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The Baseball Widow
When Christine, an idealistic young American teacher, meets and marries Hideki Yamada, an aspiring Japanese high school baseball coach, she believes that their love with be enough to sustain them as they deal with cultural differences. However, Hideki's duties, and the team of fit, obedient boys whom he begins to think of as a surrogate family, take up more and more of his time, just as Christine is struggling to manage the needs of their multiply-disabled daughter and their sensitive son. Things come to a head when their son is the victim of bullies. Christine begins to think that she and her children would be safer - and happier - in her native country. On a trip back to the States, she reconnects with a dangerously attractive friend from high school who, after serving and becoming wounded in Afghanistan, seems to understand her like no one else.
Meanwhile, Daisuke Uchida, a slugger with pro potential who has returned to Japan after living abroad, may be able to help propel Hideki's team to the national baseball tournament at Koshien. Not only would this be a dream come true for Hideki, but also it would secure the futures of his players, some of whom come from precarious homes. While Daisuke looks to Hideki for guidance, he is also distracted by Nana, a talented but troubled girl, whom he is trying to rescue from a life as a bar hostess (or worse). Hideki must ultimately choose between his team and his family.
The Baseball Widow explores issues of duty, disability, discrimination, violence, and forgiveness through a cross-cultural lens. Although flawed, these characters strive to advocate for fairness, goodness, and safety, while considering how their decisions have been shaped by their backgrounds.
Meanwhile, Daisuke Uchida, a slugger with pro potential who has returned to Japan after living abroad, may be able to help propel Hideki's team to the national baseball tournament at Koshien. Not only would this be a dream come true for Hideki, but also it would secure the futures of his players, some of whom come from precarious homes. While Daisuke looks to Hideki for guidance, he is also distracted by Nana, a talented but troubled girl, whom he is trying to rescue from a life as a bar hostess (or worse). Hideki must ultimately choose between his team and his family.
The Baseball Widow explores issues of duty, disability, discrimination, violence, and forgiveness through a cross-cultural lens. Although flawed, these characters strive to advocate for fairness, goodness, and safety, while considering how their decisions have been shaped by their backgrounds.
309 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 5, 2021
About the author
Suzanne Kamata
44 books304 followersFive-time Pushcart Prize nominee Suzanne Kamata is the author of the memoir Squeaky Wheels: Travels with My Daughter by Train, Plane, Metro, Tuk-tuk and Wheelchair (Wyatt-Mackenzie, 2019); the novels Indigo Girl (GemmaMedia, 2019), The Mermaids of Lake Michigan (Wyatt-Mackenzie, 2017), Screaming Divas (Merit Press, 2014), Gadget Girl: The Art of Being Invisible (GemmaMedia, 2013) and Losing Kei (Leapfrog Press, 2008); and editor of three anthologies - The Broken Bridge: Fiction from Expatriates in Literary Japan, Love You to Pieces: Creative Writers on Raising a Child with Special Needs, and Call Me Okaasan: Adventures in Multicultural Mothering (Wyatt-Mackenzie Publishing, 2009). Her short fiction and essays have appeared widely. She was a winner in the memoir category of the Half the World Global Literati Award.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
October 10, 2021
Suzanne Kamata's
The Baseball Widow
is a well-written exploration of family, belonging, connection, and, of course, baseball.
Christine has longed for connection, for purpose, to belong. When she meets Hideki, a teacher, she thinks their relationship will sustain her, but it isn’t until after she goes abroad to help Cambodian refugees that he realizes how much he needs her.
Once she returns to Japan, they get married and Christine gives birth to two children, including a young daughter with multiple disabilities. She needs her husband more than ever. But Hideki serves as a coach for his high school’s baseball team, a responsibility he takes very seriously, so he spends more time with his team than he does his family.
When Christine and Hideki’s son is bullied in school, a neglected and overwhelmed Christine takes the children home to the United States, thinking they might be safer there. But while she might have more help at home, she also has more temptation—in the form of Andrew, a friend from high school whose service in Fallujah left him emotionally and physically scarred.
Will Hideki realize that he may lose his family before it’s too late? Will Christine realize what’s most important to her? What sacrifices will both need to make?
This was a beautiful, thought-provoking book about being caught between two cultures. Thanks to Suzy Approved Book Tours, Suzanne Kamata, and Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing for inviting me on the tour and providing a complimentary advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review!!
The Baseball Widow publishes 10/5.
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.
Follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/the.bookishworld.of.yrralh/.
Christine has longed for connection, for purpose, to belong. When she meets Hideki, a teacher, she thinks their relationship will sustain her, but it isn’t until after she goes abroad to help Cambodian refugees that he realizes how much he needs her.
Once she returns to Japan, they get married and Christine gives birth to two children, including a young daughter with multiple disabilities. She needs her husband more than ever. But Hideki serves as a coach for his high school’s baseball team, a responsibility he takes very seriously, so he spends more time with his team than he does his family.
When Christine and Hideki’s son is bullied in school, a neglected and overwhelmed Christine takes the children home to the United States, thinking they might be safer there. But while she might have more help at home, she also has more temptation—in the form of Andrew, a friend from high school whose service in Fallujah left him emotionally and physically scarred.
Will Hideki realize that he may lose his family before it’s too late? Will Christine realize what’s most important to her? What sacrifices will both need to make?
This was a beautiful, thought-provoking book about being caught between two cultures. Thanks to Suzy Approved Book Tours, Suzanne Kamata, and Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing for inviting me on the tour and providing a complimentary advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review!!
The Baseball Widow publishes 10/5.
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.
Follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/the.bookishworld.of.yrralh/.
September 28, 2021
What a beautifully written book that makes you stop and think.
Christine is an American teacher in Japan who marries Hideki Yamada an aspiring Japanese high school baseball coach. Hideki pours his time fully into his baseball team. The couple have two children a girl Emma who’s afflicted with cerebral palsy, shes only able to speak to her mom through sign language and a sensitive boy named Koji. Christine has a hard time with the cultural differences, she dresses differently and it stands out like her sunglasses and hat and bright red dress, while the other woman have a parasol and elbow-length gloves and when they reach a certain age they wear dark dresses. Christine struggles with having a daughter with a disability and a husband whose distant and focuses on his baseball team. When a player arrives one that can change his entire time he finds himself facing an ultimatum his family or his team. Christine begins to reevaluate her home life, and when she takes a trip back home to the states, her eyes are opened to a new life one filled with possibility and maybe a different love. What will either of them choose? The baseball life has everything flawed characters, cultural differences, violence and ultimately forgiveness. Four stars!
Christine is an American teacher in Japan who marries Hideki Yamada an aspiring Japanese high school baseball coach. Hideki pours his time fully into his baseball team. The couple have two children a girl Emma who’s afflicted with cerebral palsy, shes only able to speak to her mom through sign language and a sensitive boy named Koji. Christine has a hard time with the cultural differences, she dresses differently and it stands out like her sunglasses and hat and bright red dress, while the other woman have a parasol and elbow-length gloves and when they reach a certain age they wear dark dresses. Christine struggles with having a daughter with a disability and a husband whose distant and focuses on his baseball team. When a player arrives one that can change his entire time he finds himself facing an ultimatum his family or his team. Christine begins to reevaluate her home life, and when she takes a trip back home to the states, her eyes are opened to a new life one filled with possibility and maybe a different love. What will either of them choose? The baseball life has everything flawed characters, cultural differences, violence and ultimately forgiveness. Four stars!
August 21, 2021
Baseball Widow review by Eric Madeen
Suzanne Kamata hits a homer with The Baseball Widow
There’s much to like in Suzanne Kamata’s forthcoming novel The Baseball Widow. For aficionados of Japan, things described therein will resonate and for those curious about the island nation there’s much to learn.
