Forgiveness

Forgiveness
Mark Sakamoto
272pp


Is this J-lit?

What is J-lit anyhow? Can a 3rd generation Canadian write J-lit? Is Ishiguro J-lit?

So many questions... but I was encouraged to read this book when it came up on CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company)'s Canada Reads program. This program pits five books a year, each defended by a fan of some note, and eliminated Survivor style until only one remains.

And in the end, with a little less backstabbing than occurs on those islands, Forgiveness was our lone standing winner.

So, pure Japanese literature or not, it felt like something I could enjoy. Add to that that it's the story of two families, one Japanese and one Canadian, and you've got my eyes.

But... not quite what I would have hoped for.

The story is an odd mix of an autobiography, but much more so, a double biography of one man writing about his grandparents.

Much of the book focuses on the time leading up to and during WWII. Sakamoto's white grandfather enlisted and was sent to Asia, eventually ending up in a POW camp. Basically tortured, he somehow survives to return home.

Meanwhile, in Canada, his Japanese grandparents were caught up in a system which now saw them as connected to the enemy. They are herded away from there home and business, losing much of what they had worked for, and forced to work hard labor for low pay on a farm while living out the war in a barn made for sheep.

This part of the book was sad, compelling and enjoyable. Sakamoto's skill is amateurish, but the subject allowed for this to be ignored. If there is any negative here it is simply that one of the experiences was so far worse than the other that the parallel was not as strong and sympathy couldn't be as equally divided as it appeared that the author would have hoped.

However, this first 75% of the book works well enough.

But, for length reasons, or because he wished to add his own part to the story, the author decided to continue the story up until present. A good editor would have cut this idea off immediately, I believe, but Sakamoto seems to have been missing this advise. So, instead of ending with triumph after surviving the hardships of war and prejudice, we continue on and are subject to the failure of an international marriage, and the alcoholism of a mother, while the heroes of the earlier part of the book stay oddly mute. (They appear from time to time, especially the Japanese grandmother, and work as a symbol of stability... but provide no salvation as we would hope these strong characters would when witnessing the suffering of children).

This is a problem with all forms of biography: just because it's real doesn't mean it works well on paper.

Then the book ends with what appears to be a job reference of sorts as the author gives us a list of his accomplishments and name drops some politician who has been helpful to him.

Again... know when to end.

So, I cannot recommend this book, though I really wish I could. But, when you have a book about two different groups of people fighting in war, or in the prejudices that a war creates, and then they are able to survive and grow and FORGIVE... don't add a painful divorce to the backend of that tale.

I ramble on and on sometimes.

Not recommended.