Country of Origin

by Don Lee

Lisa Countryman is a woman of complex origins. Half-Japanese, adopted by African American parents, she returns to Tokyo, ostensibly to research her thesis on Japan's "sad, brutal reign of conformity." When she vanishes, Tom Hurley, who is half-Korean and half-white, is assigned to her case at the American embassy, as is local cop Kenzo Ota, who is 100 percent Japanese but deemed an outsider.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Japan, Crime, Asian Literature, Race, Asia

315 pages, Paperback

First published April 17, 2004

About the author

Don Lee is the author most recently of the novel Lonesome Lies Before Us. He is also the author of the novel The Collective, which won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature from the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association; the novel Wrack and Ruin, which was a finalist for the Thurber Prize; the novel Country of Origin, which won an American Book Award, the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, and a Mixed Media Watch Image Award for Outstanding Fiction; and the story collection Yellow, which won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Members Choice Award from the Asian American Writers' Workshop. All of his books have been published by W. W. Norton.

He has received an O. Henry Award and a Pushcart Prize, and his stories have been published in The Southern Review, The Kenyon Review, GQ, The North American Review, The Gettysburg Review, Manoa, American Short Fiction, Glimmer Train, Charlie Chan Is Dead 2, Screaming Monkeys, Narrative, and elsewhere. He has received fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the St. Botolph Club Foundation, and residencies from Yaddo and the Lannan Foundation. In 2007, he received the inaugural Fred R. Brown Literary Award for emerging novelists from the University of Pittsburgh's creative writing program.

From 1988 to 2007, he was the principal editor of the literary journal Ploughshares. He is currently a professor in Temple University's M.F.A. program in creative writing in Philadelphia. He is a third-generation Korean American.

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a wonderfully written literary thriller by a Korean-American author. He seems to come at it from the world of literary, as opposed to genre, writing. This definitely straddles the line between mystery and literature, and altho it contains elements of both, it ends up being an original and difficult-to-categorize creation. There is virtually no violence or crime, but the plot turns on a young woman's disappearance and the efforts of a detective to track her down. It is too full of unusual characters, humor, and social observation to be a typical mystery, and it is too addictive and enjoyable to be a ponderous work of literature. It works also as a discussion of race and identity, since most of the main characters come from some sort of mixed background, whether culturally or racially, and find themselves in a land in which this is not a prized quality.

Country of Origin most certainly is a novel of Japanese life from an outsider's perspective, and the picture it paints is not very flattering. Here is a Japan that is colorful, bizarre, and eccentric, a world of sex clubs, quirky cultural simulacrums, awkward, chauvinistic men, and manipulative women. There are cafes where the waitresses do not wear panties, odd love hotels, huge fake indoor beaches with rolling waves, and quiet, super-expensive little restaurants. It is a world that is both stuffily traditional and openly hedonistic. Lee sets his story in 1981, perhaps in part to parry any assertion that it is supposed to represent the Japan of the 2000s, but it is hard to miss this author's strong feelings about and fascination with the country.

The plot concerns the intrigues of a number of characters, mostly centered around the U.S. embassy. A young woman named Lisa Countryman has disappeared, and her sister has contacted the authorities and urged them to look for her. A callow, amoral young Korean-American Foreign Service officer named Tom Hurley begins looking into it, and on the Japanese side, a shy, dorky police detective named Kenzo Ota is assigned the case. I very much liked the structure of the novel, as it then begins to skip back and forth between the past (Lisa's misadventures) and the present (the investigation into her disappearance, and the personal lives of Hurley and Ota). The book is packed with noir-ready, bitchy female characters - sexy, smart-mouthed babes who are more than willing to cause a little trouble. The unpleasant character of Lisa is portrayed with a fair amount of sympathy and exploration of her past.

Tom gets into a very steamy affair with Julia Tinsley, the sharp-tongued wife of a Japanese-American undercover CIA officer. To say that this move is ill-advised is a massive understatement, but Tom goes all out and falls madly in love. Detective Ota gets involved with Miss Saotome, a young woman who is his landlady, but he is so clueless about women and romance that their friendship and courtship are mostly comical. He enlists her support in researching the world of sex clubs, mistakenly thinking that she is a sex worker of some kind. Much of the story is told with both a dry wit and a dash of sentiment that is ultimately very appealing. The ending is both realistic and surprising. This was a very enjoyable and intriguing book (as well as an enjoyable book of intrigue). Give it a try.

