See Loss See Also Love

March 15, 2024
A man's death is the central event in a patchwork narrative of childhood, motherhood, and continuity as experienced by his wife. An introspective frankness flavors much of this debut, delivered as Kyoko's first-person account of her life before, during, and after the time she spent with Levi, an American who died in an accident while she and their 18-month-old son, Alex, were visiting her parents in Japan. Levi's Jewish family, Kyoko's Japanese heritage, the fabric of her marriage and its afterlife, and Alex's development over the years are the themes in chapters that loosely and not always chronologically connect events and feelings into a fictional mosaic. Several chapters have been published as short stories. The product of a not especially wealthy family, Kyoko shares various early memories including watching an anime film with graphic scenes of a nuclear bomb's impact. This wartime trauma connects to time spent under the roof of Levi's brother, Ben, a man with military connections and a different, more rigorous and responsible outlook than his laid-back sibling. Ben and Levi's mother, Bubbe, offers a sweeter, more available version of family. Her exploration of dating leads to a riff on loneliness, love, and need. For all Kyoko's grief, she is unsentimental about her marriage and experiences some satisfaction in parenting independently. Elsewhere, she stresses about money. "You're cheap, obsessive and sometimes sickly paranoid," Bubbe tells her as they argue over the cost of banana cream pie. "But it's not hard to love you." Love--of family, friends, partner, and child--crops up frequently, sometimes comically, as in a chapter that has Kyoko obsessing about a now-teenage Alex's sex life. Put together, the scenes, musings, and snapshots evoke a woman struggling with identity and connection in a manner variously arbitrary, quirky, and insightful. A modest, discursive novel offers an unusual psychology, piecemeal.

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April 1, 2024
In this affecting debut, Kyoko has lost her husband in a sudden and unexpected accident. Four vignettes vividly paint a portrait of the stages she journeys through in her grief. Like grief itself, her pathway is by no means linear. Kyoko's emotions run the full gamut, with much darkness, rare light, and occasionally, humor. She has as many emotions as she does family members and past homes. Kyoko finds solace in her in-laws, her husband's warm and exuberant Jewish family in Boston; her sedate immediate family in Tokyo; her vibrant San Francisco community; and her wise, stalwart son, Alex. Tominaga weaves Kyoko's parenting challenges into her grief journey with her deep concern over whether she is raising Alex correctly. Through it all, Kyoko is constantly examining love: what it is, what it means, if it is even possible. Ultimately, in opening herself up to the pain of her loss, Kyoko also lets in the delight of all those around her. A penetrating look at the complexities of grief, love, and joy.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 6, 2024
In this wry debut from Tominaga, a Japanese woman navigates single parenthood after her American husband’s untimely death. Kyoko is visiting her parents in Japan with her 18-month-old son, Alex, when her husband, Levi, is crushed to death in their San Francisco garage by the antique car he was working on. Kyoko had stopped working after Alex was born, and she struggles to see how she’ll afford her life in San Francisco. She cuts down on her costs, finds work at a preschool, and receives emotional support from her blunt and loving mother-in-law, Bubbe. The women’s relationship forms the heart of the episodic narrative, which includes a visit to a psychic who claims Levi wasn’t happy with Kyoko. At one point, Kyoko suppresses the urge to tell Bubbe how little she misses Levi, thinking, “The greatest gift he gave me was the opportunity to raise Alex alone”; at another, Bubbe affectionately calls Kyoko her daughter, not her daughter-in-law. Tominaga depicts the women’s tensions, misunderstandings, and affection with refreshing honesty and piercing insights (“Regret, resentment, and shame would build a wall around you, believed, and by telling the truth we would break the wall and unite”). Tominga impresses with this distinctive slice of life.