Want your book to be considered DEEP by default? Set it in Japan.Bonus points if you don’t use contractions, don’t let the characters interact or even speak much, and change scene every four sentences, even if nothing is happening. And if you happen to know what Wikipedia is, you can write a historical novel!This is one of those books. In addition to the stuff listed above, the plot doesn’t make much sense. So there is a family of noh actors – or actor, his wife and daughter – living in a social vacuum so absolute that they accept a mask carver, who appeared from nowhere – literally nowhere, a forest where he was trained by a monk named Tamashii (“Soul” – talk about cheesy names) – so they accept this absolute stranger and give him the daughter. Why? Do they live in the wilderness? Is there a dearth of young guys there? Hell no, it’s the long-suffering Kyoto! But you see, the dad accepts the guy because he recognized his great talent:“Grandfather knew this carver was empowered with a gift far greater than even his own acting ability. He pondered the young man before him and then found his concentration shifting to his daughter. With no heir to carry on the Yamamoto name, he marveled at the idea of a possible family union.” [The young guy has no family to speak of, by the way.]Then the mask carver sort of shows his son – the eponymous hero of the novel – that he’s disappointed because the son didn’t follow in his footsteps, but became a painter instead. This is, I think, the focus of the story. The whole situation is not even remotely Japanese.There is also a lame subplot featuring poisonous plums – I didn’t understand it at all, underripe plums lethal? really? – obviously it is there for the plot to work, that is, to make characters suffer. This passive, nonsensical suffering seems to replace character development in DEEP books like this one. A family member or a lover dies or is otherwise removed from the plot, and nothing much happens beside that, but it sets the tone; the main character decides that there’s no joy left in this world and acts accordingly, mainly by ignoring everyone else or holding them in contempt. He or she will, however, randomly notice the beauty of nature.Despite the Meiji-period setting, it’s a stiff version of modern Japan. The lack of detail and faulty research was nearly unbearable for me. I kept picturing these characters in cramped 1 LDK Japanese apartments:“Well, I am not sure of your schedule, but next Thursday my wife Chieko is planning to teach our daughter to prepare chawanmushi. Should you have the time, we would be delighted to have you join us.”This is not even Meiji, it’s Edo period. The guy speaking is a noh patriarch, who should have a huge household with lots of servants, family, and pupils, and barely be aware that his womenfolk exist. He’s talking to a young man he’s never seen before, a man who has no family and no past, offering to show him his marriageable daughter, mentioning his wife’s name. It’s also painfully obvious that the author has never seen a traditional Japanese kitchen. But scratch this – a few pages later the reader is treated to a depiction of a ceremonial o-miai introduction. I guess they couldn’t get the eggs for the chawanmushi.There are a lot of eye-rolling anachronisms, stereotypes, and outright blunders. There are slippers, there are tables. There is old, tired stuff about women’s neck being oh so erotic. People ride in carriages to a shrine for a Shinto marriage ceremony. Women constantly take down their hair. Wooden houses are heated throughout the night by charcoal braziers – this one is really maddening. The hero’s mother, the young woman of the chawanmushi, is of course an artist herself and goes alone to paint her favorite mountain or something, and stays there till dusk (her dad complains that “she should be concentrating more on her tea ceremony than on those ink drawings” – hahaha!), because, wait for it, her son had to inherit her talent! Tokyo is this horribly modern place:“All around Tokyo, from the elaborate construction of the Kabuki Theater in the Ginza to the Ministry of Justice Building in Kasumigaseki, Japanese architecture could no longer be distinguished from the structures of Europe. [Kabuki-za is a really bad example of this, since it was rebuilt in a distinctively Japanese style.] It seemed as though Greek Revival and Italian Renaissance had replaced wood and shoji. [is shoji another building material, like wood?] I would soon grow accustomed to seeing my reflection in the pane of leaded glass, no longer my silhouette on rice paper.”It’s also smelly: “I recalled my first smells of Tokyo: the rank stench of the fermenting natto, the heavy grease frying the tempura, and the fish skins roasting on the fire.” LIKE KYOTO SMELLED DIFFERENTLYBy the way, I wonder what kimono exactly looks like, because: “In a kimono one can hide nothing, and so it was easy to see the line of his skeleton, the curve of his back, and the sinews of his muscles.”“The melody of the Japanese, however, was continually broken by a strange word – impureshunisumu. Takada could not discern whether it was a French word or just a word that he was unfamiliar with in his own language. He soon realized that the word impureshunisumu was in fact the word “Impressionism” converted into a Japanese word.” – This is a reminder that not all foreign concepts in Japanese language are loanwords. Impressionism is 印象主義, inshōshugi, or 印象派, inshōha.There is one more thing, and it's sort of big. There is a lot about noh theatre, but in that time noh was called sarugaku – not noh.And of course Meiji Restoration was evil, evil, evil. Good people were traditionalists, bad people valued progress and Westernization. I’ve had enough of this cheap, ignorant, pedestrian, simplistic concept. It’s ubiquitous in historical books about Japan. It needs to die a painful death.I’m tired.But you know what, it’s still not the worst book about Japan I’ve read. That would be “The Painting” by Nina Schuyler. I finished it about a month ago. I’m still licking my wounds. Review to come.