[Rebekah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the writing style in this book, and the vivid descriptions of buildings and social gatherings I've never seen. However it fell into some patriarchal tropes that really hampered my enjoyment of the story itself. Both male characters stalk female characters at some point in the story, which appears to be considered culturally normative. The female protagonist is not actually in most of the story at all, so much of what you learn about her is through a male lens.

The examination of identity is really wonderful, but I won't be recommending this book to many people.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, so, so deliciously good.

[Kkraemer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like many, Lisa Countryman believes that who she is can be discovered through things that were true before she was born: her ancestors' histories, for example, their countries of origin...maybe even their experiences. She believes that these are far more salient to her identity than her own childhood, family, friends, or experiences.

So she takes a break from her doctoral studies at Cal to go to Japan to teach English, a job she's marginally interested in, but which would provide her, hopefully, with a chance to find the mother she's never met. She wears her Japanese mother on her face, with its exotic and beautiful lines, and finding her mother, she hopes, will lead her to her father, a Black American who's completely unknown to her.

Her own adoptive family, her responses to always being an "outsider," her ever-lightening skin tone, her academic prowess..all irrelevant, she thinks

Her journey leads her to a deep understanding of both Japanese and international diplomatic culture, and what she discovers makes the book utterly fascinating, in a sort of cultural anthropological way.

The book is also written as a double mystery: Lisa's search for her mother and both an embassy and a police search for her, after her utter and complete disappearance.

Whether you're interested in ancestry, Japanese culture, and/or mysteries, this is a riveting read.

[Ric · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took Creative Writing from Don at Emerson College roughly a thousand years ago. But this is the first time I have sat down with a large sample of his prose.
This was excellent. Some really deft texture to the writing and a full understanding of all the characters. Both their strengths and their flaws were handled with care. Each character, like every person, is a complicated mix of races, cultures, and influences, and Don reveals each slowly through their interactions, settings, and dialog. I also appreciated the insights into Asian cultures and how they mixed together both historically, and within the context of world events in the 80's.

That the book is also a mystery story was almost an afterthought. It mostly served as the vehicle for the writing and the interplay of the characters. But it is a mystery in the end, and the book had to give the reader the conclusion to that aspect. Honestly it was something of a let down in that regard in the end. The other thing that got to me was all the Japanese and Korean. Sometimes we'd get a translation, and sometimes not. It was fine, and added a lot, but it just got to be a bit much for me.

[Blaire Mulcahy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I had a good time reading this novel! I found the approach to the overlapping storylines well thought out, and was pleasantly surprised by certain twists and turns. I recommend picking this book up if you want a fast/vacation read, or if you are someone that has a soft spot for stories that involve unrequited romance, mystery, and self discovery/some sort of association to adoption.
I can’t say that anything about Don Lee’s story was particularly amazing or inspiring, however I really appreciated the aim for authenticity (of 1980’s Japan) to the different areas/categories of sex work and the nuances that occurs within. As an Anthropologist myself, it was reassuring to read a novel that had so much thought and care put into the industry.

[Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don Lee always enlarges my understanding of the world and the people in it. Here he is particularly instructive about the Japanese character and it’s love for pretend experience and intolerance of deviation. Weird. In the guise of a detective story, with a real detective, Lee explores identity through characters of various and mixed ethnicity. As always he writes in a straightforward style as if he were narrating biography. I don’t know why he isn’t the most acclaimed novelist of our time. He always moves me.

[Hannah B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ticks every conceivable box: beautiful writing; fascinating characters and setting; compelling plot (I had to force myself to put it down on the few occasions that I did); scintillating dialog; acute observations about money, race, family, politics, and culture. Plus, it's funny as hell. I don't know why this book isn't held up as a classic thriller! Or maybe it is, and I've been living under a rock? I stumbled upon it by accident, and now I'm going to have to press it upon everyone I know.