Each chapter is keyed with the character name whose perspective we’re seeing through in third-person limited, i.e., limited to his/her consciousness or point of view. The main character, Christine, is an American woman married to Hideki, a Japanese and the coach of the high school baseball team into which he pours nine-tenths of his energy. Aptly titled, the baseball widow has Christine left to fend for herself in a town on Japan’s southwestern island of Shikoku, an island the novelist Suzanne Kamata has called home for decades now. The couple have two children, a boy Koji and a girl Emma who’s afflicted with cerebral palsy, wheelchair bound and communicates with her mother through sign language.
Kamata indeed knows her Japan and is on familiar ground with baseball, well-covered by Robert Whiting’s books and also serving in Kamata’s novel as an apt metaphor for the Japanese way. But Christine is at odds in much of what is ingrained in her host country nationals’ way of living. The kata, or way, mode, manner, form, etc., are very much there and Christine is often out of kata. “She was wearing a floppy straw hat and sunglasses, the only woman without a parasol and elbow-length gloves. She was also the only woman in a bright red dress. After a certain age, Japanese women went for dark, somber colors, but her closet was a rainbow.”
Christine, needless to say, is unique and thus isolated but duty bound until she uproots with her offspring to her parents’ abode in South Carolina. I found myself empathizing with her or rather cheering her courage for breaking with a husband who’s married to the team and decamping from an island and culture where she’s largely an outcaste.
I was heartened when she has an affair with an American Iraq War vet in her hometown which shows what she is missing and delighted when the team’s star goes against the ingrained selfless kata of bunting to move that first-base runner onto second and thus into scoring position. But then things go awry and we’re left with shattered pieces and lives and Hideki’s wise words, transcribed as they are in third-person: “Hideki would come to understand that there was no such thing as pure joy, that even the greatest happiness was tarnished somehow, temporary, but worth striving for all the same.”
Well-worth perusing, The Baseball Widow is disturbing and engaging in its exploration of themes of being a stranger in a strange land then not being able to go home again, if I can epitomize it through paraphrased titles of Heinlein and Wolfe. The writing is crisp and the many chapters from the points of view of the Japanese characters are on the money … all the way through to the duty-bound end.
What follows is an email thread with the novelist herself:
Q: First, congratulations on hitting a homer. I just finished your novel and liked it, finding myself most intrigued with Christine, as it should be in that it’s her book. At the beginning she’s bitten with wanderlust that has her venturing to do volunteer teaching in a Cambodian refugee camp in Thailand which explains her penchant for the exotic. Was this a stretch or was her experience there and throughout in parallel with your own? If so, how? Etc.
A: I did not actually volunteer in a Cambodian refugee camp, but someone who was on the JET Program at the same time as me did immediately after finishing her JET stint in Tokushima. It was something that I would have been interested in doing, but I actually never left after having met my now-husband. I guess it’s more of a scenario imagining what if?
Q: Hideki is there from the beginning but sometimes there’s no there there in his lacunae as “leading man” which may be the point. Could you elaborate on how you see him as a major character in your book? How he came together?
A: I think that many foreign women find being married to Japanese men to be quite lonely. Japanese men tend to work long hours and socialize with their peers while their wives stay home with the kids. American women are brought up to expect equal partnerships and date nights and companionship, so it can take awhile to adjust. I thought it would be easy to write Hideki as something of a villain, but I tried to write him as a sympathetic character torn between traditional expectations and the demands of his somewhat untraditional family. In a way, I was trying, as the often-lonely wife of a Japanese high school baseball coach, to see things through my husband’s point of view and thereby develop empathy for him.
Q: As fellow foreigners in Japan we live in the shadows and are often considered KY, kuki yomenai, those not being able to read the air, to pick up on the vibe and thus inept in rolling ourselves up in the big thing, as it were/is. How do you find human connection and/or common ground in the far reaches of Japan? And who are the mysterious members of AFWJ you dedicate your book to?
A: I think I do okay with my colleagues at work, but I live in a neighborhood of farmers (my in-law’s former house) and even after over 15 years, I don’t have a strong connection with my neighbors. It’s no doubt partly my fault, as an introverted, bookish, indoorsy-type who dislikes group activities.
I have several foreign women friends, a couple of whom are members of the Association of Foreign Wives of Japanese (AFWJ), who have provided a lot of support over the years. I think it might be hard for some Western women who haven’t lived here to understand why any foreign woman would try to stick it out here. One reviewer of my first novel LOSING KEI lost patience with the main character Jill, saying that she should have known what she was getting into by marrying a Japanese man. After all, she’d been living in Japan already for a year! Really, you can’t know beforehand what it’s going to be like. But the members of AFWJ would understand why Christine does what she does.
Eric Madeen
Yokohama 6/27/2021
Suzanne Kamata hits a homer with The Baseball Widow
There’s much to like in Suzanne Kamata’s forthcoming novel The Baseball Widow. For aficionados of Japan, things described therein will resonate and for those curious about the island nation there’s much to learn.
Each chapter is keyed with the character name whose perspective we’re seeing through in third-person limited, i.e., limited to his/her consciousness or point of view. The main character, Christine, is an American woman married to Hideki, a Japanese and the coach of the high school baseball team into which he pours nine-tenths of his energy. Aptly titled, the baseball widow has Christine left to fend for herself in a town on Japan’s southwestern island of Shikoku, an island the novelist Suzanne Kamata has called home for decades now. The couple have two children, a boy Koji and a girl Emma who’s afflicted with cerebral palsy, wheelchair bound and communicates with her mother through sign language.
Kamata indeed knows her Japan and is on familiar ground with baseball, well-covered by Robert Whiting’s books and also serving in Kamata’s novel as an apt metaphor for the Japanese way. But Christine is at odds in much of what is ingrained in her host country nationals’ way of living. The kata, or way, mode, manner, form, etc., are very much there and Christine is often out of kata. “She was wearing a floppy straw hat and sunglasses, the only woman without a parasol and elbow-length gloves. She was also the only woman in a bright red dress. After a certain age, Japanese women went for dark, somber colors, but her closet was a rainbow.”
Christine, needless to say, is unique and thus isolated but duty bound until she uproots with her offspring to her parents’ abode in South Carolina. I found myself empathizing with her or rather cheering her courage for breaking with a husband who’s married to the team and decamping from an island and culture where she’s largely an outcaste.
I was heartened when she has an affair with an American Iraq War vet in her hometown which shows what she is missing and delighted when the team’s star goes against the ingrained selfless kata of bunting to move that first-base runner onto second and thus into scoring position. But then things go awry and we’re left with shattered pieces and lives and Hideki’s wise words, transcribed as they are in third-person: “Hideki would come to understand that there was no such thing as pure joy, that even the greatest happiness was tarnished somehow, temporary, but worth striving for all the same.”
Well-worth perusing, The Baseball Widow is disturbing and engaging in its exploration of themes of being a stranger in a strange land then not being able to go home again, if I can epitomize it through paraphrased titles of Heinlein and Wolfe. The writing is crisp and the many chapters from the points of view of the Japanese characters are on the money … all the way through to the duty-bound end.
What follows is an email thread with the novelist herself:
Q: First, congratulations on hitting a homer. I just finished your novel and liked it, finding myself most intrigued with Christine, as it should be in that it’s her book. At the beginning she’s bitten with wanderlust that has her venturing to do volunteer teaching in a Cambodian refugee camp in Thailand which explains her penchant for the exotic. Was this a stretch or was her experience there and throughout in parallel with your own? If so, how? Etc.
