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A review by nocturama
Wildcat Dome: A Novel by Yūko Tsushima
yuko tsushima's previous novels (at least the ones I've read) are linear narratives narrowly focused on the psychological experience and logistical challenges of single motherhood; the protagonists are young women who, against societal expectations, give birth to and raise children independently. in wildcat dome, written just 3 years before her death in 2016, tsushima expands her lens by writing a novel with three protagonists that spans the entirety of japan's postwar era, ending with the 2011 tsunami and nuclear reactor meltdown.
the novel is also nonlinear: every chapter essentially resets the narrative and deliberately disorients the reader, hopping from one pov character/decade/continent to an entirely new one. but the focus is always on mitch and kazu--two biracial orphans who were abandoned after wwii by their American GI fathers and Japanese mothers--and their close female friend yonko. the trifecta are haunted by themurder of their friend, a fellow biracial orphan, by a neighborhood boy who goes on to become a serial killer. the common thread of the killer's crimes is an obsession with the color orange--all his victims are women wearing an orange article of clothing.
i'm sure there's something here about orange being the color of the mushroom clouds over hiroshima and nagasaki, and the deep trauma nuclear power (whether as weapon or energy source) has left on japanese society. but all of the larger societal/world historical context feels incidental, more like window dressing to this ultimately small-scale story. and while i get the choice to scramble the chronology, it started to get tiresome to flip to a new chapter and spend a couple pages in confusion before getting enough exposition to understand where and when we are.
i'd chalk this up as an ambitious but uneven experiment. and i'd still recommend territory of light as an entry point into tsushima's fantastic ouvre.
the novel is also nonlinear: every chapter essentially resets the narrative and deliberately disorients the reader, hopping from one pov character/decade/continent to an entirely new one. but the focus is always on mitch and kazu--two biracial orphans who were abandoned after wwii by their American GI fathers and Japanese mothers--and their close female friend yonko. the trifecta are haunted by the
i'm sure there's something here about orange being the color of the mushroom clouds over hiroshima and nagasaki, and the deep trauma nuclear power (whether as weapon or energy source) has left on japanese society. but all of the larger societal/world historical context feels incidental, more like window dressing to this ultimately small-scale story. and while i get the choice to scramble the chronology, it started to get tiresome to flip to a new chapter and spend a couple pages in confusion before getting enough exposition to understand where and when we are.
i'd chalk this up as an ambitious but uneven experiment. and i'd still recommend territory of light as an entry point into tsushima's fantastic ouvre.