[Scarlett Hester · Rating 5 out of 5]

I genuinely enjoyed this book. I was a bit surprised because I had tried reading another book by Don Lee and couldn't quite get into it. This book however is very compelling. Lee does an excellent job of intertwining three narratives in a captivating and unexpected way. The overall plot is a bit tragic, but not in a self-indulgent way.

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is mostly populated with people of mixed race and mixed country of origin. It takes place in Tokyo with multiple characters in multiple circumstances that eventually weave together. The book begins with the death of Lisa Countryman and then with flashbacks and a continuing story line, all is revealed. Well done. Recommended.

[HARRY Cullen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Race issues in an Asian environment, couldn't put it down

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book because it was located on the library shelf next to Le Carre's "A Murder of Quality," and because I remembered reading something praiseworthy about it several years ago when it was first published. I'm not sure I'd recommend it very highly, however; and I certainly wouldn't recommend it to everyone, especially young readers.

"Country of Origin" is a thinly veiled examination of race, ethnicity and nationalism in an age where heterogeneity and tolerance are widely advocated yet seldom practiced, especially in societies long structured on racial allegiances and the law of homogeneity. The story follows three intersecting plotlines involving three searches for identify--one by a US citizen of mixed race seeking her birth mother, one by an ambitious but less than brilliant Japanese policeman assigned to investigate her disappearance, and another by a low ranking US consulate employee whose mixed-race background and non-committal ethics symbolically bridge the gap between the two other protagonists, whose heterotopic moral landscape is marked out by inherited but religiously empty Judeo-Christian notions of right and wrong at odds with amoral Oriental concepts of honor and shame.

The narrative shifts back and forth in time--sometimes successfully, sometimes not (as when the missing woman's fate is revealed so early in the novel that we do not yet care enough about her for it to matter much). The book is also more pre-occupied with investigating modern Japan than the destiny of its principal protagonist. Ironically, what the book reveals about Japanese society is ultimately much more compelling and interesting (though at times, pretty sordid) than are any of the characters--and it is not a pretty picture.

The author (longtime editor of "Ploughshares") clearly knows the culture and issues on which he focuses his lens, but his writing reads too much like that of a literature professor trying stringently to follow the rules of fine fiction while making good use of his anthropological research. He also delights a bit too much on the idiosyncratic behavior and sexual oddities of his various characters. "Country of Origin" isn't a bad book, by any means, but it's not great literature.

[Yeribel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quotes:

“When people presumed to ask, “What are you?” they discounted black, they didn’t want to believe black, because black was too threatening, too uncomfortable, it wasn’t a fun color.” – pg. 19.

“Kenzo had a complex about fat people, developed during his years in Missouri. He was afraid of fat people. He was also afraid of loud people, and uneducated people, and black people.” – pg. 51

“She was never black enough, or Oriental enough, or white enough, and everyone always felt deceived if she didn’t announce her ethnic taxonomy immediately upon meeting them, as if not doing so were a calculated sin of omission, as if she were trying to pass. But just as often, when she did claim racial solidarity with a group, people didn’t believe her, suspecting she was merely trying to appropriate the radical-chic color of the month.”

“From personal experience, Kenzo knew about the state of racial equality in America. It was a sound theory, but not in practice. It was a glorious dream, but just a dream. It would never work. It had never worked—not anywhere, not anytime in history—and the US was the only country foolish and hypocritical enough to try.” – pg. 131

“Don’t you find it ironic that the people who are supposed to represent the United States are the ones who least want to live there?” – Julia to Tom, pg. 216.

“People don’t have affairs to get out of their marriages,” she said, looking at him mournfully. “They have them to prolong them.” – Julia to Tom, 218

“She had done a terrible thing to him—the worst thing a person could do to another—and it was now irrevocable. She had awakened the loneliness in him, reminded him of his need for other people.” – pg. 232

“We tend to do things we’ll tell ourselves we’ll never do,” she said. – Julia to Tom. Pg. 274.