A: I did not actually volunteer in a Cambodian refugee camp, but someone who was on the JET Program at the same time as me did immediately after finishing her JET stint in Tokushima. It was something that I would have been interested in doing, but I actually never left after having met my now-husband. I guess it’s more of a scenario imagining what if?
Q: Hideki is there from the beginning but sometimes there’s no there there in his lacunae as “leading man” which may be the point. Could you elaborate on how you see him as a major character in your book? How he came together?
A: I think that many foreign women find being married to Japanese men to be quite lonely. Japanese men tend to work long hours and socialize with their peers while their wives stay home with the kids. American women are brought up to expect equal partnerships and date nights and companionship, so it can take awhile to adjust. I thought it would be easy to write Hideki as something of a villain, but I tried to write him as a sympathetic character torn between traditional expectations and the demands of his somewhat untraditional family. In a way, I was trying, as the often-lonely wife of a Japanese high school baseball coach, to see things through my husband’s point of view and thereby develop empathy for him.
Q: As fellow foreigners in Japan we live in the shadows and are often considered KY, kuki yomenai, those not being able to read the air, to pick up on the vibe and thus inept in rolling ourselves up in the big thing, as it were/is. How do you find human connection and/or common ground in the far reaches of Japan? And who are the mysterious members of AFWJ you dedicate your book to?
A: I think I do okay with my colleagues at work, but I live in a neighborhood of farmers (my in-law’s former house) and even after over 15 years, I don’t have a strong connection with my neighbors. It’s no doubt partly my fault, as an introverted, bookish, indoorsy-type who dislikes group activities.
I have several foreign women friends, a couple of whom are members of the Association of Foreign Wives of Japanese (AFWJ), who have provided a lot of support over the years. I think it might be hard for some Western women who haven’t lived here to understand why any foreign woman would try to stick it out here. One reviewer of my first novel LOSING KEI lost patience with the main character Jill, saying that she should have known what she was getting into by marrying a Japanese man. After all, she’d been living in Japan already for a year! Really, you can’t know beforehand what it’s going to be like. But the members of AFWJ would understand why Christine does what she does.
Eric Madeen
Yokohama 6/27/2021
September 28, 2021
And it's a grand slam!
Christine, an American woman, is a teacher in Japan where she meets and marries Hideki. He's the high school's baseball coach in a country where baseball is everything. They have two children, a boy, Koji and a daughter Emma who is wheelchair bound with cerebral palsy and is deaf. Hideki spends all his time and energy on his baseball team leaving nothing left for his family. Other than the three other women in the "American Wives' Club" Christine is alone to take care of the kids and navigate her life in Japan. When Koji comes home from school one day he has bad scratches down his back from being bullied and Christine reaches her limit and takes her kids back to her parents in America leaving Hideki behind. Here she meets up with an old high school friend, damaged by the war in Iraq, and long buried or ignored feelings emerge that leave Christine in a quandary. Add to this the story of Daisuke, a student on Hideki's team that has fallen for a classmate that has her own troubles he hopes to help her with.
Each chapter in this compelling story is told from the perspective of these three richly drawn characters plus a few from the POV of Daisuke's mom. I was captivated by Christine's story from the start. I empathized with her feelings of being an outcast in a foreign land. I cheered her on when she takes it on herself to move her kids and herself back to the States. I understood Hideki's all consuming commitment to his baseball team in a country where the sport rules and where doors are opened to its stars that otherwise remain locked. I wanted Daisuke to be able to help his classmate out of her troubles knowing there was really little he could do. Ultimately, I really enjoyed the journey these characters took me on and appreciate their stories conclusions. I highly recommend this one to anyone who enjoys good literature with a lot of heart.
.
Thank you to the author, Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing and Suzy Approved Book Tours for the gifted ARC and including me on this tour.
Christine, an American woman, is a teacher in Japan where she meets and marries Hideki. He's the high school's baseball coach in a country where baseball is everything. They have two children, a boy, Koji and a daughter Emma who is wheelchair bound with cerebral palsy and is deaf. Hideki spends all his time and energy on his baseball team leaving nothing left for his family. Other than the three other women in the "American Wives' Club" Christine is alone to take care of the kids and navigate her life in Japan. When Koji comes home from school one day he has bad scratches down his back from being bullied and Christine reaches her limit and takes her kids back to her parents in America leaving Hideki behind. Here she meets up with an old high school friend, damaged by the war in Iraq, and long buried or ignored feelings emerge that leave Christine in a quandary. Add to this the story of Daisuke, a student on Hideki's team that has fallen for a classmate that has her own troubles he hopes to help her with.
Each chapter in this compelling story is told from the perspective of these three richly drawn characters plus a few from the POV of Daisuke's mom. I was captivated by Christine's story from the start. I empathized with her feelings of being an outcast in a foreign land. I cheered her on when she takes it on herself to move her kids and herself back to the States. I understood Hideki's all consuming commitment to his baseball team in a country where the sport rules and where doors are opened to its stars that otherwise remain locked. I wanted Daisuke to be able to help his classmate out of her troubles knowing there was really little he could do. Ultimately, I really enjoyed the journey these characters took me on and appreciate their stories conclusions. I highly recommend this one to anyone who enjoys good literature with a lot of heart.
.
Thank you to the author, Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing and Suzy Approved Book Tours for the gifted ARC and including me on this tour.
October 9, 2021
Who's ready for a heavy read? This was a glimpse into the Japanese culture and it was a very interesting read. All the topics this book touched on were so real. The Child with special needs was so enlightening. I found this book one that I am very happy that I read. 4 stars and I recommend this one. The Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for review. A favorable review was not required and all views expressed are our own.
November 18, 2021
It's taken me far too long to read Suzanne Kamata's work, but I'm glad I finally bought and read The Baseball Widow. A thoroughly engrossing read, I loved the material about Japan's high school Koshien baseball tournament, and I really appreciated how deftly Kamata moved the story not merely between her complex and well-developed characters but also between Japan and the U.S. I look forward to reading more of Kamata's work soon.
October 8, 2021
Told from multiple perspectives, Suzanne Kamata’s latest novel lays bare the challenges of life in twenty-first century Japan. While Hideki buries himself in the endless duties of a Japanese high school teacher – not least the time-consuming task of coaching the baseball team – his American wife Christine is left to worry about their disabled daughter and her son who is being bullied at school. As multiple pressures come to bear on the family, the relationship fractures. Told with sensitivity, and a nuanced understanding of contemporary Japanese society and the place of immigrants within the community, Kamata’s characters will remain long after the final page.
April 22, 2022
I'm the editor of a magazine of Japanese culture called Japonica (https://medium.com/japonica-publication), and author of a Japanese language textbook. I lived in Kobe, Japan, not too far from Shikoku, where the author lives and the story is story is set. So I picked up this book with great anticipation. I wasn't disappointed.
If Japan has a national religion, it’s not Buddhism or Shinto but Baseball with a capital B. Its temples are every high school in the country where the baseball teams strive to make it to the finals of the tournament known as Koshien, named after the stadium near Osaka where twice a year, a national champion is crowned on its hallowed grounds.
"Koshien was where dreams came true. Ichiro Suzuki, Hideo Nomo, Hideki Irabu: they’d all first captured the nation’s imagination in this sea-scented stadium amid the rush of trains."
This may be high school, but it’s not little league. The training is more intense than the military and runs year round. At some schools, baseball practice starts at 5 AM and runs until 9 at night, after which the players still have to do their homework and prepare for school exams.
