Book Review: American Fuji

Mt. Fuji, courtesty the CIA World Factbook.

When I'm at a library, I sometimes do a search on Japan to see what comes up. Other than a lot of manga, which I'm not really into, there are some history books (though usually not as many as I'd like), culture books in the juvenile section and novels, but mostly ones from the fiction section -- that is, novels that aren't from the young adult or juvenile sections. I tend to have great reservation with novels for grown ups -- even greater, perhaps, than the reservation I have toward young adult books.  But I decided to try American Fuji anyway, and this post is my trying to review it.


P.S. Just so you know,  I read this with an overtired mind, got rather annoyed at it partway through (perhaps in part because I was overtired), and am overtired now, writing this. And, I looked at some spoilers on a review site before I was finished (and in doing so was partly misled for a time)...just a typical, opinionated blog post. :D


P.P. S. (By the way, this is light on spoilers, so you can read it with moderate safety! *salutes*) (Also, I did writing this post quite a while after reading the book).


Plot Overview
Published in 2001, and set in 1990 something, American Fuji's plot has two main problems/mysteries to be resolved. The first is the unexplained death of American psychologist Dr. Alex Thorn's son, Cody, from whom he was estranged.


The second one is actually two. Both involve an amazingly qualified college instructor, expatriate Gabriela (aka Gaby) Stanton (also American). Living, I think, in Shizuoka City (maybe?) , Gaby (can't help but wonder if her name's a pun)'s problems/mysteries are:


a.) she was fired from the Japanese university she was working at -- okay, okay, at which she was working. We have no idea why at first, and neither does she.


b.) Why is she living in Japan at all? She knows the answer, but no one else does.


Alex and Gaby end up meeting through Gaby's current workplace, a sort of funeral home with distinctly unusual funeral options, and they set off together (more or less) to find answers to their lives' most persistent questions. (Sorry, I couldn't resist). 


The Genre
But really, half of the time, the novel does have sort of a murder mystery aspect, if not exactly with a distinct noir or Agatha Christie-ness. There's digging through files, traveling to places and interviewing people, discussing clues, etc. However, that's only half of it. And I mean that in a kind of literal way. The other, fifty-ish percent of the time, it's a satire. Not to mention the fish out of water humor on Alex's part.

The Bad
Was it worth it? Let's start with the bad points. And yes, there are some bad points in this novel.  From the beginning of the story, the author regularly inserts completely unnecessary, very nasty, shall we say "adult", passages -- a general problem I've found in novels classed s "Fic"  -- except they also tend to be dull, too. (More on this in The Good section). These chunks of stupidity tend not to last long, but still. (Also at the introduction of Alex, there's a scene in which a mostly sedated fish is eaten alive. Alex throws up and excuses himself. Yeah... I guess that was a "creepy things to avoid in Japan" cultural moment.)


Another not so great point is that the serious side of the story seems perhaps a bit one dimensional, at least where characters other than Gaby and Alex are concerned. There were some bits I didn't quite follow, and possibly that was just me (see the introduction).

Another thing that later got me down a lot was that most characters, Japanese and non-Japanese alike, are not very nice. For instance, all the Japanese children are mindless brats to foreigners, and Gabriela's associates and neighbors (and one of her co-workers) are invasive and/or nasty and/or selfish and/or strict conformists. (The strict conformism is apparently later explained as being the culture of the area she was living in). There's also an exaggerated opinion of the "American" mindset -- which is discussed in a serious context as if it were totally valid.


And finally, at the very end, the wrap up/coming to terms for Dr. Thorn, though I had been skimming on account of being really over-tired, seemed weak.


All the same,  I feel lenient and wouldn't totally discount American Fuji. In fact, I kinda liked it -- though I did get terribly annoyed, with obsceneness and the exaggerated depiction of people, part way through reading it. But the novel also has some good points.


The Good
For instance, the style wasn't that bad. I did want to keep going out of genuine interest for a while, not just morbid curiosity and the odd, dogged sense of finishing what I start to read that I get sometimes with stupid novels (and later regret). So yeah.


The cultural information bits were interesting too -- some of it I recognized, from reading about Japan on the internet and probably other places, (stuff like Pocari Sweat, Otohime, alcohol from vending machines). And, for a time, I was able to laugh at the satirical half of it. And the descriptions of different places in Japan were also interesting, though I suppose there's always the possibility of artistic license when it comes to that.


And here's something I couldn't help but have an appreciation for: Gaby and Alex do not actually end up, ah, having a night together. They nearly do, but don't -- she wants to wait -- and Alex doesn't have a macho tantrum or get all deeply hurt. That is a rarity in grown up books, in my experience. Some of you might not mind such scenes, but by now you've probably guessed that, I do. So, in a way, another good point for American Fuji, in my assessment. Perhaps the author thought all the nastiness she put in made up for it. I dunno. Anways, let's move on to the conclusion.


Conclusion
All in all, the novel undeniably does have a muck problem, don't want to understate that, and it's use of styles were not as blended as I personally would like, and it's a bit flat, but if you're looking for a comedy/mystery that also is a sort of trip to Japan... you, and I say this tentatively, possibly might want to try it. Just remember you'll have to skip over some stupid stuff every so often, and you probably do not want get too involved in the serious side of it.


Oh, and there's undoubtedly all sorts of symbolism and metaphors concerning human interaction in American Fuji. But I'll leave that up to all y'all's (is that a word?) blog posts.


Ta!


References:
Only the one this time.
"American Fuji"; Sara Backer; 2001