The Truth About Death and Dying

by Rui Umezawa

“ Yasu was simply crazy. But no crazier than the rest of the war.”Rui Umezawa’s first novel weaves in and out of the lives of three generations of the Hayakawa family, starting during World War II in Japan and ending in present-day Toronto. The story is tragic, hilarious, lyrical and universal, tracing the legacy of war and the past on one family’s fortunes and memories. Film director Atom Egoyan “This ambitious debut creates a dense world of overlapping events -- from the smallest details of domestic life to the grandest scale of atrocity and horror. Rui Umezawa presents this unique world of cause and effect with a carefully harnessed sense of despair, yearning and beauty.”Maimed physically and emotionally, Shoji Hayakawa leaves the devastation of post-war Japan and moves to the University of Milwaukee to teach physics. His father, Yasujiro, was the doctor in the village of Kitagawa, and an outspoken pacifist in dangerous times. Shoji and his wife Mitsuyo still recall their wartime bartering for food, evacuation to the countryside, returning to the burnt remains of the cities. Transplanted into suburban America, Mitsuyo’s mother will watch life through the windows, marvelling at how absurdly people act even when they have everything they food, water, clothes, and no bombs.Shoji has two sons, Toshi and Kei. Toshi is a gentle boy but sees the world with an abnormal intensity. Objects seem to speak to him. He has to lock himself in a closet to concentrate on his homework, and lies face down in the school corridor with his forehead pressed against the cool linoleum to calm himself. Exuberant but noisy, he is stopped from taking piano lessons. He is an embarrassment to his mother and to his angry brother Kei, who leaves for Canada to build a career as a rock musician. Mitsuyo, so demanding of Kei, considers Toshi insane and never expects anything of him. Yet Toshi, full of imagination, finds humour and wonder in the world.Quill and Quire called The Truth About Death and Dying an extraordinary first novel that “falls somewhere between Thomas Wolfe and Monty Python.” The absurd sense of humour, the unforgettably comic scenes -- such as Yasu emerging naked from the bathroom clutching mushrooms, or dancing in the bomb shelter -- are inextricably entwined with tragic memories. With the dark shadows of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as Pearl Harbor always present, this novel examines how our sense of what is normal and what is crazy can be skewed, especially in times of war.Of the passages that take place in wartime Japan, the author says they “owe most of their details to what was told to me by my parents, and to Japanese movies and comic books set during World War II. I grew up with stories of the war and pacifism, both at home and in the Japanese media. My father was never conscripted to fight, because he excelled so much at science and the government felt he would be more useful in a lab than on a battlefield…. My father would often recount, however, having to run and take shelter from bombs while going to university in Nagoya. For the rest of his life, he refused to watch war movies, because the whistling sound of bombs falling frightened him terribly.”“When I think about Japan in relation to the Second World War, more often then not, I’m remembering people who were treated like animals in Japanese POW camps. Or the Chinese who suffered tremendously at the hands of the Japanese military in places like Nanjing or Manchuria…. However, one of the things I think the book illustrates is Japanese wartime atrocities were unforgivable, but at the same time, Japanese civilians like my father were suffering too.”From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Fiction, Canada, Japan

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Kerfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a WOW book. Just wow.

The narrative follows an extended Japanese family from WWII in Japan to an uneasy settlement in North America. They were refugees and outsiders in Japan, and continue to fail to integrate after coming to the United States. No one in this family is ever comfortable in their skin.

The people that move in and out of their lives are also misfits, despite the veneer some display of belonging. And yet strong bonds and emotional ties occasionally manage to reach across the impossibilities of connection. Small miracles floating in oceans of despair.

One of the blurbs on the back of the book describes Umezawa's writing as both "exquisite" and "poignant". I can't come up with any better words.

[Benjamin Kahn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes I read other reviews before I write to help put my thoughts in order. That didn't help this time, as there are only three reviews and two didn't really say anything. I thought it was a very good book, but I had problems connecting with it initially. As the book went on, I found myself more invested in the stories and the characters, but couldn't really relate or even really like any of the characters. There is a lot of tragedy in this book - everybody has an unhappy ending. Nobody is ever really happy.

Somehow, I didn't find it depressing despite that. Perhaps because I didn't really relate to the characters, I was able to be dispassionate about their fates. Instead, I just looked on with interest and things collapsed around them. I think this book probably deserves a better rating than I gave it, but for me, it was a three.

[Camila · Rating 4 out of 5]

A surprisingly poignant and impactful read. It covers interesting themes in a familiar yet unique way, and it really goes in-depth in unpacking generational trauma, post-war family dynamics, and - of course - death and dying. Although the characters weren't totally relatable, they were so interesting, and despite the bleakness of the story, there was a surprising amount of odd humour that I just fell in love with. Overall, a super solid debut, but could use some further editing.

[Ldw39 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took a while to find my rhythm with this book but once I did I loved it. It’s ebb and flow in time and the compelling if tragic story lines make for an engrossing read as mi g as you’re not put off by slooowly unravelled plot lines.

[Dan Bergen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the very first book written by Rui Umezawa, a writer whom I have become friends with, we recently had lunch together in Toronto. Rui was born in Tokyo but has lived in Cansda for many years. Although this is a work of fiction, it is the story of a Japanese family who left post-war Japan and immigrated to first Milwaukee and later Toronto. The story tackles all the emotions related to adjusting to a new culture as well as some very tragic family dynamics. Highly recommended!

[Clare]

Haven't read this yet; it's a recommendation and a gift from Lily, a friend in Canada

[Charu Puri]

Good to read the works of a Canadian author who also lives in the same province as me. That was the interest for me. Not a bad read. I was able to be involved with the main characters.