Regular readers may recall one of my recent vicarious journeys to Japan, courtesy of David Joiner’s novel Kanazawa, and today’s post sees me making a return trip to the region for a spot of bird-watching. Joiner’s latest novel has just been published by Stone Bridge Press, and it’s another story of cross-cultural relationships and dilemmas set slightly away from the usual gaijin haunts. Come with me, then, to the hot-spring town of Yamanaka Onsen, where we’ll be watching the skies for birds, and also watching our backs – just in case…
*****
The Heron Catchers (review copy courtesy of the publisher) is centred on Sedge, a foreigner living in Kanazawa. Right at the start, we learn that his wife, Nozomi, has run off with another man (and with most of Sedge’s money), leaving him bereft and dependent on his in-laws for assistance. After closing down his ceramics shop, he moves off to the nearby town of Yamanaka Onsen, where his brother-in-law, Takahashi, runs a ryōkan. The plan is for him to take a few months to relax, teach a few English classes to the inn’s staff and figure out what to do next.
Of course, matters don’t run quite as smoothly as all that. One of the staff members, Mariko, happens to be the wife of the man Nozomi ran off with, and when Sedge begins to get closer to her, his in-laws, first subtly then bluntly, make it clear that they’re not happy about it. Even with Mariko, herself, there’s a further complication, though. Her husband abandoned not only her, but also his son from a previous relationship, the sixteen-year-old Riku, and it seems as if by moving on with Mariko, our foreign friend is not only annoying his in-laws, but also angering a hulking teen who feels Sedge is taking her away from him.
It’s always nice to return to a literary location you spent a pleasant time in, and The Heron Catchers is an interesting spin on Kanazawa. In his latest novel, Joiner takes us just down the road to meet some different characters with fairly similar issues. Once again we have an American protagonist who has settled in Japan, but this time his marriage is virtually over before we even arrive.
The absent Nozomi, of course, is a major part of the story. I’m not sure how intentional this is, but Nozomi means ‘hope’ in Japanese, and there’s certainly a sense (early on, at least) that Sedge may not have given up on his marriage completely. In an early flashback, he reflects on a conversation that might shed some light on their problems:
She looked at him irritably, hesitating before speaking. “You’re one of the most stable people I know,” she said, making him recall a story she’d told at breakfast about a college friend who’d lost his business and marriage after gambling away all their money. “Certain people or situations might annoy you, but you never lose your cool. You just sail along and the waters beneath you never swell. You’ve never even grieved before. You’ve never experienced real suffering.”
p.36 (Stone Bridge Press, 2023)
These are comments that gain in importance as time passes. There are stories in Nozomi’s past that mean she’s not quite as stable as her husband, leading to her making the decision to throw her marriage away.
As in Kanazawa, one of the major themes of the book is cross-cultural communication, and the pitfalls thereof. More so than in the marriage of Sedge and Nozomi, this is probably more evident in the American’s dealings with Takahashi and his wife, Yuki. Everyone has a slightly different understanding of what Sedge is doing in Yamanaka Onsen, and what the future should hold, but it’s in the couple’s warnings about his relationship with Mariko that the biggest differences appear. Sedge thinks they’re poking their noses in where they don’t belong: they feel he’s not appreciating the damage he’s doing to the family name. It’s inevitable, then, that the lack of understanding on both sides will lead to bigger issues down the track.
Perhaps surprisingly, though, the more the story progresses, the more we realise that the main relationship being explored is that between Sedge and Riku. It’s a bumpy one, with plenty of ups and downs, as shown when Sedge comes to give Mariko an English lesson at her home:
“He’s good around people he trusts,” she said happily. “It’s as much because of you as either of us.”
She called to Riku: “Do you want to say goodbye?”
But Riku only stared at them, his face dark again and unreadable. (p.84)
Riku proves to be an angry young man with an artistic soul and a love of birds, and poetry, but also a penchant for lashing out when provoked. His uneasy relationship with Mariko is complicated further by the arrival of the foreigner, as he tries to work out whether to view Sedge as a father figure or as a rival in affections – or even both.
There’s much to like about The Heron Catchers, but as was the case in the earlier book, there were occasions where I was less convinced. Many readers will be slightly put off by the focus on Sedge, the gaijin leading man with a Japanese supporting cast, and the opening scenes immediately cast him in a white saviour role, strolling into action to rescue an injured heron while others gape on in awe. You can almost see it in slow-motion with the Avengers theme playing in the background…
Also, there are times when I wonder how much we’re meant to sympathise with Sedge. On several occasions, despite feeling that he’s in the wrong, I wasn’t quite sure if that was the author’s intention. There are some later scenes where our foreign friend does ponder the consequences of his actions a little, but it comes a little too late after some of his earlier behaviour.
Overall, though, The Heron Catchers is an enjoyable look at life outside the major Japanese tourist haunts, and an examination of the issues faced by those who attempt to make a life for themselves there. I suspect the book will appeal most to those who have spent time in the country, perhaps seeing glimpses of themselves in Sedge’s problems. At any rate, it’ll be interesting to see whether Joiner sets more work in the region, and whether future books might shift the focus away from the foreign lead and make it more of an ensemble piece. I, for one, suspect that would make them even more interesting.
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