The Mask Carver's Son by Alyson Richman. This takes place in the turn of the 1900's century starting in a very beautiful rural area and continues that way for a long time including the character and traditions of the area, so different from the big city. It starts with a full breadth with emphasis on the emotional background of the mask carver himself and the events and experiences that went along with it. Then it follows through with his very traditionally based marriage, the family life and the emphasis both on the mask carver's devotion to his art and that his son should follow in those footsteps as it is considered that family loyalty is one of the ways this is expressed, and there is little deviation. This theme appears several times in the book with different characters and it is never a happy decision. The book is more written through the son's eyes and goes on his own course which is more like his mother's painting joys and it takes him first to Tokyo, then to France. At this time another regime and way of thinking is taking over in Japan and it is not kind to some of the old traditions. There is some thought of great posthumous recognition, but the question is brought up that is the loneliness and hardness of such a life worth it? No answer is given. It's a deep book, well written. But it is not a happy book, and the question of the degree of value of the individual is never far from the surface.
What do You think about The Mask Carver's Son (2013)?
I just read another sad story.... I need to find a wonderful chic book to pull me up. This was a well-written book by Alyson Richman (she also wrote "The Lost WIfe"), but the story is so sad. Richman has a very pleasant way of writing. Her words just flow along the pages telling her story in such a soft, quiet way. This book is about Kiyoki (name means pure wood), the son of a famous Noh mask carver. In the Noh theatre, tradition is that the son will fall into the same line of work as the father. Kiyoki has other dreams, though; to be a Western style painter, and follows his dream to Paris where he experiences freedoms he has never had. He sacrifices his family for this, along with love to pursue his dream. The story takes place at the turn of the century and was inspired from real life stories. It was very interesting learning what Japan and Paris were like at this time.
—Lisa
This is about a young man who is expected to grow up to be a mask carver, but he wishes to paint. It is his journey to be himself and break from his traditions and his culture, and the expectations of his family. This is a story of love and loss and struggle of one man to be what he wants to be. He finds it difficult to fit in France and in his homeland Japan. He follows his own dream and as many artists is not recognized or seen as a success until after his death.I found this to be an enlightening book about the Japanese theater and the carving of the masks. I think it is interesting that during this time period the artists were to copy the styles of their masters and not be creative or inventive. The book has a good story line and is well written and thought out. I give this book a 4.5 out of 5.
—Patty Mccormick
I won this in a Goodreads Giveaway. It is a very well written character study told through beautiful language. The story of an artist trying to break free from the strict conventions and traditions of his culture, not to mention strong family ties to the legendary Japanese Noh theater, it is a novel of heartbreaking sacrifice. It is told by the artist as an old man reflecting on the time in his life when, as a young man, he was desperate not to become imprisoned by his family legacy, as his father had been, never allowing himself to love anyone deeply, only living for his art. Alyson Richman obviously bases her tale on extensive research and her rich imagery mirrors the art that plays such an important part in the narrator's life. I enjoyed reading this, but it is not for the action fan.
—P
