Book Review | Can Japan’s young write their own story?

Some five decades of dedicated reading have led me to put my faith in a certain axiom associated with books: No matter what is happening in your life, you always get the book you need.

There’s no mystery in this of course. Every time you select a book, something consciously or unconsciously makes the choice that will fulfil a need you may not even know you have. Despite knowing this however, when I read a magazine story about a book called Four Seasons in Japan by Nick Bradley and decided I wanted to read the book, I was halfway through it before I understood how very much I had needed it.

Four Seasons in Japan is not a travelogue. Rather, it’s a novel that could be classified as ‘feel-good’. I didn’t find this out till I’d read a fair amount of it and though the book wasn’t what I’d expected, I couldn’t deny that the feel-good storytelling was working. The stress I had been carrying in my shoulders for months had begun to dissipate, the frown lines on my forehead had begun to smoothen out, the fingers curled into fists to fight a hundred small resentments had begun to unfurl. All because in a work of fiction, Flo, an insecure young American translator in Japan, picks up a discarded book and falls deeply into its story.

Most of Four Seasons in Japan is focused on the story Flo feels compelled to translate. This story features two people. Kyo is a boy who has failed his college entrance exam and is sent to a Kota factory-like crammer in the small town where his grandmother Ayoko lives. Ayoko had lost her son, Kyo’s father, to suicide and consequently feels incapable of dealing with a boy on the cusp of his future. Should she be soft on him? Push him hard? Influence him in his choice of a career?

Ayoko distrusts herself so much that she’s completely unapproachable at first and Kyo is too scared to even ask her about the father he’d lost as a baby. But as time passes the two grow to enjoy each other’s company. Ayoko notes that Kyo doesn’t really want to be a doctor. That’s his mother’s dream for him. What Kyo really wants to do is art — and Ayoko knows he’s very talented. When push comes to shove, what will Ayoko do?

There’s nothing extra special about Four Seasons in Japan. It’s good, but not ah-mazing. But its gentle storytelling was exactly what I needed when I read it. To me, then, it’ll always be wonderful.

Four Seasons in Japan

By Nick Bradley

Penguin

pp. 325; Rs 550