Sunday 12 July 2020

Haunted by History: "Block Seventeen" by Kimiko Guthrie

Block Seventeen

by Kimiko Guthrie

A review



The bird in the orchard has quieted, at least for now. I take another drag on my cigarette, this time without coughing, and admire the lacy patches of sunlight on the pale-brown ground beneath the trees.

Pointless as looking back may be, I think I’ll take advantage of the surprising clarity I’m experiencing at the moment and tell you, as best as I can, what happened last year, starting with last fall; I owe you that much.

Akiko Thompson, the narrator in Kimiko Guthrie’s debut novel Block Seventeen, is the daughter of a Japanese-American mother and a white American father.  Just like her mother, she is not particularly keen on her Asian heritage, so much so that in her teenage years she gave up the name “Akiko” for the plainer “Jane”.  Shiro, her partner of five years and the father of the child to whom Jane is telling the story, is quite the opposite.  Born to a Japanese-American family, he is obsessed with the injustice suffered by his ancestors during the Second World War in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor when, despite their patriotism and US citizenship, their fields and businesses were forcefully taken and they were sent to internment camps.  Shiro, who is employed with the TSA, is convinced that the same sort of injustice is being perpetrated in present-day America. He is intent on turning whistle-blower and revealing the everyday racism of the organisation which employs him.

We learn that, through a strange coincidence (or twist of fate?) Akiko and Shiro’s families were in the same internment camp.  But their approach to this painful episode in their families’ past couldn’t be more different.  Akiko tends to play down these dark events by pragmatically trying to fit in. In Shiro, the collective memory spurs waves of righteous indignation.   This friction starts taking its toll on their relationship.

But are painful memories so easy to suppress?  In Block Seventeen the past haunts the protagonists’ present, both figuratively and literally.  Jane and Shiro face a series of uncanny events, some of which can be easily explained away, others less so.  These strange occurrences all seem to be prodding Jane into facing her past – not only her own, but also the “collective memory” of her family and fellow Asians.

The result is a novel which hovers playfully between psychological thriller, magical realism, ghost story and historical fiction.  The mix isn’t always convincing and there are certain aspects of the story which remain frustratingly hazy.  But Akiko’s endearing voice and wry sense of humour pull the novel through.   I also found Japanese-American perspective very interesting, shedding light on a dark chapter in 20th Century history which I, for one, was unfamiliar with.

Kindle Edition
Published June 23rd 2020

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