\/i><\/a>)\u00a0by Joy Kogawa. Until now \u2026<\/p>\n

Intentional or not, Frances Itani \u2013 whose best-known title, Deafening<\/i>, won the 2004 Commonwealth Book Prize for Best Book (Caribbean and Canada<\/a>)\u00a0among numerous other honors \u2013 seems to be channeling Kogawa in her Requiem<\/i>. In my own reading (alternating with Brian Nishii\u2019s excellent narration stuck in my ears when the book was not in hand), Auntie Aya\u2019s appearance in Itani\u2019s latest provided the initial trigger: the eponymous Obasan in Kogawa’s autobiographical novel is also an Aunt Aya, whose full name is Ayako Nakane. Both titles also share a counterpoint structure, shifting between the defining events of World War II and a contemporary examination of things past.<\/p>\n

At the risk of committing literary heresy, Requiem <\/i>is the better novel. I pause for a moment in anticipation of the roaring objections to come \u2026<\/p>\n

Bin Okuma \u2013 who throughout his life has also answered to Oda Binosuke, Okuma Binosuke, Bin Oda, Ben Okuma \u2013 is newly widowed, his beloved wife having suddenly died of a stroke at just 49. Lena was the historian, the one who pieced together Bin\u2019s family story, even as he tried to bury his anger, his melancholy, his unresolved mourning. Loading the car with the family dog Basil \u2013 quite the character in his own right \u2013 Bin literally journeys into his past, driving through his Canadian homeland, seeking the remote prison camp where he spent four years of his childhood, where his family was splintered and remade, where he might finally confront the man he calls \u201cFirst Father.\u201d<\/p>\n

So aptly titled, Itani creates a resonating symphony of intertwined lives \u2013 separating, flowing, diverging, merging. Even as she captures moments of inexplicable violence (a father scarring his son with a careless toss), of systematic betrayal (reducing a man\u2019s worth to just $18.85 for nothing more than the randomness of his ancestry), of shocking tragedy (a family giving away an extra son), Itani always remains\u00a0in subtle control, modulating each detail with careful mastery.<\/p>\n

Dare I say \u2026 the result warrants a (tear-stained, breath-taking) ovation.<\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2011 (Canada), 2012 (United States)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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