The Japanese Lover by Isabel AllendeMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
The subject of Allende's latest novel seems to be the supposed beauty of flawed love. Like the rest of her novels, this book too traces the travails of human love against the backdrop of political turmoil. Allende targets the American isolationist stance until Pearl harbor and the constant need for an enemy other in the American psyche. How the Japanese filled this space in the pre-cold war years and the doomed fate of Ichimei and Alma's love forms the main plot. I personally feel Allende succeeds to reduce the charm of love to cold calculation against this political backdrop. Ironically, this is also the undoing of the story's success.
Alma is definitely not my favorite Allende heroine. In Alma's words, about the reasons why she chose a marriage of convenience with Nathanaiel: "Ichimei and I had a chance when we were young, but I didn't have the courage. I was unable to give up on security, and so I was trapped in convention." (P.172). Not just Alma, every character has a tale of flawed love.
Nathaniel makes the best of his (trapped) marriage to his cousin Alma by having a rather asexual marriage based on friendship and chivalry. Ichimei, the Zen master clearly demarcates his tumultuous love for Alma with the calm (read placid) marriage with his Japanese wife. By the time Alma realizes she actually loves Nathaniel, she is compelled to prove her love or repay for Nathaniel's chivalry by giving up his last days to his one true love - Lenny. Flawed love seems to haunt all the characters except Isaac and Seth.
For an Allende novel, this work falls short on a deeper exploration of characters. It dwells little beyond a stereotypical illustration of the the austere, Japanese Zen master and wealthy Jews.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment