Gaijin – Review

Gaijin Book Cover

Sarah Z. Sleeper. Gaijin. Running Wild Press, 2020.

Gaijin means “foreigner” in Japanese. It does not have an especially positive connotation. There are several Gaijins in Gaijin.

The narrator, Lucy Tosch, is the primary gaijin. As an undergrad journalism major at Northwestern, she falls in love with a handsome, exotic student from Japan named Owen. Yes, his parents chose an English name for him. The author describes the attraction with a passionate intensity. At one point, she says she does not understand it, maybe it is pheromones. I said to myself, “With emphasis on the moan.”

Owen introduces her to his mother who comes with him to America. They have a few dates, but their relationship remains chaste. Suddenly, Owen leaves Illinois for Japan with nothing more than a text message saying goodbye and sorry.

Lucy, who was still struggling with the recent passing of her father, is heartbroken. I am not sure I ever in a novel read such a moving description of heartbreak. Perhaps I have red something similar in poems or heard it in songs, but not in a novel. We feel for Lucy.

Lucy continues to dwell on Owen and eventually ends up in Japan. Well, Okinawa, which has been ruled by Japan since 1879. Here, not only are there many American gaijins from the U. S. military bases, but we are told that the Okinawans consider Japanese foreigners, too. The Ryukyu Islands, of which Okinawa is a part, have their own language and distinct culture.

It turns out Owen’s family, though living in Tokyo for three generations, originated in Okinawa, and Owen’s brother is a photographer for the newspaper in Okinawa that hires Lucy. She hopes to perhaps connect with his brother Hisashi and find out what has happened to her first love.

The story gets complicated quickly. There has been an ongoing movement among some in Japan to have the American military bases leave Okinawa. Even a left-wing journalist like Lucy gets lumped with the American soldiers and sailors and experiences a terrible crime against her along with many threats. Even Hisashi gets threats because he is perceived as an outsider from Tokyo.

In some ways both brothers are outsiders, gaijins, in their family. We are told that their father is ashamed of both of them, though Lucy cannot see how that is possible. They are both intelligent, attractive, hard-working young men. It may have something to do with them not going into the family business. There may be other things.

There is more. An American sailor is charged with raping a teenage Japanese girl whose family is vacationing on the island. Anti-American demonstrations heat up. Lucy learns a little about the Americans stationed there and becomes acquainted with a few American families who, for different reasons, have retired to Okinawa when they left the service.

And then there is Aokigahara, the Suicide Forest. That becomes almost a subplot or secondary theme of the story, the practice of ubasute, “abandoning the weak.”

There is a lot to this intense story. It may begin as a love story but really turns into something else—strange, weird, and, yes, foreign. Foreign even to the Japanese, perhaps.

This reviewer does have one quibble with this book. It is odd, but another book we reviewed had a similar error. Lucy tells us she meets a Marine Corps medical doctor. Well, the Marines do not have doctors. The Marines are part of the Navy, and Marine bases use Navy physicians just as they use Navy medical corpsmen.

Also, the man she identifies as a Marine doctor has the rank of captain in her story and has been in the service for six years. The rank of Marine captain is the same a Navy lieutenant. For a regular officer, that would be a typical rank after six years, but because of their extra education, Navy doctors are commissioned as lieutenants when they first join. After six years, he would probably be a lieutenant commander.

One thought on “Gaijin – Review”

  1. Dear James,
    Thank you so much for your thorough and thoughtful review of my novel. I truly appreciate the time and care you spent and furthermore, I appreciate your suggested corrections. So helpful to have those before final printing. I just wanted you to know that I am thankful for your site and your work.
    All the best,
    Sarah Z. Sleeper

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