Coaching a high school baseball team is Hideki Yamada’s dream job, himself a former high school pitcher until he injured his arm. Hideki is given the impossible task of building a team from scratch at a new high school in Tokushima, a small rural city on the island of Shikoku in the west of Japan.
Hideki launches into coaching with commitment and dedication, determined to see his team make it to Koshien. But that means sacrificing his role as husband and father to two young children.
If Hideki has a tough job, his wife, Christine’s, is even tougher. As an American, she struggles with the language, and struggles with the isolation that comes from being an outsider in rural Japan. She has to raise their two children with little support from her husband. Her half-American son is bullied by his classmates. Her daughter, who has cerebral palsy, is deaf and uses a wheelchair.
Much is made of sacrifice in Japan, of husbands for their job, of wives for their families, of baseball players for their team.
"In the States, no one cared about the bunt. There had been a few guys on his team who excelled at laying the ball into the dirt — not him — but it wasn’t a necessary skill. It was far better to be able to blast the ball out of the park, which was something he could do. But he knew enough about Japanese baseball to understand that humility, embodied by the sacrifice bunt, was valued here. He vowed then and there to master the bunt."
In this beautiful novel by Suzanne Kamata, we see the real Japan, warts and all. Japan is not an inclusive society, and rural towns are even more difficult than the big cities. Being foreign means being an outsider in a society built on community. Being disabled means being an outcast.
But baseball brings hope and so does love and parenthood. Writing about a difficult topic, Kamata handles the story with compassion and empathy, bringing us into the world of Christine Yamada, the baseball coaches’ wife.
The story is primary Christine’s. We first meet her in Thailand where she’s come to help Cambodian refugees after a stint teaching in Japan. But she decides to return to Japan and Tokushima to marry her boyfriend, Hideki.
The chapters shift smoothly between the lives of a few different characters. In addition to Christine, we see Hideki’s world, as well as that of Daisuke, one of the high school players on Hideki’s team.
Daisuke has spent a couple of years in Atlanta but is back in Tokushima with his mother while his father is in Tokyo for his job. They’re not divorced, but barely married, too. Daisuke falls in love with his classmate, Nana, who’s father has left and remarried, leaving Nana’s mother to work as a bar hostess to support them.
Feeling isolated while her husband is consumed with coaching, Christine decides to take the kids back to America to stay with her parents for a few months. Her parents, though, are less supportive than she expects, especially with Emma, her disabled daughter.
When she rekindles a friendship with a high school classmate who lost a leg fighting in Iraq, her feelings toward Hideki and returning to Japan become yet more conflicted.
Life is tough for everyone, and every marriage seems to be hanging by the barest thread. And yet the story moves along briskly as we come to care deeply about each of these characters and their dreams and aspirations.
Will Hideki win the championship and become a local hero? Will Daisuke lead his team to victory and become a baseball star? Will Nana escape her toxic life to become a Takarazuka actress. Will Christine find her place in Tokushima or back in America? We turn the pages briskly waiting to find out.
There are plenty of novels about the ex-pat experience in Japan, but The Baseball Widow is among the best. Not only is the writing smooth and elegant, but the story goes beyond the usual experience of Tokyo or Osaka to portray daily life in rural Japan with compassion and authenticity. This is a world the author knows intimately, and I thank her for showing it to me.
I highly recommend this novel to anyone who wants to understand the true Japan, away from the big city, in sickness and in health, as husbands and wives struggle to sacrifice for each other.
If Japan has a national religion, it’s not Buddhism or Shinto but Baseball with a capital B. Its temples are every high school in the country where the baseball teams strive to make it to the finals of the tournament known as Koshien, named after the stadium near Osaka where twice a year, a national champion is crowned on its hallowed grounds.
"Koshien was where dreams came true. Ichiro Suzuki, Hideo Nomo, Hideki Irabu: they’d all first captured the nation’s imagination in this sea-scented stadium amid the rush of trains."
This may be high school, but it’s not little league. The training is more intense than the military and runs year round. At some schools, baseball practice starts at 5 AM and runs until 9 at night, after which the players still have to do their homework and prepare for school exams.
Coaching a high school baseball team is Hideki Yamada’s dream job, himself a former high school pitcher until he injured his arm. Hideki is given the impossible task of building a team from scratch at a new high school in Tokushima, a small rural city on the island of Shikoku in the west of Japan.
Hideki launches into coaching with commitment and dedication, determined to see his team make it to Koshien. But that means sacrificing his role as husband and father to two young children.
If Hideki has a tough job, his wife, Christine’s, is even tougher. As an American, she struggles with the language, and struggles with the isolation that comes from being an outsider in rural Japan. She has to raise their two children with little support from her husband. Her half-American son is bullied by his classmates. Her daughter, who has cerebral palsy, is deaf and uses a wheelchair.
Much is made of sacrifice in Japan, of husbands for their job, of wives for their families, of baseball players for their team.
"In the States, no one cared about the bunt. There had been a few guys on his team who excelled at laying the ball into the dirt — not him — but it wasn’t a necessary skill. It was far better to be able to blast the ball out of the park, which was something he could do. But he knew enough about Japanese baseball to understand that humility, embodied by the sacrifice bunt, was valued here. He vowed then and there to master the bunt."
In this beautiful novel by Suzanne Kamata, we see the real Japan, warts and all. Japan is not an inclusive society, and rural towns are even more difficult than the big cities. Being foreign means being an outsider in a society built on community. Being disabled means being an outcast.
But baseball brings hope and so does love and parenthood. Writing about a difficult topic, Kamata handles the story with compassion and empathy, bringing us into the world of Christine Yamada, the baseball coaches’ wife.
The story is primary Christine’s. We first meet her in Thailand where she’s come to help Cambodian refugees after a stint teaching in Japan. But she decides to return to Japan and Tokushima to marry her boyfriend, Hideki.
The chapters shift smoothly between the lives of a few different characters. In addition to Christine, we see Hideki’s world, as well as that of Daisuke, one of the high school players on Hideki’s team.
Daisuke has spent a couple of years in Atlanta but is back in Tokushima with his mother while his father is in Tokyo for his job. They’re not divorced, but barely married, too. Daisuke falls in love with his classmate, Nana, who’s father has left and remarried, leaving Nana’s mother to work as a bar hostess to support them.
Feeling isolated while her husband is consumed with coaching, Christine decides to take the kids back to America to stay with her parents for a few months. Her parents, though, are less supportive than she expects, especially with Emma, her disabled daughter.
When she rekindles a friendship with a high school classmate who lost a leg fighting in Iraq, her feelings toward Hideki and returning to Japan become yet more conflicted.
Life is tough for everyone, and every marriage seems to be hanging by the barest thread. And yet the story moves along briskly as we come to care deeply about each of these characters and their dreams and aspirations.
Will Hideki win the championship and become a local hero? Will Daisuke lead his team to victory and become a baseball star? Will Nana escape her toxic life to become a Takarazuka actress. Will Christine find her place in Tokushima or back in America? We turn the pages briskly waiting to find out.
There are plenty of novels about the ex-pat experience in Japan, but The Baseball Widow is among the best. Not only is the writing smooth and elegant, but the story goes beyond the usual experience of Tokyo or Osaka to portray daily life in rural Japan with compassion and authenticity. This is a world the author knows intimately, and I thank her for showing it to me.
I highly recommend this novel to anyone who wants to understand the true Japan, away from the big city, in sickness and in health, as husbands and wives struggle to sacrifice for each other.
October 3, 2021
Lindas Book Obsession Reviews “The Baseball Widow” by Suzanne Kamata, October 5, 2021. On Suzy Approved Book Tours.
