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BOOK REVIEWS
Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss. London: Penguin Books, 2006.
Reviewed by Roderic Owen
Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss (London: Penguin Books, 2006) received rave
reviews, and the novel was awarded the prestigious Man Booker Prize; and it is fully deserving.
Even given her literary pedigree, what is more surprising given the eloquent tone, rich
characterizations of young and old, and skillful interweaving of life stories across decades,
continents, and cultures is that Ms. Desai wrote this work in her early thirties. Her novel
straddles Northeast India, England, Calcutta, and New York City while also “mapping” the
contours of difficult relationships between peoples of diverse class and caste and with different
languages and cultures (including Nepalese, Tibetans, Anglo-Indians, Guajarati, and Bengalis as
well as all manner of Indian ex-pats seeking to find their way in New York City). In academic
terms, this work qualifies as another powerful contribution to post-colonial literature in which
Kiran Desai skillfully integrates biting societal critique with attention to aesthetic elements –
especially character development.
The plot lines on the surface are straightforward : i.) the primary story of teenage Sai
whose astronaut parents are killed in an accident in the former Soviet Union and who must
move-in with her only living relative -- her mother’s father -- an embittered judge and his abused
cook; ii.) the cook’s son, Biju, who has moved to NYC with great promise leaving behind a
simple, proud father but returns violated and penniless; iii.) the life story of Sai’s grandfatherjudge as the events which lead to his embittered, loveless life are slowly revealed; and, iv.)
the budding romance between Sai and her handsome tutor, Gyan, who feels compelled to reject
not only Sai but also any remnants of colonial India and middle-class comfort and instead join a
radical Nepalese militia fighting for independence.
Through these and many other characters we are introduced not only to the complicated
struggles of caste and class but in particular the reader sees first-hand the lingering elements of
English-colonial manners, education, and language. The judge (in his decaying Anglo-Indian
home) in particular comes to represent the worst of a colonized Indian man, estranged in his own
land: seemingly successful but eaten from within by gross contradictions. The “flashback”
scenes of his education as an anal-compulsive young man in an elite English school as well as
the abusive, misdirected episodes of anger toward his wife are palpably painful reading
………and this is a critic’s compliment. The equally abusive relationship between the retired
Judge and his low caste cook, too, provides readers with a vivid example of how and why some
Indians end up trapped in such angry and dysfunctional situations. At one point, the cook pleads
with Judge: Sahib. I drink. I am a bad man. Beat me. Beat me. The judge obliges him berating
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his long faithful servant: “You filth, you hypocrite. If you want punishment I’ll give it to you.”
Indeed, it is Sai who recognizes that there “is something filthy going on,” but she is powerless to
stop the beating and berating. More often than not through the eyes of intelligent, sensitive,
lonely Sai we see people, relationships, and a way-of-life rapidly deteriorating; indeed,
everywhere one turns there is an “inheritance of loss” only partially off-set by the majestic
beauty of the Himalayan mountains. Indeed, Desai, ends the work on an ironic note: “The five
peaks of Kancheenjunga turned golden with the kind of luminous light that made you feel, if
briefly, that truth was apparent.”
Throughout there is the matter of justice, too; after all, Sai’s grandfather is “the judge”
and at some point the reader must judge who inherits what in this tale? In addition to the rising
violent cries for justice from the Nepalese; the ready abuse of justice by the local, corrupt police;
and the near absence of any form of justice for Biju ---who as an illegal immigrant to the USA is
condemned to a succession of unfair, unsanitary, and unjust “ food–industry” jobs --- there are
occasional reflections on the very possibility of justice in India. At one point, the retired Judge
muses, “India was too messy for justice; it ended only in humiliation for the person in authority.
…..If you let such people [the poor, Dalits, disabled people] get an inch, they’d take every inch
you had – the families yoked together because of guilt on one side, and unending greed and
capacity for dependence on the other – and if they know you were susceptible, everyone handed
their guilt along so as to augment your own : old guilt, new guilt, any passed on guilt whatever.”
Indeed, there is a compelling absence of sustained compassion or justice in Ms. Desai’s novel
whether in India or America; instead, one encounters fully believable individuals with very
human failings struggling with dysfunctional families, divided communities , and the underside
of emigration and globalization.
