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Mas Arai #1
Summer of the Big Bachi
In the foothills of Pasadena, Mas Arai is just another Japanese-American gardener, his lawnmower blades clean and sharp, his truck carefully tuned. But while Mas keeps lawns neatly trimmed, his own life has gone to seed. His wife is dead. And his livelihood is falling into the hands of the men he once hired by the day. For Mas, a life of sin is catching up to him. And now bachi—the spirit of retribution—is knocking on his door.
It begins when a stranger comes around, asking questions about a nurseryman who once lived in Hiroshima, a man known as Joji Haneda. By the end of the summer, Joji will be dead and Mas’s own life will be in danger. For while Mas was building a life on the edge of the American dream, he has kept powerful secrets: about three friends long ago, about two lives entwined, and about what really happened when the bomb fell on Hiroshima in August 1945.
A spellbinding mystery played out from war-torn Japan to the rich tidewaters of L.A.’s multicultural landscape, this stunning debut novel weaves a powerful tale of family, loyalty, and the price of both survival and forgiveness.
It begins when a stranger comes around, asking questions about a nurseryman who once lived in Hiroshima, a man known as Joji Haneda. By the end of the summer, Joji will be dead and Mas’s own life will be in danger. For while Mas was building a life on the edge of the American dream, he has kept powerful secrets: about three friends long ago, about two lives entwined, and about what really happened when the bomb fell on Hiroshima in August 1945.
A spellbinding mystery played out from war-torn Japan to the rich tidewaters of L.A.’s multicultural landscape, this stunning debut novel weaves a powerful tale of family, loyalty, and the price of both survival and forgiveness.
287 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
165 people are currently reading
1664 people want to read
About the author
Naomi Hirahara
58 books756 followersNaomi Hirahara is the USA Today-bestselling and award-winning author of multiple mystery series, noir short stories, nonfiction history books and one middle-grade novel. Her Edgar Award-winning Mas Arai series features a Los Angeles gardener and Hiroshima survivor. Her first historical mystery, CLARK AND DIVISION, which follows a Japanese American family from Manzanar to Chicago in 1944, won a Mary Higgins Clark Award in 2022. Her two other series star a young mixed race female LAPD bicycle cop, Ellie Rush, and a Filipina-Japanese American woman in Kaua'i, Lellani Santiago. She also has written a middle-grade book, 1001 CRANES. In 2025, the history book she co-wrote with Geraldine Knatz, TERMINAL ISLAND: LOST COMMUNITIES ON AMERICA'S EDGE, won a California Book Award gold medal. She, her husband and their rat terrier live happily in her birthplace of Pasadena, California.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 181 reviews
October 1, 2018
I really enjoyed this character-driven journey through Japanese-American history at the weathered hands of Mas Arai, the elderly Japanese-American lawnmower man/accidental sleuth and, of course, Hiroshima A-bomb survivor. Sure, the story meanders and is maybe a little hard for readers unfamiliar with Japanese vocab and behavior, but for those with any interest in seeing America (and Japan) with eyes that are both fresh and world-weary at the same time, I can't recommend this book, and series highly enough.
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Download my starter library for free here - http://eepurl.com/bFkt0X - and receive my monthly newsletter with book recommendations galore for the Japanophile, crime-fiction-lover in all of us.
June 30, 2019
It all began in Hiroshima — before the bomb. Mas Arai was 15; smart, shy, trusting. Now it is 1999. Altadena. Mas is now a 70 year old landscaper. “While the main town, Pasadena, was full of wide boulevards and fancy streetlights, Altadena, to the north, was scrawny like a chicken that didn't get enough feed. It had a slight wildness to it — hardly any sidewalks — as if the town weren't even worth taming. Mas liked it that way.” (p.5)
That safe cocoon of neglect and anonymity will be abruptly violated. A mysterious man, Joji Haneda, whom Mas knew in Hiroshima, has resurfaced. A well-heeled stranger from Japan, Shinji Nakano is asking questions. At almost the same time Mas encounters a young reporter from Hiroshima, Yuki Kimura, whose questions have resurrected the name of Riki Kimura.
The month of June has descended on Mas with singular foreboding. He can feel the hot breath of that thing that lies in wait, ready to bite you in the back, payback for your transgressions. Mas' transgressions have been accumulating, and this will be the summer of the big bachi, Mas concludes.
Mas also believes in another cosmic force, Kokoro, the force that animates the inner spirit. He reflects on his deceased wife: “Chizuko had the cleanest kokoro, character and soul, of any person he had ever met. She was the personification of chanto, of doing things just right.” (p.127) How did he reward such goodness? Emotional absence from her and their daughter Mari. Recalcitrance that reduced her to shrieks of reproach. Withdrawal when she was dying. Avoidance of visits to her grave.
The Mas of the present is brusque and withdrawn. His life revolves around his aged Ford pick-up and his still active landscaping business. He attends to both with scrupulous dedication. As for his daughter Mari, she lives in New York in angry estrangement.