Suzanne Kamata, the author of “The Baseball Widow” has written a unique, intriguing, and captivating story. The genre for this story is Literary Fiction. I love the way the author discusses cultural diversity, physical handicaps, different social classes, and the differences between baseball in Japan and the United States. The author also mentions PTSD. The author describes her characters as complex, complicated, stressed, and flawed.
Christine, an American teacher marries Hideki a Japanese baseball coach. Hideki works a tremendous amount of hours in Japan trying to accomplish his goals. They have 2 children. One is handicapped in a wheelchair and the other is a young boy that is bullied. Christine is very lonely and feels that she is on the outside.
Christine does bring her children to America for a short time, hoping that she will have some normalcy to her life. She has no idea what lies in store for her.
The author describes the lives of other characters, and each one has its own set of problems. I love the style of writing that the author uses, and I highly recommend this novel to others.
Suzanne Kamata, the author of “The Baseball Widow” has written a unique, intriguing, and captivating story. The genre for this story is Literary Fiction. I love the way the author discusses cultural diversity, physical handicaps, different social classes, and the differences between baseball in Japan and the United States. The author also mentions PTSD. The author describes her characters as complex, complicated, stressed, and flawed.
Christine, an American teacher marries Hideki a Japanese baseball coach. Hideki works a tremendous amount of hours in Japan trying to accomplish his goals. They have 2 children. One is handicapped in a wheelchair and the other is a young boy that is bullied. Christine is very lonely and feels that she is on the outside.
Christine does bring her children to America for a short time, hoping that she will have some normalcy to her life. She has no idea what lies in store for her.
The author describes the lives of other characters, and each one has its own set of problems. I love the style of writing that the author uses, and I highly recommend this novel to others.
June 27, 2022
The Baseball Widow, by Suzanne Kamata, is a poignant, at times provocative novel. It’s the kind of work that lingers with you long after the last page has been turned. The power of the work comes from Kamata’s ability to deliver compelling and believable characters. I admit when I first picked up the novel, I didn’t really know what to expect. I knew it dealt with the cultural dissonance between an American woman and her Japanese husband. And of course there would be baseball. I like baseball. I like explorations of cultural differences. But, would I like a novel about these topics? In this case, the answer is absolutely “yes”. The answer is also that this novel is really much more than marriage and baseball. The Baseball Widow is an engrossing and affecting exploration of the capacity of the human heart to hunger, to hurt, and to hope. Suzanne Kamata is a gifted writer. Her prose is crisp and often elegant. I highly recommend The Baseball Widow.
October 16, 2021
Christine is an American teacher married to Hideki with two children. Living in Japan isn't easy for Christine. She is alot different than the woman there. Hideki is a Japanese high school baseball coach that puts his heart and soul into his team. He is distant and Christine deals with the heaviness of having a disabled daughter. When their son is a victim of bullying, Christine decides to return to the states leaving Hideki in Japan. Things gets more complicated when Christine connects with an old friend from high school. A friend home from Irag that is dealing with his own wounds. They understand eachother, they connect leaving Christine with more choices to make. This was a thought provoking read. A look into Japanese culture, multi cultural marriage and I really felt everything Christine was dealing with. A very good read.
October 1, 2021
Not only is this cover stunning, but the story inside is wonderful too! It is filled with real, honest characters that I connected with. I loved the cultural perspective of an American living and marrying in Japan. This is a journey of love and self-discovery, and I thought it was beautiful!
I was provided a gifted copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.
I was provided a gifted copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.
January 21, 2022
lovely! It's about an American woman married to man who is Japanese and a baseball coach. With Shohei Ohtani's rise in popularity, it's interesting to read what it's high school baseball is really like.
I recommend it to: baseball fans, fans of Japan, and everybody else!
I recommend it to: baseball fans, fans of Japan, and everybody else!
September 30, 2021
This book is a thought provoking book about marrying, raising a family, and the daily living of a house with a gaping cultural divide.
It’s a story about promises made but not kept. It’s a look at the Japanese culture, sports, and education system. It’s a glimpse into having a child with medical needs. It‘s about choices, wants, and sacrifices.
I’ve never lived overseas or had to assimilate into a different culture so this book was an eye opener for me. This book is a heavy read, but one that holds a richness in the road that is traversed
This book is told in multiple points of view and has two storylines. The first storyline is Christine and Hideki. Christine who is an American marries Hideki, a Japanese high school teacher and baseball coach. Baseball is Hideki’s life source and Christine becomes worn out from raising a shy son and a daughter with extreme medical issues alone. Thinking going back home to the states will make her life easier, Christine will find that the grass is never greener on the other side; it’s only a different type of grass.
The other storyline is about Daisuke, one of Hideki’s high school baseball players. Daisuke has just spent the last three years in Atlanta due to his dad’s job and now must come back and try to fit into his hometown. He befriends a female classmate, Nana, which goes against many of the cultural norms.
It’s a story about promises made but not kept. It’s a look at the Japanese culture, sports, and education system. It’s a glimpse into having a child with medical needs. It‘s about choices, wants, and sacrifices.
I’ve never lived overseas or had to assimilate into a different culture so this book was an eye opener for me. This book is a heavy read, but one that holds a richness in the road that is traversed
This book is told in multiple points of view and has two storylines. The first storyline is Christine and Hideki. Christine who is an American marries Hideki, a Japanese high school teacher and baseball coach. Baseball is Hideki’s life source and Christine becomes worn out from raising a shy son and a daughter with extreme medical issues alone. Thinking going back home to the states will make her life easier, Christine will find that the grass is never greener on the other side; it’s only a different type of grass.
The other storyline is about Daisuke, one of Hideki’s high school baseball players. Daisuke has just spent the last three years in Atlanta due to his dad’s job and now must come back and try to fit into his hometown. He befriends a female classmate, Nana, which goes against many of the cultural norms.
November 23, 2022
A well-told story of a mixed-nationality family in small-town (Shikoku) Japan. An American wife, struggling to feel at home in Japanese society and a Japanese husband, who teaches and coaches baseball at a local high school, occupations that he gives all of his time and attention. They have two children, one with multiple disabilities. A third POV character is a Japanese high school boy who has transferred from Atlanta, where he had lived several years, and his friendship with a girl from a troubled home.
The author is an American woman married to a Japanese high school baseball coach, and has a daughter with the same disabilities, so she knows what she is writing about. She does a great job of showing the experience of foreigners in Japanese society, and elucidating the world of contemporary Japanese families. Many of her observations were spot-on. She did a good job with the story, and is a skilled prose writer.
The author is an American woman married to a Japanese high school baseball coach, and has a daughter with the same disabilities, so she knows what she is writing about. She does a great job of showing the experience of foreigners in Japanese society, and elucidating the world of contemporary Japanese families. Many of her observations were spot-on. She did a good job with the story, and is a skilled prose writer.
December 9, 2022
This is a wonderful, poignant story about an American woman who is married to a Japanese high school baseball coach. Life isn't easy for Christine, raising two biracial children in the countryside with almost no help at all from Hideki, and she needs to make a number of tough decisions.
I have two regrets about reading Kamata’s "The Baseball Widow." My first regret is that even though it had been on my reading list for ages, I had put off reading it for so long. Well, that was dumb! I wish I had read it when it was hot off the press.
And my second regret was that the book ended. I felt so invested in all the characters that I wanted to know what would happen to them next week, next month, and next year.
I hope that there is a sequel in the works because I really do want to know if there is life after baseball.
I have two regrets about reading Kamata’s "The Baseball Widow." My first regret is that even though it had been on my reading list for ages, I had put off reading it for so long. Well, that was dumb! I wish I had read it when it was hot off the press.
And my second regret was that the book ended. I felt so invested in all the characters that I wanted to know what would happen to them next week, next month, and next year.
