Lynne Kutsukake’s novel The Translation of Love is an emotional and engaging journey through post-war Japan as seen by its wide cast of characters. It is a unique picture of what happens after war–the consequences of war, the struggles to recover, the aftermath of families torn asunder by loss. Though perhaps most closely following a young girl’s search for her older sister, it includes also the stories of a young Japanese Canadian re-pat, Japanese Americans working for MacArthur’s occupation government, those stranded when war broke out, among others.
The novel takes a vignette approach, as each chapter jumps between the dozen or so characters before oh- so-inevitably climaxing when their lives intertwine. Overall, it’s an enjoyable read.
The book’s antagonist is more than anything the hard comings of post-war life. In this, it is perhaps overly generous. Yet it captures an interesting and little written about slice of life. What happened to those Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians who chose to return to Japan after internment? What was it like for Japanese Americans serving in the occupation, apart yet not? What was it like living in post-war Japan, after your lives have been upended? These are the fragments Kutsukake hones in on.
Perhaps my favorite of her carefully crafted cast is Matt, a Japanese American whose brother died fighting for the United States and who moved to Japan to work for MacArthur. He translates letters written to the general, many from ordinary Japanese trying to survive and find their loved and lost–trying to capture their nuance, yet knowing most will remain unanswered. He, like the others, is sympathetic.
Microsynopsis: Alison finally gets to meet Jessica, but she panics when she learns that Jessica has always wanted Eddie to date a Chinese girl, so she sends Audrey, a piccolo player in her youth orchestra, to pretend she’s Alison. Emery prepares the valedictory address for his graduation from elementary school. Grandma volunteers to sew Evan a new suit so he can look good for Jessica at the family graduation celebration.
Bad: The Grandma-Evan story is lame and uninteresting, although Evan gets a couple of nice lines (“That’s not even a real ruler; that’s Bubble Tape!” and “I have two blazers, three khakis, and six shirts that I mix and match to create thirty-six different looks!”). And geez, that stupid bit where the boy is forced to leave the graduation ceremony as his principal mocks him isn’t funny.
Microsynopsis: Emery is suddenly having difficulty getting along with the other boys in school, so Louis gives him some advice on making his behavior more manly so he’ll fit in. Jessica chaperones Eddie’s class field trip to Colonial Floridatown, where she demonstrates (much to Eddie’s surprise and anger) that she can be a lot of fun.
Bad: More idiocy from Eddie’s school principal. And I’ve been casually trying to nail Fresh off the Boat for anachronisms, but my eye must not be very good, because I haven’t found one in more than thirty episodes so far, but aha! I kind of found one, although you could make the case that when Louis says he mistook the “Critter Capers” section at the video store for the “Criterion” section, he was just reaching for anything that might be conceivable, and not mistakenly thinking that Criterion ever released titles on VHS (it didn’t–in those days, its titles were on LaserDisc, which this store doesn’t seem to rent). It’s weak, but it’s all I’ve got so far.
We get a bowling alley, a bar (made of ice, apparently), a mannequin, and a bunch of hidden cameras as each training session and first date unfolds. To every participant’s credit, despite the forced nature of the entire exercise from premise to execution, everyone seems to make a sincere attempt at making things work, with no trace of irony, which would destroy a show like this. Any irony needs to be brought by the viewer, and I at first didn’t have any problem looking at the show through a non-ironic prism.
The show is fun to watch in the first half. The edits are playful, with quick shots of subjects against seamless white backgrounds. It’s a good-looking, well-produced program. My only technical complaints come in the second half, where the voiceover (which is fine in the intro) gets needlessly intrusive, and there are a few too many exterior shots through a fisheye lens.