Hirahara captures perfectly an enclave representing a minority within a minority. Yes, these are Japanese Americans, but for Mas and his friend Haruo, the bond is Hiroshima. They are physically and emotionally scarred but nevertheless, survivors. It sets them apart from Japanese-Americans like Arai's friend Tug Yamada, who served in the 442nd combat regiment. It also sets them apart from the embittered resistors like “Wishbone” Tanaka, proprietor of the lawnmower store Mas frequents. Hirahara creates a subtle metaphorical link between Mas' generation and a stand of struggling grafted fruit trees.
This is an unusual mystery that unfolds incrementally. What is the secret that haunts Mas? Why is he so hostile to both the stranger Shinji Nakano and the naïve reporter Yuri Kimura? What are the real motives for their inquiries? Why is Mas both angry and fearful of the man called Haneda Joji? These secrets precipitate a trail of violence and ultimately, murder. The half-truths and lies accumulate and Mas is pulled reluctantly into a tenacious and painful inquiry.
I loved this book and was happy to learn that it is the first in a series of “Mas Arai” mysteries.
NOTES:
The effects of the bomb are graphically but briefly described. They echo the descriptions chronicled in the nonfiction book TO HELL AND BACK; the last train from Hiroshima, by Charles Pellegrino.
That safe cocoon of neglect and anonymity will be abruptly violated. A mysterious man, Joji Haneda, whom Mas knew in Hiroshima, has resurfaced. A well-heeled stranger from Japan, Shinji Nakano is asking questions. At almost the same time Mas encounters a young reporter from Hiroshima, Yuki Kimura, whose questions have resurrected the name of Riki Kimura.
The month of June has descended on Mas with singular foreboding. He can feel the hot breath of that thing that lies in wait, ready to bite you in the back, payback for your transgressions. Mas' transgressions have been accumulating, and this will be the summer of the big bachi, Mas concludes.
Mas also believes in another cosmic force, Kokoro, the force that animates the inner spirit. He reflects on his deceased wife: “Chizuko had the cleanest kokoro, character and soul, of any person he had ever met. She was the personification of chanto, of doing things just right.” (p.127) How did he reward such goodness? Emotional absence from her and their daughter Mari. Recalcitrance that reduced her to shrieks of reproach. Withdrawal when she was dying. Avoidance of visits to her grave.
The Mas of the present is brusque and withdrawn. His life revolves around his aged Ford pick-up and his still active landscaping business. He attends to both with scrupulous dedication. As for his daughter Mari, she lives in New York in angry estrangement.
Hirahara captures perfectly an enclave representing a minority within a minority. Yes, these are Japanese Americans, but for Mas and his friend Haruo, the bond is Hiroshima. They are physically and emotionally scarred but nevertheless, survivors. It sets them apart from Japanese-Americans like Arai's friend Tug Yamada, who served in the 442nd combat regiment. It also sets them apart from the embittered resistors like “Wishbone” Tanaka, proprietor of the lawnmower store Mas frequents. Hirahara creates a subtle metaphorical link between Mas' generation and a stand of struggling grafted fruit trees.
This is an unusual mystery that unfolds incrementally. What is the secret that haunts Mas? Why is he so hostile to both the stranger Shinji Nakano and the naïve reporter Yuri Kimura? What are the real motives for their inquiries? Why is Mas both angry and fearful of the man called Haneda Joji? These secrets precipitate a trail of violence and ultimately, murder. The half-truths and lies accumulate and Mas is pulled reluctantly into a tenacious and painful inquiry.
I loved this book and was happy to learn that it is the first in a series of “Mas Arai” mysteries.
NOTES:
The effects of the bomb are graphically but briefly described. They echo the descriptions chronicled in the nonfiction book TO HELL AND BACK; the last train from Hiroshima, by Charles Pellegrino.
June 13, 2019
A novel that I decided to read because I noticed that Hirahara was nominated for one of the major crime fiction awards (I now, natch, forget which) for her most recent episode in the series. I thought I'd give the first in the series a try.
To look at Mas Arai you'd think he was just another Japanese-American gardener scratching a living in the LA region. But Mas was in Hiroshima fifty years and more ago when the atom bomb went off, and he bears the psychological scars to this day. In particular, he's still consumed by guilt over what he perceives as his own grave moral lapse during the immediate aftermath of the detonation in failing to honor a commitment to a dying friend, Joji. He's been expecting bachi -- fate's payback for his crime -- to come by and now, all these decades later, it seems to have done so.
Mas has been covering up for the fact that he knows that another old Hiroshima acquaintance, Riki, has been masquerading all this time here in California as the dead Joji. He's been trying to tell himself that this deceit is okay, really, even though his conscience has been telling him it's not. Another reason for bachi. So, when outsiders come from Hiroshima looking for Joji, Mas realizes things are coming to a head for a day of reckoning.
When there's a murder, and a young man whom Mas knows to be innocent is the main suspect, Mas knows that this time he can't just walk away . . .