I hope that there is a sequel in the works because I really do want to know if there is life after baseball.
January 29, 2022
This book is so beautifully written and completely captivating. If you've ever lived and worked in Japan you'll relate to Christine's character and her struggles as she tries so hard to fit in to the Japanese way of life. It's hard not to warm to Christine's character. She's devoted to her children and she always tries to be positive despite the fact she has so much to do looking after her family, especially her daughter with cerebral palsy. If you're dating or married to a Japanese man this novel is even more of an eye-opener.
Kamata also points out the differences between life in Shikoku and busier, more glamorous cities like Tokyo. When her new friend from Canada called Sophia shows up with a pretty pink manicure and a diamante on the nail of her ring finger Christine makes the observation that it's too gaudy for rural Japan. Kamata also touches on other important subjects like xenophobia when her son is bullied at school as well as dementia and the way Japan is dealing with an ageing population.
If you're dreaming of living in Japan you should definitely read Kamata's book before you go. This author really captures a lot of the realities one wouldn't expect to face: "She'd been like a doll on display. A talking doll. An amusing diversion between the business of grammar and spelling." (p. 4)
There are lots of festivals, traditions, and customs in Japan. Kamata mentions quite a few of these rituals and shows the reader how difficult it can be to honour them accordingly while you're being judged on whether you're doing so correctly by the Japanese people.
Kamata is wonderful at writing stories with characters who have disabilities and in doing so she educates all of us. It must have been heart-wrenching for this author to write about the birth of Christine's daughter who was born at twenty-six weeks and her husband Hideki's shocking reaction when he saw his little girl for the first time. Hideki and his parent's attitude when his daughter is a little bit older show the reader that everyone in a family may not be on the same page when it comes down to raising a child with a disability. Christine was more pragmatic teaching her daughter sign language so they could talk but Hideki and his mother were always hoping to find a "magic bullet and instant solution" that would cure her so they wouldn't have to spend time learning this manual form of communication.
Overall, this is a brilliant book with an incredibly moving story line and I highly recommend it even if you've never been to Japan.
Kamata also points out the differences between life in Shikoku and busier, more glamorous cities like Tokyo. When her new friend from Canada called Sophia shows up with a pretty pink manicure and a diamante on the nail of her ring finger Christine makes the observation that it's too gaudy for rural Japan. Kamata also touches on other important subjects like xenophobia when her son is bullied at school as well as dementia and the way Japan is dealing with an ageing population.
If you're dreaming of living in Japan you should definitely read Kamata's book before you go. This author really captures a lot of the realities one wouldn't expect to face: "She'd been like a doll on display. A talking doll. An amusing diversion between the business of grammar and spelling." (p. 4)
There are lots of festivals, traditions, and customs in Japan. Kamata mentions quite a few of these rituals and shows the reader how difficult it can be to honour them accordingly while you're being judged on whether you're doing so correctly by the Japanese people.
Kamata is wonderful at writing stories with characters who have disabilities and in doing so she educates all of us. It must have been heart-wrenching for this author to write about the birth of Christine's daughter who was born at twenty-six weeks and her husband Hideki's shocking reaction when he saw his little girl for the first time. Hideki and his parent's attitude when his daughter is a little bit older show the reader that everyone in a family may not be on the same page when it comes down to raising a child with a disability. Christine was more pragmatic teaching her daughter sign language so they could talk but Hideki and his mother were always hoping to find a "magic bullet and instant solution" that would cure her so they wouldn't have to spend time learning this manual form of communication.
Overall, this is a brilliant book with an incredibly moving story line and I highly recommend it even if you've never been to Japan.
October 9, 2021
This book was so good!! I learned so much about Japanese culture and found it so interesting.
There are two stories interwoven in this book. The first is about Christine, an American woman, and Hideki, her Japanese husband. They live in Japan, where baseball is Hideki’s life. Christine thinks her and their kids, one of whom has medical needs, will fare better in America. But Christine learns the grass is not always greener on the other side.
The other story is of Daisuke, who is one of Hideki’s players. Daisuke has been living stateside, and comes back to Japan. He has to re-acclimate himself to the culture.
This book was so emotional, and made you think about your life. Phenomenal read that is also available in KU.
There are two stories interwoven in this book. The first is about Christine, an American woman, and Hideki, her Japanese husband. They live in Japan, where baseball is Hideki’s life. Christine thinks her and their kids, one of whom has medical needs, will fare better in America. But Christine learns the grass is not always greener on the other side.
The other story is of Daisuke, who is one of Hideki’s players. Daisuke has been living stateside, and comes back to Japan. He has to re-acclimate himself to the culture.
This book was so emotional, and made you think about your life. Phenomenal read that is also available in KU.
April 12, 2025
I’m giving this book 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.
Christine, an American married to a Japanese man, is juggling family life with two young children, one of whom has a disability. Throughout the story, she struggles with the imbalance between her husband's work commitments and family priorities.
I really enjoyed this book. The writing and character development were strong (I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator did a great job). I became deeply invested in the characters, to the point that I’m left wanting to know more about Nana’s future, as well as how Christine and her husband would navigate their challenges and continue their international marriage into old age. It raises the question of how we cope with struggles and grow from them.
I honestly think this book could make a great series, with a whole novel dedicated to Nana and another to Christine's journey.
What I took away from this story was the importance of finding balance between work, life, and family. It also highlighted how we often need to appreciate what we have, as the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
I truly hope to see these characters again.
Christine, an American married to a Japanese man, is juggling family life with two young children, one of whom has a disability. Throughout the story, she struggles with the imbalance between her husband's work commitments and family priorities.
I really enjoyed this book. The writing and character development were strong (I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator did a great job). I became deeply invested in the characters, to the point that I’m left wanting to know more about Nana’s future, as well as how Christine and her husband would navigate their challenges and continue their international marriage into old age. It raises the question of how we cope with struggles and grow from them.
I honestly think this book could make a great series, with a whole novel dedicated to Nana and another to Christine's journey.
What I took away from this story was the importance of finding balance between work, life, and family. It also highlighted how we often need to appreciate what we have, as the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
I truly hope to see these characters again.
October 3, 2024
Fascinating and richly-detailed look at expat and bicultural lives in Japan; ultimately rather dark but totally compelling.
October 12, 2021
The Baseball Widow
Author, Suzanne Kamata
Pub date: 10.5.21
Thank you @suzyapprovedbooktours and Wyatt MacKenzie publishing for my #gifted book and the opportunity to participate in this book tour!
The Baseball Widow is a fascinating and thought- provoking novel that explores connection, purpose, and love in a family that is culturally divided. Written in multiple points of view, this novel also has two story lines, which allows for the stories to intersect.
Christine is an American who begins her story by traveling and teaching English to Cambodian refugees. She is a strong woman who is constantly striving for a sense of purpose. Prior to leaving for Cambodia, she met Hideki, a Japanese high school teacher and rising baseball coach. After a few months, she returns to Japan where they marry and have two children. Kojo, a sweet and timid boy and Emma, a daughter born with cerebral palsy and multiple disabilities.
In addition to experiencing cultural differences, Christine is left struggling to raise their children alone, while Hideki's absence due to his devotion to his team and its success, leaves her feeling isolated and unsure of their future. When Kojo begins to be bullied at school, Christine decides that it's time for she and her children to go back to America to be with her family where she is sure that they will feel safe and supported. She becomes reacquainted with an old friend, who after being severely injured in the war with Iraq, seems to understand and give her the attention she thinks she deserves. Will Hideki risk losing his family? Will Christine choose a different future for she and her children or will she make amends with Hideki and their past?
