
| Sara Backer has created an intricate plot that revolves around the death of an American student while studying abroad in Japan. His father travels to a small Japanese town to find out the details of his son's death. Things are revealed which do not match up and the father is thrown into an investigation to discover the facts surrounding this death. The problems begin to mount when an American woman is pulled into the middle of the investigation against her better judgement. The problems become even larger when the cultural differences come into play. A difference in attitudes towards death, towards open expression of emotion and individualism are so wide apart as to appear insurmountable. The difference in the style of daily living, the cuisine and even the written language pose their own problems. Sara Backer bases the novel on her experiences while she was a visiting professor at Shizuoka University. The cultural differences are handled with both seriousness and humor to make for an interesting look at life as a foreigner in small town Japan. American Fuji is also the story of a search for love, acceptance and understanding and what people are willing to trade to gain a firmer footing in these emotional arenas. I found the description of Mount Fuji wonderfully accurate, including the climb. The thoughts that arise are some of the same thoughts I had when I climbed it. It was both majestic and spiritual just as she writes, it was also a lot more difficult than it looked to be. This was a great story told by a very talented author about love, life and a cultural gap that can not always be bridged. |
| Sara Backer is a poet,essayist,short fic-tion writer-and now,a novelist of formi-dable powers,as American Fuji amply demonstrates.In the early 1990s,she accepted a position as visiting professor of English at Shizulka University,unaware that she was not only the first American to hold that position,but also the first woman.The three years she spent in this midsize conservative city halfway between Tokyo and Kyoto suffuse the tone and temper of American Fuji. |
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