The plot of Summer of the Big Bachi has a sort of Chandleresque complexity, and it's made even more twisted by the frequent flashbacks to Mas's life in Hiroshima before, during and immediately after the bombing. I had no difficulty keeping everything straight, though, because Hirahara's prose is beautifully limpid, evocative through its clarity. This also helped counterbalance the dialogue, a lot of which is in the dialect English of the southern California Japanese-American community. For the first few pages, I found the dialogue a little jarring for this reason; very soon, though, I was happily into the swing of it. (I have every reason to believe it's authentic: Hirahara's father was apparently a Japanese-American gardener, and she's even written a relevant nonfiction book: Greenmakers = Gurīn Mēkāzu: Japanese American Gardeners in Southern California [2000].)
To my shame, I know almost nothing about the Japanese-American community, horticultural or otherwise, and this novel was a delightful introduction to it. Perhaps more importantly, the book brought home to me in a way I'd never appreciated before the true dreadfulness of the deed that was done that day in Hiroshima -- it hit me so hard, in fact, that since finishing the novel yesterday I've dreamed about being in the city when the blast happened. (I almost never have dreams related to my reading -- half a dozen times in my life would be an overgenerous estimate.) In other words, I found myself reading this as a first-rate, totally engaging mainstream novel and almost forgetting that it was also a mystery.
And still, now, when I think of the book I think of it as being a novel about Mas's struggle to appease his fate and work through his bachi -- rather in the same way that, when I think of Octavia E. Butler's astonishing Kindred (1979), I don't really think of it as a time-travel novel, although it is that too, but as a novel about the experience of slavery. Despite the fact that Mas consciously, if reluctantly, takes on the role of amateur PI, and despite my comparison above with Chandler, Summer of the Big Bachi doesn't feel -- at least to me -- like a mystery novel.
Which is, in my opinion, all to the good. The distinctiveness of Hirahara's voice is much to be commended.
To look at Mas Arai you'd think he was just another Japanese-American gardener scratching a living in the LA region. But Mas was in Hiroshima fifty years and more ago when the atom bomb went off, and he bears the psychological scars to this day. In particular, he's still consumed by guilt over what he perceives as his own grave moral lapse during the immediate aftermath of the detonation in failing to honor a commitment to a dying friend, Joji. He's been expecting bachi -- fate's payback for his crime -- to come by and now, all these decades later, it seems to have done so.
Mas has been covering up for the fact that he knows that another old Hiroshima acquaintance, Riki, has been masquerading all this time here in California as the dead Joji. He's been trying to tell himself that this deceit is okay, really, even though his conscience has been telling him it's not. Another reason for bachi. So, when outsiders come from Hiroshima looking for Joji, Mas realizes things are coming to a head for a day of reckoning.
When there's a murder, and a young man whom Mas knows to be innocent is the main suspect, Mas knows that this time he can't just walk away . . .
The plot of Summer of the Big Bachi has a sort of Chandleresque complexity, and it's made even more twisted by the frequent flashbacks to Mas's life in Hiroshima before, during and immediately after the bombing. I had no difficulty keeping everything straight, though, because Hirahara's prose is beautifully limpid, evocative through its clarity. This also helped counterbalance the dialogue, a lot of which is in the dialect English of the southern California Japanese-American community. For the first few pages, I found the dialogue a little jarring for this reason; very soon, though, I was happily into the swing of it. (I have every reason to believe it's authentic: Hirahara's father was apparently a Japanese-American gardener, and she's even written a relevant nonfiction book: Greenmakers = Gurīn Mēkāzu: Japanese American Gardeners in Southern California [2000].)
To my shame, I know almost nothing about the Japanese-American community, horticultural or otherwise, and this novel was a delightful introduction to it. Perhaps more importantly, the book brought home to me in a way I'd never appreciated before the true dreadfulness of the deed that was done that day in Hiroshima -- it hit me so hard, in fact, that since finishing the novel yesterday I've dreamed about being in the city when the blast happened. (I almost never have dreams related to my reading -- half a dozen times in my life would be an overgenerous estimate.) In other words, I found myself reading this as a first-rate, totally engaging mainstream novel and almost forgetting that it was also a mystery.
And still, now, when I think of the book I think of it as being a novel about Mas's struggle to appease his fate and work through his bachi -- rather in the same way that, when I think of Octavia E. Butler's astonishing Kindred (1979), I don't really think of it as a time-travel novel, although it is that too, but as a novel about the experience of slavery. Despite the fact that Mas consciously, if reluctantly, takes on the role of amateur PI, and despite my comparison above with Chandler, Summer of the Big Bachi doesn't feel -- at least to me -- like a mystery novel.
Which is, in my opinion, all to the good. The distinctiveness of Hirahara's voice is much to be commended.
July 8, 2019
Wow.
I "met" Naomi Hirahara at the recent Pasadena LitFest, thought she has interesting things to say, and decided to read the first Mas Arai book because the other panelists and LitFest attendees spoke about it so reverently.
I wasn't prepared for just how blown away by it I would be.
Yes, the language is a bit hard to understand at first. But, you have to understand that Mas and his buddies speak a dialect that is distinctly theirs. It's born of their isolation from both the Japanese in Japan and other ethnicities of LA. I live near Gardena/Torrance and I hear older people who speak this patois.
