Publisher's Weekly Review
In her memoir, which takes place shortly after the To_hoku earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, novelist Mockett (Picking Bones from Ash) embarks on a poignant spiritual journey through Japan, seeking solace after the death of her American father three years earlier and to bury her Japanese grandfather's bones. Touching on themes of modernity and tradition, Mockett takes part in various religious customs to come to terms with her grief and understand her mixed-cultural heritage. Beautiful folklore like the story of Moon Princess or the celestial princess weaver Orihime imbue the book with a sense of mystery and authenticity. The author's background as novelist is evident in her skilled descriptions of the changing seasons-the pink cherry blossoms of spring or the neon rice paddies in autumn-which combine with nuanced details of the nation's struggle after the March disaster to provide an intimate snapshot of the island nation's complex culture. Although Mockett's upbringing gives the memoir the sense of an outsider looking in, at times the comparisons of Japan to the West weigh heavy on the narrative and can distract from the story. Agent: Irene Skolnick, Irene Skolnick Literary Agency. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Mockett, author of the novel Picking Bones from Ash (2009), stands on many thresholds in this confiding, vivid, and enlightening spiritual memoir and travelogue. Herself a union of two worlds her mother is Japanese, her father a white American Mockett descended into depression after the deaths of her father and Japanese grandparents, personal losses shockingly compounded by the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami. Tens of thousands were killed in the region where her mother's family has owned a Buddhist temple for generations, land now poisoned by radiation escaping the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, a disaster that prompted Mockett's cousin to reveal that he saw the plane drop the bomb on Nagasaki. Mockett's quest to understand how the Japanese cope with grief leads her to visit Buddhist temples, meditate, and speak with priests; participate in rituals to banish evil spirits, meet with a blind medium, and witness a cremation. Mockett's involving and revelatory chronicle of Japanese spirituality in a time of crisis greatly enriches our perceptions of both a unique culture and the human longing for connection with the dead.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2015 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
EMBATTLED REBEL: Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Civil War, by James M. McPherson. (Penguin, $17.) Putting aside his own professed sympathies with the Union side, the author examines the Confederate leader, who is often portrayed as the static foil to Abraham Lincoln. In McPherson's telling, Davis emerges as a leader deeply involved in the Confederate military strategy and fiercely committed to the secessionist cause. THE EXTRAORDINARY JOURNEY OF THE FAKIR WHO GOT TRAPPED IN AN IKEA WARDROBE, by Romain Puértolas. Translated by Sam Taylor. (Vintage, $17.) An Indian con man arrives in Paris with a fake 100-euro note and one goal: to purchase Ikea's newest bed of nails. Puértolas's wry novel, a postcolonial sendup of immigration and commerce, follows the fakir on his journey across Europe and from sly trickster to compassionate global citizen. A LIFE OF BARBARA STANWYCK: Steel-True 1907-1940, by Victoria Wilson. (Simon & Schuster, $22.) Long admired for her profound emotional expression and comfort across a range of genres, Stanwyck is a star who has defied easy categorization. This is the first volume in Wilson's sensitive exploration of the actress's life, spanning her childhood and early forays as a performer. As our reviewer, Molly Haskell, said, it's "the book to bring her to center stage." EARLY WARNING, by Jane Smiley. (Anchor, $16.) Readers last met the Langdons, the Iowa farming family at the center of Smiley's multigenerational trilogy, in "Some Luck." Now it's 1953, and the family has gathered to mourn their patriarch, Walter. This middle volume spans the societal shifts and changes of 20th-century America as the family comes up against turbulent times that encompass the Vietnam War and Jim Jones's Peoples Temple. WHERE THE DEAD PAUSE, AND THE JAPANESE SAY GOODBYE: A Journey, by Marie Mutsuki Mockett. (Norton, $16.95.) Grief has been woven into Mockett's life for generations: Her family has survived violent episodes in Japan's past, including the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki. In the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami, the event around which this memoir is shaped, Mockett traveled to her family's Buddhist temple in Japan and gained insight into her own sorrows while immersed in the nation's grief. THE SAME SKY, by Amanda Eyre Ward. (Ballantine, $15.) Ward's novel brings together two incomplete families. After a stretch of failed adoption attempts, Alice and her husband have abandoned hope of welcoming a child into their family. Meanwhile, 11-year-old Carla has decided to make the journey from her dangerous Honduras home to America in pursuit of her mother, who left when Carla was younger. SHRINKS: The Untold Story of Psychiatry, by Jeffrey A. Lieberman with Ogi Ogas. (Back Bay/Little, Brown, $16.99.) Sensing a disconnect between the public's mistrust of psychiatry and the field's genuine virtues, Lieberman sets out to debunk the myths that have mischaracterized his medical specialty for years.
Kirkus Review
A journey through Japanese culture and religion by a Japanese-American woman grieving for her dead father and concerned that she will be unable to pass on her heritage to her young son.Mockett (Picking Bones from Ash, 2009) returned to Japan after the 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster, accompanied by her mother and her young son. After visiting the family-run temple located not far from the Fukushima nuclear reactor, the author made pilgrimages to other temples, met with priests, examined their treasures and tried out different forms of Buddhist meditation. Doing so provided her with the opportunity to not only describe, often at length, present-day people, buildings, festivals, places, moods and customs, but to delve into the stories behind them. One chapter is devoted to a history of Buddhism, in which readers may be surprised to learn that if they choose, Buddhists are quite free to celebrate one of the many Shinto gods. Because of the radiation danger at the cemetery in 2011, the bones of the author's grandfather could not be buried during that year's Obon, the annual Buddhist festival in which ancestors' spirits return to this world to visit their relatives. At the heart of the book is the Obon festival of 2012, a time when the author visited a crematorium for a close-up look at how the Japanese treat the remains of loved ones, attended the burial for her grandfather's bones, observed Obon's beautiful and healing rituals, and hoped that it would bring her relief from grief over the death of her father. Mockett, who speaks Japanese (though not perfectly), is an observant and respectful guide to Japanese customs, open to new experiences and sensitive to changes in the culture. If she sometimes rambles on or wanders off, the trip is still worth it. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Starred Review. There is a rich cultural history on the interplay between Shinto, Japan's native religion, and Buddhism, which was officially introduced to the country in the sixth century. Mockett (Picking Bones from Ash) mixes memoir, travelog, and a study of the sociology of death to look at how the unique character of Japanese spirituality helps individuals and the nation cope with loss. The author's story begins with her family's Buddhist temple in Iwaki, a coastal city 25 miles from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and takes the reader to the places where the dead gather in Japan, such as a Buddhist temple on Mount Koya and onward to Sai no Kawara, a riverbank where the souls of children congregate. VERDICT This illuminating journey through loss, faith, and perseverance will appeal to both readers of Pico Iyer and current nonfiction on death culture, such as Caitlin Doughty's Smoke Gets in your Eyes and Mary Roach's Stiff. The author's unique access to Buddhist priests gives the reader a rare view into one of the richest death cultures in the world. [See Prepub Alert, 7/28/14.]-John Rodzvilla, Emerson Coll., Boston (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
