Stubborn Twig by Lauren Kessler

This book takes a factual look at multiple generations of the Yasui Family. Masuo Yasui arrived from Japan via Seattle in 1904 to work on the railroad, meeting up with other members of his family. He lived in Portland for a time where he learned English and converted to being a Methodist. He settled in Hood River in 1908. His wife, Shidzuyo, was a well-educated Japanese woman who knew Masuo and his family before he left home at 16. She came to the United States as Masuo’s wife in 1912. Masuo and Shidzuyo are known as Issei or the first generation of Japanese to settle in the United States.

The story of Masuo and Shidzuyo begins like every immigrant’s dream. Masuo opens a store in Hood River that becomes quite successful. They start a family. They begin to buy land and become very involved in the fruit business. However, they were not allowed to become citizens because of a law, more than 100 years old, “that declared nonwhites ineligible for citizenship.” And, then in 1924, Oregon passes the Alien Land Law making it illegal for non-citizens to own land. It is possible to get around this law by putting the land in the names of their children, known as Nisei or Second Generation, who are citizens of the United States.

“By 1941 Masuo owned, co-owned or had interest in close to one thousand acres of orchard land, had a financial stake in one out of every ten boxes of apples and pears shipped out of Hood River and was the area’s biggest grower of several row crops. He had operated a successful store in the heart of downtown for a generation. He had a nice house on a quiet street in a middle-class neighborhood. One son was married and taking over some of the farm operations; another had a law degree. Three children were in college.”

Pearl Harbor changes everything. Read this book to find out what happens to one family of Japanese Americans, citizens and non-citizens, during World War II. The repercussions to the first, second and further generations of Japanese Americans are serious. The culpability of the state of Oregon and the town of Hood River in this loss of land and relocation are astounding. What would Hood River or Oregon look like today if this hadn’t happened? What would you have done if you lived at that time?

“People who spoke up for the Japanese were shunned. When the mother of one of Yuka’s hakujin friends (Masuo’s daughter’s friend) defended the Japanese to the women in her literary club, she was met with silence and stony stares. Her friends rejected her so completely that she took to her sickbed and later left town for several months to stay with her sister.”

Stubborn Twig is part of Deschutes County Public Libraries 2009 A Novel Idea. Also, as a celebration of Oregon’s 150th year of statehood, the book is part of Oregon Reads sponsored by the Oregon Library Association. I am interested to find out what events related to this book will be happening in Bend.

Cowboys are My Weakness by Pam Houston

Pam Houston is one of the authors invited to this year’s The Nature of Words. She writes fiction, although on her website she is quoted as saying that 82% of what she writes is true. That means that her stories are somewhat, but not quite, autobiographical. Cowboys are My Weakness, published in 1992, is filled with stories of tough women in relationships where communication just doesn’t quite happen.

Her stories are mostly set in the west, in places like Montana or Utah. My favorite story in this collection is called “Selway”. The narrator of the story and Jack, her boyfriend, set off to raft a river that is impossibly high with treacherous rapids. Houston does a remarkable job of portraying both the adventure junkie and the girl who won’t back down. “Jack was untamable, but he had some sense and a lot of respect for the river. He relied on me to speak with the voice of reason, to be life-protecting because I’m a woman and that’s how he thinks women are, but I’ve never been protective enough of anything, least of all myself.” This story reminds me of the adrenaline rush of rafting and leaves me wondering why, once I left college, I never went again.

In the title story the protagonist wants to find a cowboy of her own and ends up on a ranch in Montana. I thought the following was pretty interesting to think about: “The west isn’t a place that gives itself up easily. Newcomers have to sink into it slowly, to descend through its layers, and I’m still descending. Like most easterners, I started out in the transitional zones, the big cities and the ski towns that outsiders have set up for their own comfort, the places so often referred to as ‘the best of both worlds.’” Bend, the town Houston is coming to for the The Nature of Words, is a ski town, but has really only been transforming itself into a resort town for outsiders for the last 10 years. Or, at least that is my impression. I wonder where it falls on the scale of being western. It seems the west as an idea doesn’t really encompass the coastal areas where I grew up, but more the big sky open areas from the Cascades to slightly east of the Rockies.

Many of the stories in this collection have dogs or horses in them and her debut novel, and most recent work, is called Sighthound. I am interested to read her next set of short stories called Waltzing the Cat to find out if her heroines have learned how to communicate.

Perma Red by Debra Magpie Earling

I definitely recommend this book. I initially picked it up simply because the author is coming to Bend for The Nature of Words. It is a depressing story, but not a depressing book to read. It starts out slow, but once you get into the rhythm of the story it becomes very intriguing.

The events described in Perma Red take place on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana. It is a time, probably late 1940’s, when Indians were still sent away to boarding schools. The main character, Louise White Elk, is a reluctant attendee who is often chased down by Charlie Kicking Woman, a police officer. She tries to escape this life by marrying Baptiste Yellow Knife, but her problems only become more complex.

Louise’s relationship with Baptiste has a long history and is quite complex. Of Baptiste the author writes, “He became an Indian who was not afraid of being Indian, the worst kind, the kind nobody liked, neither the Indians nor the whites, the kind of Indian who didn’t care if he was liked.” (pg 134) Louise lasts only four days in her mother-in-law’s house, before she runs off. The importance of visions and long held beliefs about power permeate the book. By the time I reached this quote in the book, at first it did not even seem unusual, “The snakes would be lazy here, without power. She didn’t think they would strike her in her mother-in-law’s house because it would be like striking themselves. She had married snake’s blood.” (pg 126) The pace of the book seems slow and melodic, yet tragic events happen often at breakneck speed.

The novel alternates chapters about Louise with chapters told in the first person by Charlie Kicking Woman. Charlie’s problems are not the same as Louise, but almost seem more real and plausible. “I was sick and tired of those calls, sick of the sign above every small bar and tavern across the state of Montana and beyond, anywhere there was an Indian, no dogs or Indians allowed. Tired of being the authority charged to uphold a law that forbid me to enter a bar when I wasn’t in uniform.” (pg 117) Charlie, like Baptiste and other men in the story, is also obsessed with Louise to his own detriment.

I would have appreciated more chapters focused on Baptiste Yellow Knife and his thoughts throughout.