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Book Review By David Loftus
Summer Of The Big Bachi by Naomi Hirahara

A secret dating from Hiroshima at the time of the bomb will finally come to light more than a half century later in Los Angeles, the summer of 1999. Mas Arai, a gardener and widower is a Kibei -- born in the U.S., taken to Japan as a boy -- who made it back to California at 18. Joji Haneda, another Kibei Mas knew in Hiroshima, and who became a gardener in California as well, has died.

Nobody liked Joji, but several people show up from Japan to look into his effects and his past. The story has typical noir themes and twists: potential witnesses threatened, Mas's prized 1956 Ford truck stolen, a heated poker game climaxes in a brawl and police bust, the deceased Haneda's mistress is beaten to a pulp, and an innocent young Japanese reporter is charged. There is an envelope fat with cash, and a private investigator from Japan offers Mas big money for information, then $30,000 to keep out of it. Someone removes the oxygen mask from a beating victim in the hospital and hastens his death. The novel is adequately plotted and has a solid grasp of the different social sub-groups of Kibei, Nisei (Japanese-Americans born in the U.S.), “no-no boys” who refused to sign any kind of loyalty oaths in the internment camps, and U.S. Army vets—their conflicting loyalties and suspicions—but as a noir thriller it remains weak.


Plot & Themes
Time/era of story - 1980's-1999
Ethnic/Regional/Religion
Other aspects:
Crime & Police story Yes
Story of
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
War/Revolt/Disaster on civilians Yes
Ethnic/regional/gender life Yes
Conflict:

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status:
Age: - 60's-90's
Ethnicity/Nationality

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - long-lived adults
Profession/status:
How sensitive is this character?

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 3 ()
United States Yes
The US: - California
Asia/Pacific Yes
Asian country: - Japan
City? Yes
City: - Los Angeles
Misc setting

Writing Style
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - vague references only
Amount of dialog - significantly more descript than dialog
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