Global economic and cultural optimists beware ……… and pay heed to such post-colonial
literary portrays of anger, violence, decay and loss. The majority of Indian lives are not lived in
the new high tech suburbs of Bangalore, Mumbai or Hyderabad; and the complicated
characters portrayed by Kiran Desai do not easily fit into some ahistorical ideal of an emerging,
prosperous Indian middle class.
Note; special thanks to the staff and directors of SCILET (Study Centre for Indian Literature
in English and Translation: http://scilet.org/website.php ) of Madurai, Tamil Nadu for their
cordial assistance and for providing an excellent library and study space.
____________________
Peter Popham, The Lady and the Peacock: The Life of Aung San Suu Kyi.
London: The Experiment, 2012. 480 pp. ISBN: 1615190643
Reviewed by Shekira Ramdass
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The Lady and the Peacock: The Life of Aung San Suu Kyi is an extraordinary biography
that depicts the life of a woman who has made a significant impact on the growth and prosperity
of her homeland, Myanmar. Aung San Suu Kyi is a phenomenal leader who has risen as a
national hero promoting peace, democracy, and human rights for the Burmese people. The
daughter of General Aung San, known as the father of modern day Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi
was born on June 19, 1945 in Rangoon, which was three years before her beloved nation
received its independence in 1948.
Peter Popham, author of the book, compiles various writings, articles, and pictures that
capture the intriguing life of Aung San Suu Kyi on many levels. Beginning with her childhood,
Popham gives insight into her upbringing, her college years at Oxford University, her time in
England where she met and married her late husband, Michael Aris, and most importantly,
insight into her development and courage to become a leader of non-violence.
Peter Popham further highlights the many contributions Aung Sang Suu Kyi has made
toward the achievement and advancement of democracy in Burma. Much of her efforts, however,
did not take place until 1988, which was the year Suu Kyi returned to her homeland to care for
her dying mother. After years of living and studying abroad, she witnessed widespread slaughter
of protesters who were rallying against the brutal rule of dictator U Ne Win. After witnessing
such destruction, Aung San Suu Kyi decided to speak out and initiate a nonviolent movement
towards achieving democracy and human rights for the Burmese people. Establishing herself as
the democratic opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi founded the National League for
Democracy (NLD), a political party that advocates for human rights, rule of law, and national
reconciliation.
Popham’s biography further discusses the many sacrifices Aung San Suu Kyi endured in
her struggle for peace and democracy. Serving over 15 years under house arrest in Burma, Suu
Kyi was isolated from her political party and detached from her family in England. Despite the
challenges, however, Suu Kyi persevered becoming the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner “for her
non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights”, and now an elected member of
Parliament.
The biography is truly inspirational and uplifting for any readers interested in national
reconciliation, democracy, non-violence, and national politics. Peter Popham did a wonderful job
capturing the life and the accomplishments of Aung Sang Suu Kyi. The book truly reads like a
novel which makes it enjoyable and easy for everyone, including non-Burma experts.
__________________
David Pilling, Bending Adversity: Japan and the Art of Survival. New York:
The Penguin Press, 2014. 382 pp. ISBN: 978-1-59420-584-2
Reviewed by Daniel A. Métraux
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This fascinating study of contemporary Japan begins with the nation’s darkest moment—
the triple whammy of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown that killed over twenty
thousand people, destroyed many villages and towns, and turned parts of northeastern Japan into
an abandoned nuclear wasteland. Many pundits, myself included, speculated that the
combination of two decades of recession after the collapse of Japan’s Economic Bubble in the
early 1990s and the sad events of 11 March 2011 would doom Japan forever.