The second story line follows Daisuke, who is one of Hideki's baseball players who just came back to Japan after living in Atlanta with his mother for the past few years. He is attempting to re- acclimate into the Japanese culture, make high school friends, an excel on the team. He is drawn to Nana, a girl in his class and is learning how to navigate the complexities of their friendship. Will Daisuke choose Nana or to follow his dreams of playing baseball?
A wonderfully complex story with strong character development that exposed their struggles, sacrifices, the impact of the choices they made, and of the power to forgive.
Beautifully written, 4.5 stars!
Author, Suzanne Kamata
Pub date: 10.5.21
Thank you @suzyapprovedbooktours and Wyatt MacKenzie publishing for my #gifted book and the opportunity to participate in this book tour!
The Baseball Widow is a fascinating and thought- provoking novel that explores connection, purpose, and love in a family that is culturally divided. Written in multiple points of view, this novel also has two story lines, which allows for the stories to intersect.
Christine is an American who begins her story by traveling and teaching English to Cambodian refugees. She is a strong woman who is constantly striving for a sense of purpose. Prior to leaving for Cambodia, she met Hideki, a Japanese high school teacher and rising baseball coach. After a few months, she returns to Japan where they marry and have two children. Kojo, a sweet and timid boy and Emma, a daughter born with cerebral palsy and multiple disabilities.
In addition to experiencing cultural differences, Christine is left struggling to raise their children alone, while Hideki's absence due to his devotion to his team and its success, leaves her feeling isolated and unsure of their future. When Kojo begins to be bullied at school, Christine decides that it's time for she and her children to go back to America to be with her family where she is sure that they will feel safe and supported. She becomes reacquainted with an old friend, who after being severely injured in the war with Iraq, seems to understand and give her the attention she thinks she deserves. Will Hideki risk losing his family? Will Christine choose a different future for she and her children or will she make amends with Hideki and their past?
The second story line follows Daisuke, who is one of Hideki's baseball players who just came back to Japan after living in Atlanta with his mother for the past few years. He is attempting to re- acclimate into the Japanese culture, make high school friends, an excel on the team. He is drawn to Nana, a girl in his class and is learning how to navigate the complexities of their friendship. Will Daisuke choose Nana or to follow his dreams of playing baseball?
A wonderfully complex story with strong character development that exposed their struggles, sacrifices, the impact of the choices they made, and of the power to forgive.
Beautifully written, 4.5 stars!
Read
July 17, 2022Compelling characters, immersion in Japanese daily life, culture clash—and baseball!
In this fascinating novel set mostly in small-town Japan, Suzanne Kamata paints a vivid picture of daily life that can sometimes be frustrating and claustrophobic for the “baseball widow” Christine, an American who married a Japanese baseball coach. When they married, Christine believed that love would transcend cultural differences, but as the years pass, she becomes unhappy with the restrictions of the very regulated Japanese way of life. Mostly, she misses her husband Hideki, who devotes almost every waking hour to his baseball team and his teaching career. She is left to manage their two children, one of whom is multiply disabled. She finds that she misses the openness of American life, which leads to a crisis for the family.
The point of view rotates between other characters as well—chiefly Hideki and one of his promising proteges on the team. Daisuke had spent three years in the U.S., and now in his return to Japan, he also struggles to readapt.
I was drawn in empathy toward all the characters in their different struggles, and Kamata has a deft touch in painting their interior lives. Equally vivid are all the small details of Japanese life, from the year-round baseball practices (As a non-fan, I might say “obsessions”) to karaoke clubs to the rituals of greetings and neighborhood protocols in close-packed houses “where you could hear the phone ringing three houses away.” I felt that I was there with the nail-biting games, Christine’s aching knees as she kneels with the Japanese wives for hours to painstakingly craft the rigidly perfect name tags for the children’s school, and Daisuke’s painful longing for a troubled teenage girl whose mother is not approved by the community. I also rooted for Christine and Hideki’s wheelchair-dependent, hearing impaired daughter, whose fearless embrace of life is an inspiring model for us all.
Clearly I don’t have a wish to live in Japan, but am grateful for this intimate glimpse of a different culture. Suzanne Kamata’s gifted writing lets me be an armchair traveler!
In this fascinating novel set mostly in small-town Japan, Suzanne Kamata paints a vivid picture of daily life that can sometimes be frustrating and claustrophobic for the “baseball widow” Christine, an American who married a Japanese baseball coach. When they married, Christine believed that love would transcend cultural differences, but as the years pass, she becomes unhappy with the restrictions of the very regulated Japanese way of life. Mostly, she misses her husband Hideki, who devotes almost every waking hour to his baseball team and his teaching career. She is left to manage their two children, one of whom is multiply disabled. She finds that she misses the openness of American life, which leads to a crisis for the family.
The point of view rotates between other characters as well—chiefly Hideki and one of his promising proteges on the team. Daisuke had spent three years in the U.S., and now in his return to Japan, he also struggles to readapt.
I was drawn in empathy toward all the characters in their different struggles, and Kamata has a deft touch in painting their interior lives. Equally vivid are all the small details of Japanese life, from the year-round baseball practices (As a non-fan, I might say “obsessions”) to karaoke clubs to the rituals of greetings and neighborhood protocols in close-packed houses “where you could hear the phone ringing three houses away.” I felt that I was there with the nail-biting games, Christine’s aching knees as she kneels with the Japanese wives for hours to painstakingly craft the rigidly perfect name tags for the children’s school, and Daisuke’s painful longing for a troubled teenage girl whose mother is not approved by the community. I also rooted for Christine and Hideki’s wheelchair-dependent, hearing impaired daughter, whose fearless embrace of life is an inspiring model for us all.
Clearly I don’t have a wish to live in Japan, but am grateful for this intimate glimpse of a different culture. Suzanne Kamata’s gifted writing lets me be an armchair traveler!
October 25, 2021
In a story that spans multiple continents and different cultures, The Baseball Window tells two concurrent stories about family, assumed duty, and love. Christine and Hideki live their lives according to baseball. With two children, one disabled, they struggle to find balance. Daisuke has come back home to Japan after a few years living in Atlanta to play baseball in hopes of making it to the championships. Told in multiple points of view, The Baseball Widow explores what happens when life isn't exactly how you imagined it would turn out.
It took me a hot minute to get into the story and sort out the different characters. But once I did, I found myself quickly turning pages to figure out what would happen next. I really enjoyed the glimpse into Christine and Hideki's struggling marriage. It seemed like they had a lot stacked against them and the author explores what happens when life isn't exactly what you signed up for when you say, "I do."
The portrayal of Hideki's plight to make it to the championships as a coach felt very real and accurate. Being a high level coach is difficult and the pressures can not only impact yourself, but also your family. There is truly no off season and this hinders you being able to see your family.
The story line of Christine's struggles with her disabled daughter and son who was being severely bullied was heartbreaking. As a mom, you want to do everything you can to help your children, but when raising children as a Westerner in a foreign country, it can be a struggle at best. Clashes of tradition, cultural expectations and lack of resources drove Christine to make some suspect decisions, but when faced with surmounting pressures, I can see why she did what she did.
It took me a hot minute to get into the story and sort out the different characters. But once I did, I found myself quickly turning pages to figure out what would happen next. I really enjoyed the glimpse into Christine and Hideki's struggling marriage. It seemed like they had a lot stacked against them and the author explores what happens when life isn't exactly what you signed up for when you say, "I do."
The portrayal of Hideki's plight to make it to the championships as a coach felt very real and accurate. Being a high level coach is difficult and the pressures can not only impact yourself, but also your family. There is truly no off season and this hinders you being able to see your family.
