Crown City (A Japantown Mystery)
Naomi Hirahara’s two recent “Japantown” mysteries wove criminal investigation into the World War II-era lives of Japanese immigrants and their American-born families in Chicago, sorting through the trauma of the Manzanar detention center. In Crown City, she jumps back in time to 1903 and the raw new “Crown City” of Pasadena, California, where fresh-off-the-boat hopeful Asian immigrants wrestled with both the American Dream and the expectations they brought from a homeland that only a fortunate few would still be able to visit.
Orphaned Ryunosuke “Ryui” Wada’s woodworking skills should guarantee employment for him, although his job as an art dealer’s apprentice involves much more than the feel and shape of fine wood in his hands. Aged 18, he’s naturally drawn to the young women in his new world but confused by how they too appear utilized in the surge of American business. His assigned roommate Jack, also Japanese, develops film and prints photos in their shared bathroom. Everything’s so confusing (Ryui’s frequent appraisal is “I didn’t know what to make” of a situation or person) that it takes a while before the realities of drug use and organized crime become clear to him. By that point, he and Jack are committed to detective efforts that turn dangerous, seeking a painting stolen from his employer during a pseudo-Japanese high-end party that has confused Ryui in every sense.
As in her earlier Edgar Award-winning work, Hirahara narrates with both insight to and acceptance of the confusion of America for people who have deeply longed to bring the nation their treasured strengths and talents.