David Pilling, the Asia Editor of the Financial Times who has covered Japan in depth for
many years, goes out of his way to point out the many weaknesses that have plagued Japan this
century. Japan has shrunk in economic terms and is no longer the world’s second largest
economy, but, notes Pilling, there is a lot more Japan needs to worry about—that the March 2011
crisis revealed much weakness in the Japanese system:
Many argued that the tsunami, which destroyed factories, roads, and other infrastructure
worth an astonishing ten percent of GDP, would be the final nail in Japan’s economic
coffin. If nothing else, it would accelerate what was already the slow exodus of
manufacturing to China and other production bases. Even worse than Japan’s economic
vulnerability was evidence of a rotten body politic. The crisis at Fukushima exposed an
official culture riddled with paternalism, complacency and deceit. The risks of nuclear
catastrophe in the most seismically unstable country on earth ought to have been
foreseeable, as should the vulnerability of plants so close to a tsunami-prone coastline.
Bureaucrats, politicians and nuclear plant operators were blinded by their faith in
Japanese technology and organization. In other ways too, the Japanese state was shown
to be unprepared. Some old people’s homes had inadequate, or non-existent, evacuation
procedures. After the disaster, it took too long for the central government to identify
needs on the ground and to meet them with financial and technical help. Too much was
left to the legendary diehard patience of the people of northeast Japan themselves.
Japan’s response may have been far better than that of the US after Hurricane Katrina,
but it left much to be desired.
But rather than further despairing about this disaster, author Pilling feels that the tsunami
was one of the key turning points in Japanese history—that the disaster literally jolted the
Japanese people out of their complacency, made them wake up and begin focusing on how they
could save their nation. The Japanese, Pilling notes, have a remarkable track record of confronting and transcending adversity. This book is about Japan’s efforts to engineering their own
homegrown recovery.
Pilling stresses that there have been many problems that have contributed to Japan’s
downfall including a muddled political system, a very rapidly aging work force, outdated
industry and so much more, but there is much that Japan has to offer. Japanese are well
educated, hardworking and resourceful. They are innovative and have a drive that will see them
through.
Women are now emerging as increasingly important managers and leaders in Japan and
the old Japan where the husband worked in his lifetime job while his wife took care of the
children at home is now disappearing. Women are becoming important members of the
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workforce and are expecting far more cooperation at home from their husbands than before.
Women are also asserting their independence and when marriages do not work out to their
satisfaction, they are divorcing in higher numbers than ever before.
There is the current crisis with China as China seeks to exert its strength across Asia.
China today is Japan’s major trading partner and much of the future stability of its economy
depends on having good economic relations with Beijing. Pilling is correct when he notes that
Japan needs China more than China needs it, but unfortunately history gets in the way.
Memories of the horrors of World War II and Japan’s failure to fully acknowledge its sins of the
past do little to assuage the Chinese or Koreans.
Pilling gives us a very detailed look at the political and economic health of Japan. He is
at his best when analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of Japan’s economic system and the
politician who run the country. If you are looking for a book that gives you an in-depth view of
Japan in the early twenty-first century, you would be wise to start here. The book is very well
written and researched. It helps that Pilling as a major journalist working for one of the world’s
critically important newspapers knows many of the leading figures in Japanese life.
______________________
Kondo Masaomi, Alfred Deakin: A Scholar Politician Who Founded Australia.
Tokyo: Meiseki Shoten, 2013.
Reviewed by Kazuo Yagami
Alfred Deakin, a young and rising politician, played a major role to lead the movement for
setting up Australian Federation. In 1890s he took part in the conferences for those representing
the Australian colonies to write the constitution for the federation and made relentless effort to
have the government of the United Kingdom to accede the constitution. In 1903 Deakin was
elected as the second Prime Minister of Australia. Then, along with Labor Party’s Andrew Fisher,
he made a major contribution to set up the Commonwealth government of Australia. He also
successfully expanded the Australian High Court and established the Royal Australian Navy.
Then, to deal with the growing confrontation against Australian Labor Party, Deakin in 1909 set
up Commonwealth Liberty Party, also known as the Fusion, by integrating his Protectionist Party
with Joseph Cook’s Anti-Socialist Party. It was the party that later turned into today’s Liberal
Party of Australia. As this shining record of Deakin as a politician demonstrates, Deakin left his
legacy as one of the most decorated Founding Fathers of Australia.