[Michael Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

Lisa Countryman, one of the three POVs in this troubled novel, is a multiracial doctoral student at Berkeley who is working as a club hostess in Tokyo. She has a larger agenda, but it will take the reader awhile to figure that out. She becomes involved with various questionable men, including a local CIA spook. The other gaijin protagonist is Tom Hurley, a junior diplomatic officer who’s just floating through life. Then there’s Kenzo Ota, a not very competent police inspector who becomes involved in trying to find out what happened to Lisa when she disappears. For some reason, the story is set in 1980, and easily the best part of the book is the look Lee gives us at the shadowy world of the Tokyo sex trade -- though the Japanese have a much more tolerant attitude toward such things than Americans. The plot, however, is perfunctory through much of the book, with absolutely no foreshadowing, so when Lee begins wrapping things up in the last couple of chapters, the solutions he springs on the reader are a series of rather unsatisfying surprises. Lisa herself is the only character toward whom one can feel any sympathy. Hurley is a total schmuck completely lacking in redeeming qualities. Kenzo is a naive, neurotic loner without a clue about the society in which he lives, and the spook is simply manipulative, as are many of the supporting cast. The background is interesting but the ideas are poorly developed and the author’s style is almost amateurish.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Completed Don Lee's Country of Origin, which complicates the typical parameters of ethnic identity. Everyone in the novel, which takes place in Tokyo, is never wholly one ethnic identity. Instead, there are people struggling to blend into a Japanese society that derides half-breeds, so that Korean and African-American, Korean and American, and Korean and Japanese, all struggle to find a way out of their fractured ethnic psychology. If this sounds boring, I assure you that it's not. Lee engineers a mystery novel pace and sentiment to the novel, so that it engages with ethnic themes fluidly; he never overrides the plot with identity machinations, but instead lets it unfurl naturally. Between this and his current The Collective, I'm really starting to vibe with his narrative and psychological themes--it's far more nuanced and transgressive than much of the current canonical works on ethnic identity.

[Alesa · Rating 3 out of 5]

How do bi-racial people fare in Japan? What is the sex club scene like there? What was the life like for expats around 1980? You'll learn about all these things in Country of Origin, which follows many people of various ethnic backgrounds (Korean-American, Koreans born in Japan, Afro-Asians, and more), and also several other unusual people who just don't fit into Japanese society,

Well-written and well-plotted, this book is a quick read, and more like a romp than serious literature. There is a murder mystery-sort-of theme, which unravels skillfully.

Perhaps this book was written for a younger audience. I usually enjoy literary fiction set in other countries. But I could not relate to most of the characters in this novel. The night life (sleazier side) wasn't exactly my cup of tea. And I don't know Japanese, so a lot of the terms confused me. The immaturity of embassy staff members made me a bit embarrassed. All in all, this wasn't my favorite book.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Country of Origin begins with the disappearance and possible death of Lisa Countrymen, a half-Korean half-black American grad student studying in Japan. A low level dimplomat at the US Embassy takes an interest in the case, perhaps because of his feelings about his own mixed heritage. Also involved is a neurotic Japanese police investigator who hopes that breaking the case might save his stalled career.

Against the backdrop of the Japanese sex industry, which was the topic of Lisa's dissertation, the two men find that their sense of identity, nationality as well as gender, complicates not only their professional interest in the case, but their personal lives as well.

County of Origin is a well written literary thriller that offers a voyeur's glimpse into the seedier side of modern Japan. Don Lee's first novel won him the Edgar for best first novel by an American author.

[Joshua · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book started off as "meh" and then went to pretty bad.

All of the characters are stupid (by the book's admission), but none in any sort of redeeming way.

The prose is terrible. There are phrases like "very unique," which is an inexcusable redundancy for any novel, let alone a literary one. The author also either doesn't trust himself or his audience, because he keeps explaining things that the characters' actions make clear—I read it as condescending, given that Mr. Lee has a lot of pedigree as a writer.

The only thing that kept me going is that I'm fascinated by Japan, and there are great bits of Japanese culture in here, ones which sent me down research rabbit holes (in a good way).

But, the plot is boring, the characters unsympathetic, and the line-by-line writing close to embarrassing at times.

