Kapitoil by Teddy Wayne

A Novel Idea is an excellent program that is put on by the Deschutes Public Library. The selection for 2011 is Kapitoil by Teddy Wayne. The idea is to have the local community come together to read the book and participate in different programs. It culminates with the author speaking at the Tower Theater.

I checked out this book and didn’t touch it for 3 weeks. I didn’t know much more than it was set in New York City and I’m kind of burned out on books set there. However, this book, as the author calls it, is a “pre-9/11 novel.” Karim Issar arrives in NYC to briefly work for Schrub Equities to help prepare for the Y2K bug. Remember that?

Karim has to adjust to a new culture and also appears to be slightly autistic. He develops a computer program, which he calls Kapitoil, that has the potential to make a lot of money based on instabilities elsewhere in the world. He almost immediately gets the attention of the president of the company and then has to make choices about the ethical uses of his program. He is also juggling his social interactions with his co-workers and others as well as issues back home.

Karim carries a pocket recorder everywhere and later analyzes what people say to him. He tries to incorporate all the new idioms he hears. Here’s an example of his narrating about working on his program.

“I made some progress, and soon I forgot about my nervousness with Rebecca and reentered the world of programming where I have ultimate control, and I worked through the night in my office, and I remembered how enjoyable it is to concentrate on a project that stimulates me, and by the end of the night I had hurdled some obstacles and received encouraging results, and once I finalize my program and presentation I will propose the concept to Mr. Schrub. If he was impressed with me initially, then this will bowl him over.”

Once I started reading it, I did really like this book. It brings up issues about assimilation and staying true to your own values. I’m looking forward to the author’s visit and hope I can get tickets to the free event. Here’s a quote from the DPL website by the author about his visit.

“I look forward to my visit to Central Oregon with great anticipation, because, as a writer, I work in a vacuum. I mean that literally; I have repurposed an industrial-sized Hoover vacuum as my writing room. It’s drafty and dust-choked in here, and I expect my time in your city to be stiller and cleaner.”

I’m also interested to see what kinds of programs the library puts together. Will the focus be on New York City, the financial world, Qatar, assimilation, Islam or something else altogether?

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.

Bat 6 by Virginia Euwer Wolff

The Deschutes County Public Library is doing something a little different for this year’s A Novel Idea. For the past five years one book has been selected with the idea being that the entire county will read it, and the book will hopefully generate community discussion and interest. For past choices, see this blog post about last year’s choice, The World to Come. However, this year three books, a memoir, a young adult book, and a children’s book, were chosen.

I started with the young adult novel, Bat 6, simply because it was readily available. This book initially did not sound that interesting to me as the story revolves around a sixth grade girls’ softball game. It is told in turn by both members of rival teams as they gear up for their annual game. This game is unique as it has been played since 1899 and this year, 1949, is the 50th anniversary of that first game. However, with a Japanese-American girl home from the internment camps on one team and a girl whose father was killed during the Pearl Harbor bombings on the other, the game does not go as anticipated.

I found it an interesting book, and, of course, it reminded me of one of my favorite books, Snow Falling on Cedars. I would be curious to know how well this plays to the intended audience. Will sixth graders appreciate the book? The consequences of a simple softball game are pretty serious and extend beyond the team players to the people in the towns involved. A quote from the author on the back page of the book: “Our daily news is filled with children doing horrifying thing, and I’m fascinated by the question: What is it we notice about these kids but decide not to acknowledge?”