Kondo Masaomi, a scholar in economics and a retired internationally renowned
interpreter, has produced the compelling biographical sketches of this highly recognized politician,
Alfred Deakin. While Kondo assembles his writing for depiction of Deakin as a politician in his
role for establishing Australian independence, he makes conscious effort to put heavy weight on
an illustration of Deakin’s saga as an individual who had to go through emotional and spiritual
struggles, particularly in his last stage as a politician in his agonizing battle against Perkins disease
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Book Reviews
to try to maintain effectiveness and dignity as a leading politician. It is in this effort, Konodo
shines, making his book especially tasteful and smooth to read.
Kondo targets the general public as audience for his book but at the same time put
emphasis on the Japanese. As he writes in the preface of his book, the Japanese has knowledge or
understanding about Australia almost next to none. So, while aiming an introduction of the life of
Alfred Deakin as the main theme, Kondo also wants his book to take a preliminary role about
Australia for the Japanese and has succeeded well. Through the life of Alfred Deakin, Kondo helps
the readers of his book to grasp a process of Australia turning into a nation as a welfare state with
solid economic achievement and then devoting his last chapter of book for portrait of Australia
since 1970, Kondo gives the readers a chance to have comprehensive image of Australia as a
modern nation.
What the Japanese readers may find most intriguing in the book is Deakin’s remark about
why Australia had to ban Japanese immigration to Australia. Deakin argued that the Japanese had
to be banned from immigration to Australia not because of their inferiority as race but rather their
superiority as highly civilized people with long history and high accomplishments that might be
threat to a newly established young nation of Australia.
This well-written and enlightening biography, Alfred Deakin: A Scholar Politician Who
Founded Australia, deserves high appraisal and recommendation to anyone who wishes to have
“quality” reading.
__________________
Robert K. Fitts, Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, and Assassination
during the 1934 Tour of Japan. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska
Press, 2012. 319 pages. 1
Reviewed by Daniel A. Métraux
Sports can often play an important “soft power” role in the relations between states. One
can argue that the current “Korean Wave” in Japan began with the 2002 World Cup, which Japan
and Korea co-hosted. I got a better sense of the calm in Taiwanese-Chinese relations when I
attended a World Baseball Classic game between the two countries in Tokyo in 2009. It was a
routine game and produced no tensions, with Taiwan emerging victorious. Both sides seemed to
enjoy the game and played excellently. A week later I attended a brilliantly played game between
Korean and Japanese all-stars that was won by Korea 1-0. Japanese and Korean spectators cheered
loudly for both teams and when Korea won, Japanese fans in the Tokyo Dome could be seen
warmly congratulating groups of Koreans in the crowd.
This was a visible sign that although tensions remained between the governments of Japan
and South Korea, relations on a popular level had improved. Baseball as “soft-power diplomacy”
1
Originally published in the 2013 edition of the SOUTHEAST REVIEW OF ASIAN STUDIES.
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is the topic of Banzai Babe Ruth, a fascinating new book by Robert K. Fitts. An archaeologist as
well as a Japanese baseball historian, Fitts is the author of two other fascinating works on baseball
in Japan, including a well-written 2008 biography of Wally Yonamine, the first JapaneseAmerican player to have a successful career in Japan. Banzai Babe Ruth details the November
1934 tour of Japan by an all-star team of American players that included Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig,
Jimmy Fox, future OSS secret agent Moe Berg, and aging manager Connie Mack. It was not the
first tour of Japan by American players, but it was the most significant because it included so many
legends.
The significance of this book lies not so much in what was even then a rather routine
baseball tour as in Fitts’ analysis of the growing tensions between Japan and the West that would
result in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor only seven years later. As these tensions mounted in
the 1920s and 1930s, many in Japan and the United States hoped that the tour would help remove
the barrier between the two nations. The American players obliged, playing very well and showing
maximum courtesy to their hosts and the Japanese ball players. Babe Ruth was an outstanding
cultural diplomat, willing to embrace the Japanese players, people, food, and drink. Connie Mack
later called the tour one of the greatest peace measures in the history of nations, but the good will
eventually wore off. Fitts notes sardonically that several of the Japanese players, including the star
pitcher Eiji Sawamura 沢村栄治 (1917–44), went on to serve in the Japanese army in World War
II and developed strong anti-American feelings. His pitching arm came in handy when hurling
grenades at American troops before his transport ship was sunk with no survivors by an American
submarine.