I get allergy shots from a doctor who speaks Japanese and Spanish in addition to English. She treats a great deal of seniors who developed allergies and immune dysfunctions while working as gardeners and in the electronics clean rooms of Los Angeles. I enjoy talking to the seniors in her waiting room and hearing their stories.
This helped me greatly in understanding what the characters are saying.
This book has a mystery, and it is solved, but that's not the main point of the book. It's atmospheric. You learn history. You learn about the characters. You read about families and friends in extremis.
It's just a great novel period.
I "met" Naomi Hirahara at the recent Pasadena LitFest, thought she has interesting things to say, and decided to read the first Mas Arai book because the other panelists and LitFest attendees spoke about it so reverently.
I wasn't prepared for just how blown away by it I would be.
Yes, the language is a bit hard to understand at first. But, you have to understand that Mas and his buddies speak a dialect that is distinctly theirs. It's born of their isolation from both the Japanese in Japan and other ethnicities of LA. I live near Gardena/Torrance and I hear older people who speak this patois.
I get allergy shots from a doctor who speaks Japanese and Spanish in addition to English. She treats a great deal of seniors who developed allergies and immune dysfunctions while working as gardeners and in the electronics clean rooms of Los Angeles. I enjoy talking to the seniors in her waiting room and hearing their stories.
This helped me greatly in understanding what the characters are saying.
This book has a mystery, and it is solved, but that's not the main point of the book. It's atmospheric. You learn history. You learn about the characters. You read about families and friends in extremis.
It's just a great novel period.
February 4, 2021
Notes:
Currently on Audible Plus
- Fantastic narration by Brian Nishii! Jumbled English & Japanese/Korean/etc have a distinct sound/cadence and he did a nice job of making that happen within the narration.
I went looking for a "mystery" and this one was of the results on Audible. This story is not a mystery. It's a cool mix of Japanese immigrant life in California and the terrible fallout of WWII & Hiroshima bombing. A bit of history mixed in with snippets of a Japanese American man, his family & friends. I really enjoyed the way Naomi Hirahara portrayed the perspective of Asian American life.
Currently on Audible Plus
- Fantastic narration by Brian Nishii! Jumbled English & Japanese/Korean/etc have a distinct sound/cadence and he did a nice job of making that happen within the narration.
I went looking for a "mystery" and this one was of the results on Audible. This story is not a mystery. It's a cool mix of Japanese immigrant life in California and the terrible fallout of WWII & Hiroshima bombing. A bit of history mixed in with snippets of a Japanese American man, his family & friends. I really enjoyed the way Naomi Hirahara portrayed the perspective of Asian American life.
December 5, 2017
I am a 3rd generation AJA; I knew people like Mas in my own family as well as people in my community. They spoke and acted like Mas and his friends, so the characters and situations in the book were familiar to me. This book brought back memories, good and bad, of growing up in post-WW2 America. The backstory is a murder mystery, but the main story is a character study of Mas, his family and his circle of friends in LA. 2nd-generation Japanese Americans were caught between the connections to their Japanese heritage and the adjustments to life in America. The author integrates concepts such as "bachi" (what goes around comes around), work ethic, emphasis on education, and gambling among AJA men in the investigation of a murder. The trail to the killer leads back to the Hiroshima bombing, stolen identities, some sort of coverup of illegal activities involving Koreans, and greed involving multi millions of dollars. Although the killer is uncovered, the motives are not completely revealed. Perhaps the author will expand on this in future books. One significant revelation about the AJA community was when one of Mas' friends complains that his daughter is nearly finished with medical school but wants to quit to become an artist, and he feels he is a failure. This is how it is among AJAs.
April 25, 2016
I was super excited to read this book. The main character is not your standard detective; he's a gardener, and he came to America after WWII as a survivor of Hiroshima. That sounded like the promise of richly drawn characters, social/political commentary, maybe some discussions about culture and history... and a mystery!
But, once I started reading, I discovered that Masao, the main character, speaks in a weird accent ("Heezu" for he's, "knowsu" for knows). It sounds like something really small, but the dialogue just kept tripping me up. How is that supposed to sound in my head? What I was able to come up with in my head didn't sound like any of the Japanese people I know, so it always ripped me out of the story and irritated me. I was thinking about it, and I think it was used to illustrate the difference between a character like Tug Yamada, who's Nisei, so his English is native. Characters like Mas and his poker buddies mostly came to America after growing up in Japan, so maybe they never speak without an accent. Meanwhile, some of the younger/wealthier/more modern Japanese citizens who come to America happen to speak really crisp English as well, maybe because it's offered in schools or they watch a lot of American movies and TV or they can afford tutors -- that's not important to the story. But I got that it was making a point about who these people are, where they come from, and the difficulties they may have in relating to one another, because they've had very different life experiences. I just felt like there might be other ways to show that than an annoying phonetic accent.