The story line of Christine's struggles with her disabled daughter and son who was being severely bullied was heartbreaking. As a mom, you want to do everything you can to help your children, but when raising children as a Westerner in a foreign country, it can be a struggle at best. Clashes of tradition, cultural expectations and lack of resources drove Christine to make some suspect decisions, but when faced with surmounting pressures, I can see why she did what she did.
July 4, 2024
Suzanne Kamata spins an intriguing tale of ex-patriots, Japan, Japanese Baseball, and more through the experiences of three characters (mostly): Hideki, a Baseball coach; Christine, an ex-pat from America, married to Hideki; Daisuke, a high school Baseball player who has spent some time in America. The title alludes to the main conflict. Hideki spends all his time teaching and then coaching his Baseball players and in Christine's eyes neglects his family, his two children, one a disabled yet fearless girl, and the other a timid young boy. Kamata does an excellent job showing the cultural differences between Christine's American expectations for marriage and fatherhood and the Japanese work ethic and reverence of Baseball that inform the reason for Hideki's long hours at the diamond with his players. Given that Kamata is herself an ex-apt with two children married to a high school Baseball coach and so the novel obviously has at least some autobiographical foundations, she does an excellent and very wise job in making Hideki a very sympathetic character, showing the reasons for his long hours, his dedication to his Baseball team both personally and culturally, and how in his mind he makes great sacrifices for his family. In so doing, the character of Christine is somewhat less likeable (though she achieves redemption), especially when she flees to America with her two children and engages in an unwise involvement with an old crush, a veteran suffering from PTSD. Nevertheless, Kamata's prose and deep character dives make the novel zing, like a well pitched fast ball. I am a fan of Kamata's work and recommend all her other works to readers who may come across this one and/or this review.
October 29, 2021
Any baseball fans out there? Who’s your favorite team? Growing up my parents used to raise livestock and the owner of the Angels Gene Autry used to buy meat from them! My grandparents were huge Angels fans. I’ve never really gotten into the sport but I’m always down for the Little League snack bar.
Christine is an American living in Japan with her baseball coach Hideki. Trying to fit in with the other baseball wives isn’t easy, but she feels like she’s single mom in a foreign land all alone while her husband spends all day everyday at the field. Things are especially difficult because Christine’s daughter was born a micro preemie and suffering from major complications that sets her apart from everyone else. Hideki has a big responsibility to produce a winning team and to also provide for his family. This season he has one player every team is after, but he’s hoping he can promise to dedicate all his time to coaching him and win the family over.
Daisuke loves playing baseball and he’s really good at it to. He dreams of getting a scholarship and going on to play professionally. He was transferred into a new school and is getting good grades and making friends. He also has his eye on a girl in his home room class, Nana. As Daisuke gets to know Nana he realizes she has many issues in her family and her life could complicate his. Is he willing to let his mind drift from his commitment to baseball to a girl who may not care for him?
Both families, coach and player, will go through big transitions through the season and come out with regrets and appreciation.
Christine is an American living in Japan with her baseball coach Hideki. Trying to fit in with the other baseball wives isn’t easy, but she feels like she’s single mom in a foreign land all alone while her husband spends all day everyday at the field. Things are especially difficult because Christine’s daughter was born a micro preemie and suffering from major complications that sets her apart from everyone else. Hideki has a big responsibility to produce a winning team and to also provide for his family. This season he has one player every team is after, but he’s hoping he can promise to dedicate all his time to coaching him and win the family over.
Daisuke loves playing baseball and he’s really good at it to. He dreams of getting a scholarship and going on to play professionally. He was transferred into a new school and is getting good grades and making friends. He also has his eye on a girl in his home room class, Nana. As Daisuke gets to know Nana he realizes she has many issues in her family and her life could complicate his. Is he willing to let his mind drift from his commitment to baseball to a girl who may not care for him?
Both families, coach and player, will go through big transitions through the season and come out with regrets and appreciation.
November 26, 2025
Not only does The Baseball Widow provide a multifaceted look at the life of long-term expats in rural Japan, but the nuances and Kamata's keen eye for detail pushes the novel several steps beyond so many other Japanese expat stories. The setup is simple: a neglected American woman married to a Japanese baseball coach feels frustrated and alone dealing not only dealing with the everyday stresses of Japanese life, but raising a daughter suffering from multiple disabilities. Into this framework, though, Kamata successfully weaves the challenges faced by characters focusing their entire lives around their quest for the Koshien tournament, returnee children who've lived abroad, a Japanese housewife dealing with her mother's emerging dementia, and even the Japanese class outcast dealing with historical prejudices and family financial strain.
While much of this novel reads like a collection of interwoven short stories in a way I found surprising and enjoyable, the final pages ratchet up the tension dramatically, pulling together to form a tense climax and heartfelt conclusion that says much about the connections we hold closest. I'm certainly looking forward to checking out more of the author's work.
While much of this novel reads like a collection of interwoven short stories in a way I found surprising and enjoyable, the final pages ratchet up the tension dramatically, pulling together to form a tense climax and heartfelt conclusion that says much about the connections we hold closest. I'm certainly looking forward to checking out more of the author's work.
October 4, 2021
⚾️Christine is an American school teacher living in Japan. She meets and falls in love with Hideki, a high school baseball coach. They have two children, Emma who has cerebral palsy and is wheelchair bound, and Koji who is bullied at school.
⚾️Being in a foreign country and taking care of her two children has Christine needing her husband more than ever. But he spends 90% of his time and energy on his baseball team. So aside from some other American wives, she feels all alone.
⚾️The characters in this story are very easy to emphasize with, especially when the chapter is told from the individual’s point of view. When Christine had enough and leaves to go back to America to do what’s right for her and her children, I was rooting for her.
⚾️This story definitely has more serious plot themes and will make you think.
⚾️Being in a foreign country and taking care of her two children has Christine needing her husband more than ever. But he spends 90% of his time and energy on his baseball team. So aside from some other American wives, she feels all alone.
⚾️The characters in this story are very easy to emphasize with, especially when the chapter is told from the individual’s point of view. When Christine had enough and leaves to go back to America to do what’s right for her and her children, I was rooting for her.
⚾️This story definitely has more serious plot themes and will make you think.
March 31, 2023
This book is dedicated to the members of AFWJ but many other readers will also find it compelling, such as expatriates in Japan, and those who are interested in intercultural marriage. In particular, it will be of interest to students of anthropology as a follow -up or even counterpoint to Gail Benjamin's (1997) important study 'A year in a Japanese school through the eyes of an American anthropologist and her children'. It discusses mothering a deaf child in Japan, mothering a child with disabilities in Japan, school bullying, the difficulties of raising bicultural children, and the culture of high school baseball in Japan. The reader will be surprised by the twist in the final scenes.
October 20, 2021
The cover of The Baseball Widow is simply gorgeous. For those wishing to know more about an American expat’s experience living in Japan and also about the Japanese baseball culture this book is for you. The book is written from 4 main characters’ perspective: the husband, the wife, a player and the player’s mother (although her chapters suddenly drop off). The book was ok. 2.5 stars rounded up.
Thanks to the publisher and author for the complimentary copy I won through a Goodreads giveaway.
Thanks to the publisher and author for the complimentary copy I won through a Goodreads giveaway.
January 21, 2023
Wow I have so many thoughts about this book and the depictions of cultural differences seemed spot on but the ending made me hate the story. That should be kudos to the author that I was so invested. But I hated the characterization of the military veteran and his trauma even though I know what was depicted in the book happens. I’m also not sure why the author dove into the stories of so many side characters only to just drop their stories at the end.
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