The tour would encourage the development of a professional baseball league in Japan.
The Americans played eighteen games against Japanese all-star teams and went home undefeated.
The American squad usually won by wide margins, but a couple of the games were close.
Sawamura pitched the best game against the American and had a no-hitter going through several
innings before the Americans broke through with a couple of hits and runs to win a thriller. Fitts
notes that the Japanese improved greatly over the course of the tour and that several of the Japanese
players, including Sawamura, emerged as strong Japanese ball players later in the 1930s as
professional baseball grew in popularity in Japan.
Moe Berg, a journeyman catcher for the Cleveland Indians, emerges as one of the most
interesting characters in this tale. Berg was a brilliant scholar: a graduate of Princeton and
Columbia Law School who spoke twelve languages including fluent Japanese. Fitts writes that
Berg was an odd pick. He could speak many languages, but could not hit in any of them. Even so,
his knowledge of Japanese, his deep respect for the Japanese, and his previous experience in Japan
helped the Americans make meaningful contact with the Japanese. Berg became a very important
OSS agent in Europe during World War II and there has been speculation that Berg made the trip
to Japan as a secret agent charged with photographing sensitive areas. Berg did indeed take many
photos and made lengthy videos of the Tokyo sky line from tall buildings like St. Luke’s hospital,
buildings, but Fitts demonstrates that Berg was not a government agent.
Fitts does a very good job of reconstructing the socio-political climate of Japan during the
1930s, depicting the political tensions both within Japan and between Japan and the West. We see
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the growing wave of nationalism in Japan’s military and political circles at the time as well as its
strong military and commercial presence in China, Korea, and Taiwan. But the warm response by
average Japanese to the American baseball tour makes one wonder if there was a disconnection
between Japanese political and military leaders and the average Japanese citizen. The tour
generated plenty of good will, but later in the 1930s relations began to sour once more. Pearl
Harbor was the result.
Fitt’s book does get occasionally bogged down with elongated descriptions of some games,
but overall it is interesting, well written and carefully researched.
____________________
Earle Labor, Jack London: An American Life. New York: Farrar, Strauss and
Giroux, 2013.
Reviewed by Daniel A. Métraux
A few years ago my daughter Katie Metraux, who does historic preservation work and
other related activities for the California State Park Service, told me about the work she and
several colleagues were doing to restore Jack London’s home in Glen Ellen, California. I had
always been rather curious about this incredibly productive author and socialist who died at age
40in 1916 at his home, but when I went there for a visit with Katie in 2009, I got one of the
biggest surprises of my life. I saw a large portrait of London standing with Japanese military
officers checking his travel documents in Korea in 1904 at the start of the Russo-Japanese War.
Japanese history is my passion and main field of study, so I exclaimed, “What the Hell was
London doing there?” Well, it turns out that London was no stranger to Japan, Korea or China.
At age 17 in 1893 he had signed on as a sailor on a sealing vessel that traveled to the coastal
waters of Siberia in search of profitable seal skins. His ship docked at Japanese ports on the way
to and from the seal killing grounds and London used his few weeks in Japan to explore and
learn as much as he could about Japan. He took up writing short stories soon after his return to
California and it is hardly surprising that several of his early tales were written about Japanese
topics. Later in 1904, when London had become one of the most widely read authors in the
United States, the Hearst newspapers set him to Japan, Korea and China to cover the RussoJapanese War (1904-1905). He spent more than 4 months chasing the Japanese army through
Korea into Manchuria.
During and after his time in Korea and Manchuria, London developed a complicated
thesis in his 1904 essay, "The Yellow Peril," envisaging the rise first of Japan and then China in
opposition as major twentieth century economic and industrial powers. London's starting point
was his suspicion the days of Western power were over and that the 20th century would see the
rise first of Japan and then China as world economic powers. He was one of the first to conceive
of the idea of the Pacific Rim. London stated that Japan's imperial appetite exceeded its
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swallowing of Korea in the Russo-Japanese War. He anticipated that Tokyo would eventually
take over Manchuria and then attempt to seize control of China in the attempt to use China’s vast
land, resources and labor for its own benefit.