As for the mystery, one of the biggest mysteries in the book is something that happened in the past. The narrator doesn't explain until almost the end of the book, he just keeps dwelling on it. Probably the first half of the book is mostly character development, and the mystery and investigation definitely take a backseat to the intense character study of Mas: his turbulent relationships with his wife and daughter, his memories of his life back in Hiroshima, how the day the bomb dropped haunts him, his feelings about his career as a gardener, and his interactions with his clients. I didn't really like Mas, but he did feel very human. And the way he solved the mystery was very realistic, as well. As the people around him were involved and began to suffer, he was slowly goaded into action. I did appreciate the descriptions of Los Angeles. I miss Little Tokyo!
I want to try one more book in this series, because I saw that it has a slightly higher rating, and I really wanted to enjoy this book more.
But, once I started reading, I discovered that Masao, the main character, speaks in a weird accent ("Heezu" for he's, "knowsu" for knows). It sounds like something really small, but the dialogue just kept tripping me up. How is that supposed to sound in my head? What I was able to come up with in my head didn't sound like any of the Japanese people I know, so it always ripped me out of the story and irritated me. I was thinking about it, and I think it was used to illustrate the difference between a character like Tug Yamada, who's Nisei, so his English is native. Characters like Mas and his poker buddies mostly came to America after growing up in Japan, so maybe they never speak without an accent. Meanwhile, some of the younger/wealthier/more modern Japanese citizens who come to America happen to speak really crisp English as well, maybe because it's offered in schools or they watch a lot of American movies and TV or they can afford tutors -- that's not important to the story. But I got that it was making a point about who these people are, where they come from, and the difficulties they may have in relating to one another, because they've had very different life experiences. I just felt like there might be other ways to show that than an annoying phonetic accent.
As for the mystery, one of the biggest mysteries in the book is something that happened in the past. The narrator doesn't explain until almost the end of the book, he just keeps dwelling on it. Probably the first half of the book is mostly character development, and the mystery and investigation definitely take a backseat to the intense character study of Mas: his turbulent relationships with his wife and daughter, his memories of his life back in Hiroshima, how the day the bomb dropped haunts him, his feelings about his career as a gardener, and his interactions with his clients. I didn't really like Mas, but he did feel very human. And the way he solved the mystery was very realistic, as well. As the people around him were involved and began to suffer, he was slowly goaded into action. I did appreciate the descriptions of Los Angeles. I miss Little Tokyo!
I want to try one more book in this series, because I saw that it has a slightly higher rating, and I really wanted to enjoy this book more.
March 23, 2022
Having already ready book 6, Sayonara Slam, I've decided to read through this series from the beginning and am pleased with that choice. Mas Arai, the central character, is a true original. He's a US-born citizen who was living in Hiroshima at the time the nuclear bomb was dropped. Now he's living in the U.S., getting by as owner of his one-man gardener business, and has no interest in revisiting his past. So, of course, in this first volume his past comes to visit him.
The novel operates on two timelines: the time immediately after the bombing of Hiroshima and a present-day timeline in which an effort to locate Hiroshima survivors turns out to be much more complicated—and dangerous.
Naomi Hirahara is a deft author of mysteries. In addition to the Mas Arai series, she has two others: one featuring Ellie Rush, a female L.A. bicycle cop of mixes heritage; the other featuring Lellani Santiago, who lives on Kauai and helps manage her family's shave ice business. She's also the author of one of last year's standout historical mysteries, Clark and Division, featuring a family of Japanes Americans recently released from WWII internment and living in Chicago.
When you're ready to settle into a multi-volume mystery series, Hirahara is the perfect choice—and, since Summer of the Big Bachi is her first novel, you can't do better than starting there.
The novel operates on two timelines: the time immediately after the bombing of Hiroshima and a present-day timeline in which an effort to locate Hiroshima survivors turns out to be much more complicated—and dangerous.
Naomi Hirahara is a deft author of mysteries. In addition to the Mas Arai series, she has two others: one featuring Ellie Rush, a female L.A. bicycle cop of mixes heritage; the other featuring Lellani Santiago, who lives on Kauai and helps manage her family's shave ice business. She's also the author of one of last year's standout historical mysteries, Clark and Division, featuring a family of Japanes Americans recently released from WWII internment and living in Chicago.
When you're ready to settle into a multi-volume mystery series, Hirahara is the perfect choice—and, since Summer of the Big Bachi is her first novel, you can't do better than starting there.
May 23, 2022
This book was a little too confusing. Even though I read it in 2 days, I got the characters confused and wasn't always sure what was going on.
Book club 5/22
Book club 5/22
April 6, 2013
Naomi Hirahara is another author I had the chance to learn about for the first time at the Tucson Festival of Books. Her mystery series about a grouchy Japanese gardener in Pasadena intrigued me, and when I read this first in the series, I was satisfied. I love reading about Los Angeles subcultures, I love history in my fiction, and this book had both, as well as a wry aging protagonist who I want to continue reading about. Mas Arai is a U.S.-born Hiroshima survivor who returned to America after WWII, bringing with him a secret he thought would stay hidden forever. But as he finds himself on the cusp of old age, (and a not very satisfying old age, at that), the secret suddenly shows up in his life, and he discovers that there's far more to what happened back in Japan than the cruel/selfish actions of a couple schoolboys. This novel shines for how is weaves L.A.'s Japanese-American culture throughout the story, and although I've read much about Hiroshima (starting with John Hersey's brilliant book), Summer of the Big Bachi offered new perspective. This is not a page-turner mystery, but rather a quiet exploration of culture, family and aging with a mystery to move the story along. I've already bought the next book in the series, Gasa-Gasa Girl, and am looking forward to digging in.
