A poignant, nuanced tale of familial pain and renewal.
A Japanese-American doctor discovers his estranged father’s role in World War II—and a long-guarded family secret.
Daniel Tokunaga is the chief of cardiothoracic surgery at a major hospital in Philadelphia, known for his talent and ambition. He receives an unexpected call from his father, Ray—they haven’t spoken in years—informing him that his mother, Keiko, was in a car accident and that she’s been rushed to a Los Angeles hospital. Daniel jumps on a plane to California, and after he arrives, he’s startled by a series of peculiar revelations. It turns out that his father was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary valor in France while serving with the famous 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a segregated unit of Japanese-American soldiers in the Second World War. Daniel also learns that the U.S. Department of Defense has been calling his father repeatedly to discuss that medal—but that he’s been mysteriously reluctant to talk about it. Lam (Two Sons of China, 2016, etc.) artfully unravels the Tokunaga family’s skein of secrets, and in the process, he reveals the many difficulties that Japanese-Americans faced during the war. For example, Keiko spent three years at a detainment camp while her husband risked his life for his country; at another point, Daniel’s father objects to the girl whom he wants to marry, partly because her father was born in Japan and fought on that country’s side. Lam’s prose is always clear, and at its best, it achieves poetically elegiac notes: “The house was a time capsule. A grave, he thought….Inside, the distant pulsation of the cicadas felt far away. Inside, time had died—life gone elsewhere. Even the past had passed on.” Readers will be moved by Daniel’s plight as he desperately tries to understand a father for whom he still harbors profound resentment.
A poignant, nuanced tale of familial pain and renewal.Pub Date: April 30, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-946501-12-7
Page Count: 308
Publisher: Tiny Fox Press LLC
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Over-the-top and hard to stop. A third installment is promised.
Kwan (Crazy Rich Asians, 2013) returns with an equally good-natured, catty-as-hell sequel to his bestselling roman à clef about China’s new and old money dynasties.
For those not cued in, Kwan’s tone is breakneck and utterly disarming—part Oscar Wilde, part Judith Krantz, part Arthur Frommer—as he reintroduces his jet-setting ensemble of socialites and social climbers. They include: Nick and Rachel (star-crossed Asian-American lovers who are searching for her father while avoiding his meddlesome Singaporean mom); Mrs. Bernard Tai (aka Kitty Pong, former mainland soap-opera star, who must temper her nouveau urges if she hopes to impress members of Hong Kong’s exclusive dining clubs); Astrid Leong (married “beneath” her rank, wears off-the-rack dresses that, on her, pass for designer; her jewelry and class are the real deal, however); plus a circle of spoiled-rich 20-somethings who think they’re re-enacting The Fast and Furious. Whenever a character drops a salty Hokkien, Cantonese, or Mandarin phrase or an unfamiliar reference, Kwan translates in a wry footnote (a device he used to great effect in his previous book). Occasionally the sendups of squillionaire excess fall a little flat: “Look—it’s a koi pond,” gasps Rachel as she absorbs the décor of her Shanghai host’s private jet. “God, you scared me. For a moment I thought something was wrong,” answers her fiance, Nick, who stands to inherit one of China’s great fortunes but prefers teaching undergrads at NYU. “You don’t think anything’s wrong?” Rachel presses. No wonder Nick’s mom, the not-to-be-bested Eleanor Young, tries her utmost to topple their engagement! (Until she stumbles onto the true identity of Rachel’s birth father—and is now using it to reel her son home to face up to his privileged heritage, with unanticipated results.) Most hilarious when he’s parodying uber-rich Chinese aunties who’d “rather camp out six to a room or sleep on the floor than spend money on hotels” and professional image consultants who help clients “take [their] most embarrassing biographical details and turn them into assets,” Kwan keeps more than a few plot resolutions in the air but delivers at least one priceless declaration of love: “The bathroom [renovation] is fully funded….Now please pick out a dress.”
Over-the-top and hard to stop. A third installment is promised.Pub Date: June 16, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53908-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
A sprightly new cozy series for Ross (Steamed Open, 2018, etc.) with plenty of entertaining characters, hidden clues, and a...
A Massachusetts retiree with a knack for discovering secrets lands a new gig.
Jane Darrowfield, who has a reputation among her friends as a problem-solver, is offered a job at Walden Spring, an adult community in Concord. But director Paul Peavey is evasive about what exactly the job involves. When Jane, at his suggestion, moves into an apartment pretending to be a potential long-term resident, she sees that Walden Spring has rival cliques, just like high school. Because she’s already met Evangeline Murray, a friend of a friend, Jane lunches with the artists. The leather-jacketed bad boys are led by Mike Witkowski and the popular preppies by Bill Finnerty, whose wife is in the Alzheimer’s unit. At the same time, Jane, who’s vetting men from a dating site for a friend, finds herself drawn to Harry Welch and agreeing to another date after years of wariness ever since her husband took off with another woman and most of their money, leaving her to climb back to financial security on her own. Jane soon discovers disturbing undercurrents at beautiful Walden Spring, especially between Bill and Mike. When Bill’s found beaten to death on the golf course, Jane’s ready to go home. Since Peavey and the police prefer that she stay, she decides to do a little snooping. She’s especially interested in the identity of a man she’s seen walking across the community’s golf course late at night. The case takes an unexpected turn with the discovery that Bill and Mary Finnerty were killed in a car crash 12 years ago. So who are the residents passing as Bill and Mary?
A sprightly new cozy series for Ross (Steamed Open, 2018, etc.) with plenty of entertaining characters, hidden clues, and a touch of romance.Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4967-1994-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
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