[Chris Beal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don Lee's well-crafted and thoughtful detective novel, Country of Origin, uses Japan as the background for a story of belonging and not belonging. The main characters in this novel, mostly foreigners but one Japanese as well, are outsiders – whether because of cultural or personal differences from those surrounding them – and how they come to terms with their differentness makes this novel one to think about long after finishing it. The sex industry in Japan, as well as the diplomatic community are the environments in which the characters act out their efforts to find themselves. This book is a good read, serious without taking itself too seriously, and especially of interest for those who have lived in Japan or think they might want to do so.

[Mar Preston · Rating 5 out of 5]

I sacrificed sleep to finish this book. It's not exactly a whodunit or a thriller or police procedural or anything else that comes to mind quickly. Nor is it literary fiction. But it's all of those. And I thing I liked even better was how much it taught me about modern day Japan.

I'll remember the cop and his bumbling passage through life and romance for a long time. I'll remember the sauve spook. The "geisha" girls. The ways that young pretty girls get savaged by life. How precarious life is.

The writing is superb. I found myself underlining passages (oh horror! Defacing a book) and rereading paragraphs.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Now I plan to send it to some non-reader Japanese friends. I wonder what they'll make of it.

[Andrea Garfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book on the leave one/take one shelf in a hotel just before a hurricane hit as I was a bit concerned that I was running out of things to read. I learned some interesting things about Japanese culture, particularly related to the sex trade and gender relations. However, I didn't really believe the author's authority on a lot of these so maybe it was just more rumors and stereotypes. There was some romance, identity angst and mystery thrown in for good measure. All in all, good enough for Miami to LAX and a fun read but nothing too special.

[Shin Yu · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed in Lee's first effort at a novel. This book is essentially a kind of detective/noir but tried to cover too much ground - transnational adoption, identity contingencies and race, foreign service, and the Japanese sex trade with plenty of kink. Lee based one of the main characters at the heart of the story on a real-life anthropologist, Anne Allison, and her participatory research into hostess clubs in Tokyo. Ultimately, Allison's research might have been a more interesting read.

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a cool story, it was in a sense a detective novel/murder mystery but unconventional. The characters were from multi-cultural backgrounds and interesting enough. I could relate on some levels, being a transplant in Thailand, not looking Thai and whatnot. The story takes place in Japan and had lots of good tid bits on Japanese culture. I'm too lazy to see if they are accurate or not. I'll just say yes and call it good.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quasi murder mystery set in Japan in 1980. Chapters alternate between the point of view of the victim and that of the array of people searching for her. I was struck by how Japan had such pride in their way of life, all about unity and one single voice (not like the USA, in their words), yet nearly every character is marginalized either by their ethnic origin, their work ethic, or their marital status. United in name only.

[Geeta · Rating 4 out of 5]

A literary thriller that really about idenity and dislocation. Three narratives come together as the story progresses. I like the way Lee writes about race and identity; not so crazy about the way he writes about sex--I'm not sure why, but those are the moments, I think, where his writing loses its grace and subtlety.

[Stephanie A. Higa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A twisted, concise mystery about a Ph.D student-turned-nightclub hostess who disappears in Tokyo and the diverse (occasionally neurotic) people sent to search for her. There are a lot of smart observations in this book, but unlike most other smart books, it has enough action to keep it from feeling doctrinaire. Highly recommended.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting mystery romantic. Sounds very alien yet very familiar. Characters that are of multi-culture, therefore of neither. Japan at its quirky, unique, weird, ... you name it. Wonderfully blended with a twist of mystery. This is second book by Don Lee (first was Yellow) and I am truly impressed. He is a wonderful story teller.

[Frances · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, first novel taking place in Japan. It centers on the disappearance of an American woman and the investigation by a Japanese police officer and an American Embassy employee. It also centers around the Japanese sex/entertainment industry and what it means to be bi-racial in any culture.
The writing is clean and crisp, if somewhat cold.

[Jami · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a difficult time deciding whether to give this book three stars or four. I love the way it pulls together seemingly unrelated people and mysterious events. I liked the messed-up characters. It is clever and it is quirky.

[Penni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some intricacy to the story added a good amount of depth, making it feel a little mysterious and worth the time to read. Lots of interesting discussion around culture, race and gender. I loved all the references to places and things in Japan which I just experienced myself on my recent trip.