Requiem ~ Frances Itani
Although I knew about the expulsion and relocation of approximately 21,000 Japanese Canadians from the west coast in 1941-42, this novel adds the emotion, the faces, the anger, the families and the hardships. It is a good read from a Canadian author whose works I always enjoy reading.
Bin's family is taken away from everything he has ever known, after the bombing of Pearl Harbour. They are evicted from the home his father built on Vancouver Island and moved to an internment camp somewhere in the mountains along the Fraser River. They will spend almost five years here in the freezing cold, the scorching heat, in uninsulated shacks with no electricity, in extreme poverty, in shame. There are births and deaths, families split apart, illness - both physical and mental, but also a resourcefulness that amazed me.
The unbelievable hardships - beginning with their incarceration in cattle barns at Hastings Park at the Exhibition grounds in Vancouver, to the tent town on the Fraser, to the "repatriation" papers each family needed to sign once Japan was defeated. They had two choices - to be exiled to Japan, where they had never lived, or to 'relocate' east of the Rockies. These are second and third generation Canadians!
This novel switches back and forth between the 1940s and 1997, when Bin, with his hound Basil drives across Canada. He is planning to complete the last works needed for his art exhibition. Also in the car is the persuasive voice of his dead wife, Lena and his wise, also dead, mentor Okuma-san.
Bin's journey to complete his art always involves water - the theme of his show. But the great music of Beethoven, his love of Lena, memories and the ever changing Canadian landscape are also part of his journey. It is Basil who keeps him grounded, but it is his heart that takes him where he needs to go.
- Deafening
- Remembering the Bones
- Poached Egg on Toast
The more I read, the more I realize all families are more or less dysfunctional. Fuller's family falls under the "more" category, in this autobiographical look at life lived in various countries in Africa. Although it is essentially her family's story, it is also a story of the countries.
While her mother reminisces about her Scottish heritage, Fuller is appalled by the Tasmanian natives forced into slavery on the family's estate. And as Fuller delves deeper into Rhodesia's bizarre history - that the lives of 250,000 white settlers should be so much more important that the 6 million indigenous blacks, it is at times tough to swallow - but that was their life.
Her mother's bi-polar life of episodes of depression, of dogs, children, husband, working hard, drinking harder, traveling in an explosion proof jeep with an Uzi on an expedition to buy school clothes or to go to the local vet's "hunting day out" for the "colonials" gives you a taste of Fuller's life. Nevertheless, her mother Nicola and her father Tim are made of tougher stuff than anyone I know.
At times this book was laugh-out-loud funny - at the Highland School Reunion "Auntie stared into her drink. 'I wonder how these will go with Prozac?' she muttered." At times it is terrifying, but mostly it is full of history. I learned more about the Boer War and the Mau Mau Rebellion in a few terse sentences than I've ever known. The Kikuyu tribespeople, who called themselves Muigi (the Movement) and had an Oathe of Unity (Muma wa Urquano) became known as Mau Mau as an acronym.
By 1954, British soldiers were holding as many as 77,000 Kikuyu men, women and children in cramped, unhygienic concentration camps. Out of a mostly irrational fear, many whites did leave the area.
Later, while living in Rhodesia and fighting to keep it pristine for the white settlers, "the Rhodesian Special Forces with the help of the South African Military, salted the water along the Mozambique border with cholera and warfarin; they injected tins of food with thallium and dropped them into conflict zones...they planted anthrax in the villages..."
The family photos, the love of animals, her father's love of the soil and farming, day to day life in a country and climate very foreign to me, made this a great read. I highly recommend it.
- Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight
Who Knew?
The Zimbabwe Ruins is a complex of conical towers and massive stone walls in the southeastern part of the country, concluded to be the royal enclosure of a medieval Shona empire. It covers over 1800 acres and is the largest ancient structure south of the Sahara. (there are photos of Fuller's family at this site in the book.)
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