London knew that Japan’s strength at the turn of the twentieth century lay in its ability to
use Western technology and its national unity. London and some other contemporary writers, as
well as many politically attuned Asians recognized that Japan’s defeat of Russia was a turning
point in a history of Asian subjugation to white imperial powers. Japan’s victory called into
question as no previous event the innate superiority of the white race. However, London
believed that there were severe limits on Japan’s ability to become a leading world power.
However impressive its initial gains, Tokyo would falter from lack of "staying power." One
reason was that it was too small. Although it had humbled Russian forces, London believed that
it was not sufficiently powerful to create a massive Asian empire, still less to militarily or
economically threaten the West. Seizing “poor, empty Korea for a breeding colony and
Manchuria for a granary” would greatly enhance Japan’s population and strength -- but that was
not enough to challenge the great powers.
Although aroused, China's vast potential at that time was hindered. Its leaders hung
tenaciously to the past. Clinging to power and tradition, they refuse to modernize and so China's
fate is uncertain. London does not tell the reader who will prevail. However, in his 1906 short
story, “The Unparalleled Invasion,” London develops the theme of China's rise. The Japanese are
expelled from China and are crushed when they try to reassert themselves there. China then
becomes a major power after a socialist revolution there overthrows the old order.
Writing a century ago, London warned that the imperial West, blissfully ignorant of what
awaited it, was living in a bubble. The shift of power to Asia was the prick that would burst it.
The transition would be peaceful because Asia’s rise was primarily economic, but eventually war
between East and West was inevitable because China challenged the economic might of the
West. Although critics have read different messages into the story, the clear irony is that the
West is the paranoid aggressor. It is a White Peril and China is the innocent victim.
But “contrary to expectation, China did not prove warlike [so] after a time of disquietude, the
idea was accepted that China was not to be feared in war, but in commerce.” The West would
come to understand that the “real danger” from China “lay in the fecundity of her loins.” As the
20th century advances, the story depicts Chinese immigrants swarming into French Indochina
and later into Southwest Asia and Russia, seizing territory. Western attempts to slow or stem the
Chinese tide all fail. By 1975 it appears that this onslaught will overwhelm the world. With
despair mounting, an American scientist, Jacobus Laningdale, visits the White House to propose
eradicating the entire Chinese population. He aims to drop deadly plagues from Allied airships
over China. In May, 1976, the bombers appear over China and release a torrent of glass
tubes.7 At first nothing happens, and then an inferno of plagues gradually wipes out the entire
population. Allied armies surround China and all Chinese die.
London’s understanding of and deep appreciation for Asians and Asia was remarkable for
his time. He had a brilliant mind and was fascinated with many topics which give such a broad
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diversity in his writing. London’s life itself was an adventure and he often brought his
experiences into his writing. He was a fine novelist and short-story teller, but his articles
about Korea and Koreans and other peoples of the Pacific demonstrate his skill as an essayist
and ethnographer. My favorite London book is his People of the Abyss, a study of the tragic
lives of the residents of London’s East End. It is a devastating portrait of poverty and
desperation in the wealthiest city in the world less than a mile from the opulence of Buckingham
Palace
Earle Labor has produced the most comprehensive and best researched biography of Jack
London to date. His hero is one of the most difficult lives to chronicle because London led so
many different lives, sometimes at once. Before he was 21 he was an oyster pirate in San
Francisco Bay, a 14-year-old alcoholic, deck hand on a sealing expedition to Japan and Siberia, a
hobo train-hopping across the country, an active socialist speaker and writer, and a gold prospector
in the Klondike. He later produced 50 novels, many more short stories, covered two wars as a highly
appreciated journalist, and made two unsuccessful runs as the socialist candidate for mayor of
Oakland, California. The result is that each segment of London’s life could fill several hundred
pages, but Professor Labor limits himself to 480 pages. Thus the full extent of London’s work in
East Asia and his uncanny ability to see the future rise of Japan and China receives short shrift.
Earl Labor is a skilled researcher and energetic and clear writer, much like his hero.
Anybody desiring to learn more about the life of London would do well to read this marvelous
biography.
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