April 19, 2019
This was a good book and an interesting mystery. Initially, I was more intrigued because of the settings and the characters than the story itself. But the story and the backstories are just as interesting. The writing and the storytelling are solid.
I did think some of the issues, especially given the racism and sensitivities around WWII and esp in the USA, could have been handled differently: not explained but elucidated more within the book (eg the issue of the no-no boys or why there were kibei). As I write this, I do appreciate how many factors and nuances were going on both at the forefront as well as in the background of this story.
And lastly, while some Japanese words were either explained or somehow discernible in the context used, there were too many times when it was not evident at all. After awhile, I just stopped trying or caring. I am all for not jarring the writing by spoonfeeding definitions of non-English words. And this means that the author limits the frequency of such usage and/or employs a device to reveal the meaning of the word. She did not do either enough and that detracted from the reading experience.
I did think some of the issues, especially given the racism and sensitivities around WWII and esp in the USA, could have been handled differently: not explained but elucidated more within the book (eg the issue of the no-no boys or why there were kibei). As I write this, I do appreciate how many factors and nuances were going on both at the forefront as well as in the background of this story.
And lastly, while some Japanese words were either explained or somehow discernible in the context used, there were too many times when it was not evident at all. After awhile, I just stopped trying or caring. I am all for not jarring the writing by spoonfeeding definitions of non-English words. And this means that the author limits the frequency of such usage and/or employs a device to reveal the meaning of the word. She did not do either enough and that detracted from the reading experience.
April 4, 2008
SUMMER OF THE BIG BACHI (Mystery-Mas Arai-So. Cal-Cont) – DNF
Hirahara, Naomi – 1st in series
Dell Fiction, 2004, US Paperback – ISBN: 9780440241546
First Sentence: Mas Arai didn’t believe in Jesus or Buddha, but thought there might be something in bachi. In Japanese, bachi was when you snapped at your wife, and then tripped on a rock in the driveway.
Mas Arai was in Hiroshima when the bombs fell. Now, fifty years’ later and an older man, he is a widower with his gardening business in Pasadena. But you can never truly escape the past. A man comes looking for Mas’ boyhood friend, now known as Joji Haneda. Joji has been murdered and Mas carries a secret he wants kept that way.
I usually enjoy books about other cultures and I know people have raved about this book, but I lacked the patience to get into it. I found the Japanese dialect and phrases, although appropriate, difficult to get past. I was not captivated by the character of Mas and found him depressing. It made it past my 50-page rule, but not by much.
Hirahara, Naomi – 1st in series
Dell Fiction, 2004, US Paperback – ISBN: 9780440241546
First Sentence: Mas Arai didn’t believe in Jesus or Buddha, but thought there might be something in bachi. In Japanese, bachi was when you snapped at your wife, and then tripped on a rock in the driveway.
Mas Arai was in Hiroshima when the bombs fell. Now, fifty years’ later and an older man, he is a widower with his gardening business in Pasadena. But you can never truly escape the past. A man comes looking for Mas’ boyhood friend, now known as Joji Haneda. Joji has been murdered and Mas carries a secret he wants kept that way.
I usually enjoy books about other cultures and I know people have raved about this book, but I lacked the patience to get into it. I found the Japanese dialect and phrases, although appropriate, difficult to get past. I was not captivated by the character of Mas and found him depressing. It made it past my 50-page rule, but not by much.
November 3, 2016
The setting and characters were fine, even fresh. The plotting and editing were not. 40 pages in and I thought, "I am not buying in, for some reason." There were loose ends (what was on the tomb of the grocery owner which was pivotal? wasn't clear) and time warps - at one point it was 20 years since his daughter had been home and then it was 10 years since her bedroom had been slept in. There's a poker fight and one man decks another. Then he promptly goes to the hospital where he dies of cancer amid the blinking machines, although a man at his funeral still has a bruise from the fight on his face. I never could figure out who paid who for what.
So, those bits bothered me, although the deeper issues were poignant. The writing might have redeemed it but I was tired of the similes towards the end, which, one after another, were worded like this, like boxcars at a crossing where you're waiting endlessly.
So, those bits bothered me, although the deeper issues were poignant. The writing might have redeemed it but I was tired of the similes towards the end, which, one after another, were worded like this, like boxcars at a crossing where you're waiting endlessly.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 18, 2017
The introduction to new series of novels featuring an extremely captivating protagonist – Mas Arai. As a mystery/crime novel the intrigue and action of this one were compelling. But the genre was almost forgotten as I became increasingly absorbed with the character of Mas Arai. At first glance a grumpy old man, my sympathy for him grew as his big bachi came calling on a man already struggling to maintain a sense of integrity in a society that seemed to devalue him in every way. I actually finished this book four or five days ago, but since then I’ve been haunted by the admonition with which a favorite radio-show host ends her show each week: “Remember to be especially kind to everyone you meet, for each of us carries a burden that others can’t see.” (Dalana, Music to My Ears, KPTZ-FM). Book two of this series, Gasa-Gasa Girl, has been ordered and is eagerly awaited.
