June 11, 2017

After the Bloom - Leslie Shimotakahara


Dundurn Books, April 15, 2017.

 

Three Stars


 

Rita Takemitsu is a recently divorced mother, living in Toronto in the mid-1980s. Her daughter is spending the summer with her father in Vancouver, and Rita has the summer off from teaching school, so she is free to wallow in the self-pity she is feeling about the direction her life has taken. That is, until she finds out that her mother Lily has gone missing – and the police aren’t taking the case seriously.

 

Lily has a history of memory issues and mental breakdowns, which Rita struggled with throughout her childhood. Rita was raised by her grandfather after her father left them, but Lily often confused the two men with each other. When Rita meets with Lily’s newest husband to report her disappearance, she discovers that he knows very little about her past. With little help from the police, and a stepfather that has given up on Lily, Rita decides to start investigating on her own.

 

Rita finds out that Lily had been attending the meetings of a group that sought reparations for the Japanese internment during World War II – she had been interned in a camp in California when she was eighteen years old. A professor whose father was also interned is helping with the cause, and he and Rita begin working together to track down Lily. The two of them end up getting involved in a very normal, realistic relationship that was one of the highlights of the novel. Although the book moves through history – from Lily’s time at the camp to Rita’s summer in Toronto – I found that the characters in Rita’s section were much more fleshed out and believable.

 

The mystery of Lily’s disappearance is offset by the literary and historical elements of Lily’s past and Rita’s family drama, especially as she attempts to reconcile her mother to the person she once was. There is also the mystery of who Rita’s father really was – Lily claims that it was Kaz, a man she met at the camp, but as Rita gathers information about her mother, she also learns that her father may have been someone very different. Lily fell in love with Kaz despite the flaws and warning signs, and she seemed to be trying to convince everyone, including herself, that he loved her. Lily lies constantly about her past, but it is not always intentional, as even she does not seem to remember the truth through her confusion.

 

This novel explores a horrific period of our history (and Canada is included here too) that is often glossed over and ignored. People at the time thought that the interned Japanese were being treated even better than the general public, when in fact they were herded into army barracks and fed just enough to survive. More importantly, their homes, businesses and civil rights were taken from them. Although the sections set in the camp were more historically interesting, I found the modern characters more compelling. Their reconciliation of their parents’ pasts was emotional and intriguing, and a subject that is relevant to all of us today.

 

I received this book from Dundurn Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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