Watching SOUTH PACIFIC the other evening got me in the mood to return to one of my favorite authors. James A. Michener is probably best-known for his multi-generational sagas such as HAWAII, THE SOURCE, and CENTENNIAL, but he also wrote a number of shorter works in the 1950s, before the blockbusters, when he was best-known as the author of TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC - SAYONARA is one of those works, a poignant novel about the changes in American-Asian relations after World War Two and Korea. From some of the comments I've read here it's obvious that readers only familiar with his later panoramic epics find this book somewhat disappointing.8/22/10: In U.S.-occupied Japan following WWII, thousands of American military men fell in love with Japanese women, but restrictions at the time prohibited them from bringing their wives back to the U.S. if they were shipped home. As with so many aspects of life back then, it's hard to believe that people treated each other so shabbily; but just open your newspaper or turn on the news and you'll see that we're still doing so, and much worse.Michener does a great job of describing post-war Japan, everything from the crowded streets to the cherry blossoms and a bar that's so small there's only room for four customers and two hostesses! He also does a fine job of illustrating the disdain and suspicion with which Japanese women were regarded at this time, all through the eyes of Lloyd Gruver, who is transformed by his love for the dancer/actress Hana-ogi.SAYONARA does not end happily - of the two couples the novel focuses on, one parts forever, and the other commits hara-kiri rather than be parted (the actors who played these roles in the film, Red Buttons and Miyoshi Umeki, won Supporting Oscars for their performances, but there were obviously changes from page to screen, as the Buttons character is all of 19 years old in the novel). Gruver, for all that he has seen and experienced, will return to his military life and marry the nice American girl he was supposed to all along. But we know that he'll never really be happy (the film version has a different ending).Michener's own Japanese-American love story had a happier ending - he met Mari Yoriko Sabusawa - an American-born Japanese who had been interned during World War Two - at a luncheon in 1954 and married her in 1955 - they remained a devoted couple until her death in 1994, which left Michener devastated.
Ohhhh, it sez "forbidden love" on the cover, I'm all for that!!! Awww, it's just a little interracial action. The Korean War is on, and the Ugly American is overrunning Japan. Air Force flying ace Lloyd Gruver is pretty disgusted by the way his fellow servicemen are fraternizing with the former enemy and even, ugh, marrying Japanese girls. Then he sees a stage performance by Hana-ogi, an actress who specializes in playing male roles, and he falls immediately hopelessly obsessively in love (I'll leave the psychosexual ramifications of that for someone else to ponder). Hana-ogi wants nothing to do with him, but Lloyd Lloyd all null and void confronts her with a truth that she cannot avoid, Lloyd. He will not be refused. In the '50s, they called this love at first sight. Today, we call it stalking. Persistence pays off for Lloyd. Without so much as a single conversation in a common language, the happy couple move in together, and Lloyd learns the important lesson that Japanese people are just as good as Americans despite their wacky heathen customs. "Sayonara" was written in the '50s, and it might have been daring and controversial stuff when World War II was fresh in readers' memories, but it has aged horribly. Michener's condescending and smugly superior attitude toward Asian culture is gratingly ignorant, and he perpetuates stereotypes while preaching tolerance. The Japanese women are praised for being so docile and demure and subservient. "Golden" and "yellow" are Michener's favorite go-to adjectives, and there's this tender bit of loveplay: "She caught me in her arms and cried, 'Oh, Rroyd, I rub you berry sweet.' I was unprepared both for her emotion and her pronunciation and for one dreadful moment I almost laughed and then I looked down at her dear sweet slanted eyes and saw that they were filled with tears." Yea, he's a roid, all right. Maybe I should cut Michener some slack. I'm sure his intentions were good, and he's not alone in literature's long history of clueless/racist portraits. But even if it had been properly sensitive, "Sayonara" would be a lousy and dated novel. The only reasons I finished it were that it's short and I wanted to see how it compared with the movie (Marlon Brando looks sleepy and vaguely irritated to be starring in it).
What do You think about Sayonara (1983)?
Good quick story. Not the sprawling epic you expect with Michener, but more like one of the chapters in his books. Felt a little dated (might have been because the 1957 published version was literally coming to pieces in my hands). But at the same time, the datedness might just be because the social issues that the book was concerned with are so antiquated by today's standards. 71 years from Pearl Harbor, the anti-Japanese sentiment in the US is virtually non-existent. In that way, its a nice snapshot into a moment in time, the same manner as Madame Bovary looks at provincial life in 1840's France. That might make this fairly unique from a Michener standpoint. Most of his work is historical in nature, with his research dictating the customs and social life of a place a thousand years ago, 300 years ago, etc. With this, there's more of a "lived-it" feel. While its history to me in 2012, it was contemporary when written. The only Michener I've read that was like that was South Pacific, which had more of chummy feel (although I think Recessional might take on the same characteristics - haven't rad it you to confirm). Anyway, good quick read. Blew through it in 2 days. If you like Michener, your solid here. If you only like the sprawling historical epics, I think you are still good. No idea where this one came from. I've had it for a while and I'm pretty sure I picked it up in a dollar bin somewhere.
—Steve
I'm conflicted when it comes to rating this book, which is a confronting tale of sexism and racism and it pissed me off at regular intervals. But because it was written in 1954, I've no doubt it's an accurate reflection of post-war Western attitudes. I'd never before considered the plight of all of those American soldiers (I think about 100 thousand of them?) who fell in love with Japanese women sometime between the ending of world war II and being sent home. The soldiers were allowed to marry Japanese women, but they were forbidden to take their brides back home to America. This story is set in that period. I did like the writing style, which was to-the-point, not at all embellished and not at all the saccharine love story this cover art suggests. (My browned, second-hand copy depicts a naked Japanese woman sitting in seiza position.) I like neither of those covers -- this was a story in which the young *men* are seen 'naked' (in a metaphorical sense) yet publishers waste no opportunity to distribute covers with naked young women on them, or Mill and Boon type stuff. I have reimagined this cover with the far more foreboding atmosphere it deserves.The problem with the first person point of view, in which the narrator's attitudes go unchallenged in a hands-off, documentary kind of way, is that this sort of story might well be reinforcing an outdated and harmful set of ideas about Asian women if read by the wrong people. But then, that could be true of any book.
—Lynley
This is only the second Michener book I have read, the first being Caravans, but if it had been the first book by Michener I had read, I don't think I would have picked up another by him or recommended him to anyone else. I wasn't that impressed with the story, I felt that the characters were unlikable and the story wasn't very compelling or heart-rending given the circumstances. I was unsympathetic to Lloyd and Hana-ogi's plight and didn't really care what happened to them.I'm glad I read Caravans first because even though I didn't care for Sayonara I'm still willing to try other Michener books based on the enjoyment I experienced reading Caravans.
—Kimberly
