WHY SHE LEFT US

A well-crafted first novel strains to affect as it tells of three generations of Japanese-Americans whose lives have been distorted by family and history. Four narrators, Eric and his sister Mariko, grandmother Kaori and her son Jack, chronicle the story of the Okada clan from their arrival in California in the early 1900s. Events move from that point to the recent present and from California to Hawaii, where Mariko now tries to learn about something of the past from her mother Emi. Shortly before WWII, Emi left the family as a teenager, became pregnant with Eric, gave him up for adoption, and then, as the Okadas were about to be sent to an internment camp in Colorado, returned home pregnant again. Emi’s mother, Kaori, retrieved Eric from his adoptive parents, while her brother Will, brutally treated by his own father and later to die as a war hero, beat up Emi and accused her of being a whore. Meantime, her uncle Jack, his loyalties divided, stood by helplessly. Nothing especially good will happen to the Okadas, whose sorry plight never quite evokes sympathy, either because they overreact or, seemingly for plot purposes, remain bent on behaving stupidly. When Mariko, now in her 50s, learns that Eric is her brother, she better understands why she feels alienated from husband Roger; fearful of abandonment; and guilty about a secret abortion. Eric, reared by Kaori, became a convicted criminal in adolescence and has felt rejected ever since Emi chose Mariko over him when she finally married. Jack. Jack also fought in WWII, and, torn between his marriage and his family, chose the latter, while his mother Kaori regretted not keeping the promise she—d made to Emi to stay with her no matter what. Eventually, the two siblings are reunited, and Mariko confesses her past to Roger, but the mood is somber rather than celebratory. The story makes heroic efforts to come alive and engage but, despite the fine prose, just doesn—t.