Book Review: Sleeping on Potatoes by Carl Nomura

Sleeping on Potatoes is an intensely personal account of the life of Carl Nomura, a second-generation American of Japanese origin. The memoir takes the reader through the various phases of his life, from the time he was born through his life after retirement, with a little bit of family history thrown in. On the face of it, it is an entirely ordinary story, probably the story of millions of immigrant families who try to build a life in America.

Framed within the bounds of ordinariness, however, is a gem of a tale, a tale that is poignant, heart-wrenching, and, on many levels, quite extraordinary. Nomura came into this world in a boxcar as the son of two railroad workers in Deer Lodge, Montana, into a life of abject poverty and into what, under the best of circumstances, could be described as a dysfunctional family. Kazuichi, Nomura's father, an incredibly cruel man, ruled the family with an iron hand, drinking, gambling and taking expensive vacations while his wife, Mizuko, slaved away on their vegetable farm, and did the housecleaning, shopping and cooking.

Kazuichi even went so far as to refuse to arrange for a doctor or midwife to be with her when it was time to deliver her first child... But somehow, she managed to deliver her first son all by herself. Years later, she told us, 'When I started pulling out the placenta, I wondered if it was attached to me inside'.

Kazuichi's cruelty also extended to his children. He sent his first four children (two from a previous marriage) to live with relatives in Japan because they "cramped his style." He beat them regularly and for no reason.

All this against the backdrop of a nagging poverty that refused to shed its shackles no matter where the family moved or what they did for a living. When the entire family moved to California, while the parents and the older kids worked at the local cannery, Yosh, Normura's eight-year-old sister, "washed our clothes, cleaned the house, supervised us, and cooked. On payday, she went to the market for some vegetables and the short ribs, which cost eight cents a pound. From this she made the stock for our week long main dish: soup."

Article Author: Sujatha Bagal

Sujatha Bagal is a writer based in the Washington, D.C. suburbs. She also blogs about parenting, travel, books, movies, food and politics at Blogpourri, which she started in Bangalore to document life as an expat in that city.

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