December 4, 2018
An interesting book, I would not really call it a mystery but more of a roman noir, though in later books it maybe that the Mas Arai takes on a real investigators role. An ugly tale of dark secrets from the past and present day disappointments, its not a happy read. The generation gap problems are so true, reminds of some of my friends. The author certainly captures an LA feel, I could picture in my mind many of the locations. A decent read, but I'll probably hold off reading more in the series until much later.
April 17, 2018
I really tried to finish this book but finally had to abandon it. Life is too short to read books you don’t enjoy!
May 28, 2021
I read the last book in this series and went back to read this book which is the first. I like reading about things Japanese. The story is about an adventure of an elderly gardener who was born in America but was in Hiroshima at the time of the Atom Bomb and then returned to the USA. This story takes place 50 years later. It is interesting but some of the solution is a bit contrived but, still, I enjoyed the story and the character.
July 17, 2025
An unusual mystery that is more of a novel with great character development; various characters bear the scars of having been present when the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. I loved the look it provided of Japanese-American (especially Nisei) culture in California, and the fact that it is set near where I used to live. Four and a half.
January 16, 2021
The book centers around a group of Japanese gardeners, some of whom survived the bombing of Hiroshima. Members of the group seemed to bring a lot of their misfortunes on themselves which made it hard to sympathize with them. I did like the insights into the post World War II struggles of Japanese Americans. Gardening was often the only occupation available to Japanese Americans many of whom lost everything when they were uprooted from their homes and sent into internment camps. I understand that this is the first book in a series with Mas Arai. He becomes a reluctant detective in this book and I’m told in subsequent books he becomes more sympathetic.
August 26, 2017
The perfect book to read after Hiroshima by John Hersey. Summer of the Big bachi exposes the effects of the atomic bomb, WWll, and the racism, experienced by the Japanese survivors.
August 3, 2021
Too confusing. Stopped after 10 pages.
August 11, 2024
Not so much a mystery as it is historical fiction. Great book with characters whose backgrounds carry heaviness. Some brutal, but honest, depictions of the lives and landscapes of post-WW2 Japanese and Japanese Americans. I very much enjoyed this!
November 3, 2021
A rather peculiar book that meanders through the lives of Japanese immigrants to California. The language, ostensibly meant to mimic Japanese English accents grated throughout the book. I couldn't quite get into this one, although I did learn some interesting tidbits about the prejudices faced by early Japanese immigrants and the trauma of Hiroshima.
July 10, 2016
Perhaps this isn't so much a book review as a warning of what may happen in your brain when you read a book like Summer of the Big Bachi while drowsy.
First off, I thought the title was Summer of the Big HABACHI so I was prepared for a light-hearted look at the misadventures of a backyard BBQ chef. (I don't read book blurbs anymore because they spoil the fun of picking a book solely on the basis of cover art and title.)
Imagine my surprise. I was also suprised when I finished the book and read the critical praise snippet-thingys on the back cover which claimed that Naomi Hirahara was a "fresh new voice in mystery writing" (or something like that.) Mystery writing? The book was a mystery? You coulda knocked me over with a hibachi.
Kudos to Hirahra writing about Japanese who survived The Bomb trying to make a new life in California. That's not a subject often explored. However, she does sprinkle a lot of Japanese words in the mostly English text -- often without interpreting these words. For example, I read that a pikadon fell on Hiroshima to end WWII. Being slightly sleepy, I thought I'd read that a Pikachu was dropped on Hiroshima.
So, yeah, I was a wee bit confused for a few pages. And I thought I had paid attention during all of those classes on WWII and documentaries on The Bomb and all of that. But no -- all that devastation was really from a pissed-off Pokemon being dropped out of the Enola Gay.
Back to the book. It was complicated. WAY too complicated for someone slightly sleepy. You need to take notes in order to keep up with who is who and what the fuck is going on. But I don't take notes when reading a book. Because I'm reading a book. Reading is supposed to be fun. Note taking is NOT FUN.
So, in the end, this was a not-fun book that you need to work at because Pikachu was screwing up the summer picnic with a hibachi.
Or something like that.
First off, I thought the title was Summer of the Big HABACHI so I was prepared for a light-hearted look at the misadventures of a backyard BBQ chef. (I don't read book blurbs anymore because they spoil the fun of picking a book solely on the basis of cover art and title.)
Imagine my surprise. I was also suprised when I finished the book and read the critical praise snippet-thingys on the back cover which claimed that Naomi Hirahara was a "fresh new voice in mystery writing" (or something like that.) Mystery writing? The book was a mystery? You coulda knocked me over with a hibachi.
