The book of Kane and Margaret : a novel
(Book)

In Araki-Kawaguchi's magical realist novel, dozens of avatars of Kane Araki and Margaret Morri inhabit the World War II Japanese internment camp in Gila River. In some incarnations, they are lovers; in another, Morri is a cicada, or Kane has wings, or Morri is a healer. Each chapter is a new story of survival and of small rebellions. Araki-Kawaguchi uses the multiplicity of stories to paint the relocation camp as someplace liminal and repressive, where its inhabitants nevertheless create wonder through their beliefs, stories, and happenings, and where they bring their superstitions to bear on the strange turns of this small world. Kane and Margaret compete in a laundry drying competition in the desert heat; white moths land on inhabitants' chests in the night trying to whisk them to Japan; a large cicada bonds with a young girl, and its songs are said to heal. In many of the stories, people look back on their time at the camp and either can't remember it or are accused of foggy memories. Araki-Kawaguchi's writing is rich, with a deep undertone of irony, and paints a portrait of an insular world with strict borders that nonetheless is boundless in its mystery, wonder, and mythologies.--Leah von Essen Copyright 2020 Booklist

Araki-Kawaguchi's inventive, surreal novel in stories (after Disintegration Made Plain and Easy) follows a group of characters who leave the bounds of a WWII-era Japanese internment camp through magic and mischief. Each loosely connected vignette centers on a wildly different iteration of Yoshikane "Kane" Araki and Margaret Morri. In one story, a man named Kane grows a pair of wings and crosses the camp's barbed wire to mingle freely in the "nearest Arizona Chinatown." Elsewhere, another Kane leaves the camp by passing as white, not by "any sort of skin condition" but by adopting a confident posture. Margaret Morri appears as a singing cicada; a woman who uses men to reenact the last day with her husband, who disappeared after "going over the wire"; and a young typist seduced by an enchanted frog. Later, Kane and Margaret are octogenarian spouses who reignite their sex lives to compete with the "noises of newly married couples fiercely, hysterically fucking each other" in their barracks' neighboring bunks. Some stories employ realism to bring the trauma and small rebellions of the camp into sharp relief, such as one about an interned young mother worried about her infant daughter and a dismissive nurse. This beautifully rendered reflection on a dark moment of American history will appeal to fans of literary speculative fiction. (Mar.)

*Starred Review* In Araki-Kawaguchi's magical realist novel, dozens of avatars of Kane Araki and Margaret Morri inhabit the World War II Japanese internment camp in Gila River. In some incarnations, they are lovers; in another, Morri is a cicada, or Kane has wings, or Morri is a healer. Each chapter is a new story of survival and of small rebellions. Araki-Kawaguchi uses the multiplicity of stories to paint the relocation camp as someplace liminal and repressive, where its inhabitants nevertheless create wonder through their beliefs, stories, and happenings, and where they bring their superstitions to bear on the strange turns of this small world. Kane and Margaret compete in a laundry drying competition in the desert heat; white moths land on inhabitants' chests in the night trying to whisk them to Japan; a large cicada bonds with a young girl, and its songs are said to heal. In many of the stories, people look back on their time at the camp and either can't remember it or are accused of foggy memories. Araki-Kawaguchi's writing is rich, with a deep undertone of irony, and paints a portrait of an insular world with strict borders that nonetheless is boundless in its mystery, wonder, and mythologies. Copyright 2020 Booklist Reviews.

Araki-Kawaguchi's inventive, surreal novel in stories (after Disintegration Made Plain and Easy) follows a group of characters who leave the bounds of a WWII-era Japanese internment camp through magic and mischief. Each loosely connected vignette centers on a wildly different iteration of Yoshikane "Kane" Araki and Margaret Morri. In one story, a man named Kane grows a pair of wings and crosses the camp's barbed wire to mingle freely in the "nearest Arizona Chinatown." Elsewhere, another Kane leaves the camp by passing as white, not by "any sort of skin condition" but by adopting a confident posture. Margaret Morri appears as a singing cicada; a woman who uses men to reenact the last day with her husband, who disappeared after "going over the wire"; and a young typist seduced by an enchanted frog. Later, Kane and Margaret are octogenarian spouses who reignite their sex lives to compete with the "noises of newly married couples fiercely, hysterically fucking each other" in their barracks' neighboring bunks. Some stories employ realism to bring the trauma and small rebellions of the camp into sharp relief, such as one about an interned young mother worried about her infant daughter and a dismissive nurse. This beautifully rendered reflection on a dark moment of American history will appeal to fans of literary speculative fiction. (Mar.)