barbara fister reviewed Evergreen by Naomi Hirahara
Review of 'Evergreen' on 'LibraryThing'
In a followup to the wonderful CLARK AND DIVISION, Hirahara builds a mystery around the situation the characters find themselves in after World War II has ended and the Japanese-Americans who had been herded into internment camps were turned loose in a world where the discrimination they had faced still existed and the homes, businesses, and lives that had been torn from them were not restored. This is a less familiar part of the Japanese-American experience than the camps for most Americans, so learning about it through this thoroughly-researched historical fiction is eye-opening. returnreturnReturning from Chicago to Los Angeles has been tough for Aki and her family. Though she has been finally reunited with her husband after his wartime experiences in Europe, marriage is proving to be surprisingly challenging, with her husband suffering from nightmares most nights, and her father is bent on recovering his business in the flower market …
In a followup to the wonderful CLARK AND DIVISION, Hirahara builds a mystery around the situation the characters find themselves in after World War II has ended and the Japanese-Americans who had been herded into internment camps were turned loose in a world where the discrimination they had faced still existed and the homes, businesses, and lives that had been torn from them were not restored. This is a less familiar part of the Japanese-American experience than the camps for most Americans, so learning about it through this thoroughly-researched historical fiction is eye-opening. returnreturnReturning from Chicago to Los Angeles has been tough for Aki and her family. Though she has been finally reunited with her husband after his wartime experiences in Europe, marriage is proving to be surprisingly challenging, with her husband suffering from nightmares most nights, and her father is bent on recovering his business in the flower market even though the prospects are dim. Struggling to find a place to live, they finally are able to take the place of a Jewish man who is moving out, giving them a modest foothold in a mixed neighborhood near the Japanese community hospital where Aki works, and her husband finds a job at a newspaper, satisfying work for him though the pay is low. returnreturnWhen an elderly man is admitted to Aki's hospital, she notices he is badly bruised, and she finds out he's the father of Babe Watanabe, her husband's friend and the best man at their wedding. She never warmed to Babe, and now it seems he has brutally abused his father. Then, as plots do, it thickens, and shady characters show up to Aki's door looking for Babe. Aki has to figure out what is going on, and in the process we get a tour of the neighborhoods that went through abrupt demographic changes during and after the war, including a vivid depiction of Bronzeville (when Blacks from the South temporarily occupied the neighborhood once home to Japanese Americans) and the Winona trailer camp, a notoriously grim temporary housing camp for people who lost everything, were incarcerated, and have been thrust back into life with little that could be called a home. returnreturnThe afterword provides an encyclopedic tour of resources that informed Hirahara's fictional world, a seminar's worth of knowledge. The beauty of the book is that all of it is conveyed through the story without the author ever resorting to infodumps or the kind of stilted dialogue that is only there to provide historical context. It's very well done. I look forward the next installment in the series, knowing I will learn a lot while swept up in a story.