Kudos to Hirahra writing about Japanese who survived The Bomb trying to make a new life in California. That's not a subject often explored. However, she does sprinkle a lot of Japanese words in the mostly English text -- often without interpreting these words. For example, I read that a pikadon fell on Hiroshima to end WWII. Being slightly sleepy, I thought I'd read that a Pikachu was dropped on Hiroshima.
So, yeah, I was a wee bit confused for a few pages. And I thought I had paid attention during all of those classes on WWII and documentaries on The Bomb and all of that. But no -- all that devastation was really from a pissed-off Pokemon being dropped out of the Enola Gay.
Back to the book. It was complicated. WAY too complicated for someone slightly sleepy. You need to take notes in order to keep up with who is who and what the fuck is going on. But I don't take notes when reading a book. Because I'm reading a book. Reading is supposed to be fun. Note taking is NOT FUN.
So, in the end, this was a not-fun book that you need to work at because Pikachu was screwing up the summer picnic with a hibachi.
Or something like that.
April 26, 2010
Really liked this, and will look out for the next book. I found Mas interesting and sympathetic and liked the portrayal of a multicultural community -- felt much more convincing than the whitewashed pictures of USA you get via TV and movies. Also thought the portrayal of the dilemma of the PoC growing up in a white-majority country -- what am I, what should I be etc. etc. -- was interestingly done. It had nuance.
I'm not sure if the way Hirahara transliterated Japanese-accented English is how I'd have done with it, but I prefer it to a pretence that all Englishes are the same. And I liked it in a way; having the main character and many of his friends speak "broken" English made it the norm. So I guess I fall on the side of thinking it's cool. (I probably would be more dubious if Hirahara was white -- when Alexander McCall Smith made the opposite decision in writing Malaysian English, writing Malaysian characters' dialogue in perfectly grammatical standard English, I thought that was the right decision for him and would probably have been annoyed if he'd tried writing Manglish.)
I'm not sure if the way Hirahara transliterated Japanese-accented English is how I'd have done with it, but I prefer it to a pretence that all Englishes are the same. And I liked it in a way; having the main character and many of his friends speak "broken" English made it the norm. So I guess I fall on the side of thinking it's cool. (I probably would be more dubious if Hirahara was white -- when Alexander McCall Smith made the opposite decision in writing Malaysian English, writing Malaysian characters' dialogue in perfectly grammatical standard English, I thought that was the right decision for him and would probably have been annoyed if he'd tried writing Manglish.)
December 20, 2013
This is the first book in the Mas Arai series of mysteries, and oddly enough, it is the last one I read. I have enjoyed all of them and would recommend them. There are not a lot of contemporary mysteries I read, so this is a big deal for me to recommend a book set in the present day. Mas is a pretty cranky protagonist, but he's very interesting. He's a survivor of the bomb from Hiroshima, even though he was born in California. In this mystery, someone comes looking for his old friend Joji Haneda, and for Mas, that spells trouble. Everyone has wondered about the way Mas avoided Joji after the two returned to California after the war, but Joji is trouble, even though it looks as if he and his family are going to reap the benefits of a housing boom. The plot is complex, and sometimes it is hard to follow the connections, but the book is definitely worth reading, as are all the books in the series.
January 23, 2012
There is a darkness to this book as the protagonist, the 70 year old Japanese-American gardner in So. California comes to terms with his past. But he bravely peels away the layers of his history revealing how it shaped his relationships and choices. There are so many sides to the story of the Japanese-American experience in WWII with Pearl Harbor, their internment in the US, those that served in the US military, those who had returned to Japan prior the war and then finally those that were there at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Once again we understand that war is not simple and integrity is often times dependent on happenstance.
December 12, 2021
The plot line of this book is really great, important, and was very unique to me. So kudos for that. It’s a storyline and a protagonist type that I’ve never come across before. I also thought the symbolism at the end was quite strong (especially for a cosy).
However, I felt the characters and overall story lacked some level of emotion or relatability—the same critique I had of this author’s newer book, Clark and Division. I didn’t feel very connected to the main character—I was reading about him, but there were levels of emotion that just weren’t there.
I don’t plan to read further in this series, as a result.
However, I felt the characters and overall story lacked some level of emotion or relatability—the same critique I had of this author’s newer book, Clark and Division. I didn’t feel very connected to the main character—I was reading about him, but there were levels of emotion that just weren’t there.
I don’t plan to read further in this series, as a result.
March 4, 2014
A wonderful book that started slow--like a boulder on its way down a mountain. It deals with the trauma of a past divided between an America and a Japan at war, the trauma of the atomic bomb, the trauma that lies between generations and between immigrants and their American-born children. But it's also some fine noir writing and a good mystery and I love it when one of my favourite genres explodes its traditional boundaries like this. I love it when a whole new side of Los Angeles opens up to the general public, blasting all that fake glitz and shallow glamour out of the water.
March 19, 2014
Mas Arai is a Japanese American man and survivor of Hiroshima. When a man from his past comes back into his life, he must face things he felt were hidden during World War II. The book is well plotted and the characters are good, but I really struggled to get into it.
Read my full review at Carstairs Considers.
Read my full review at Carstairs Considers.
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