Book Review: Sleeping on Potatoes by Carl Nomura - Page 3

Nomura credits his wife, Lou (herself the much-loved daughter of kind, thoughtful parents) for their success in raising happy, well-adjusted children. Part of the equation, is also, surely, Mizuko's love for her children and her incredible force of will and determination to do what was necessary and with stoicism for her family. She, who tolerated her husband's cruelty, ran a farm and household by herself, gave birth to her children by herself, disguised herself as a man while breastfeeding her child just to she could find a job on the railroad, passed on a legacy to Nomura that triumphed over any debilitating ones that Kazuichi may have left.

And that legacy comes shining through in this passage that Nomura recounts of Mizuko writing off the debt owed to them by their customers. (They ran a "cash and carry" store at that time.)

My mother... wrote off his debt. Then she gave him two bags of groceries to sustain them for the long drive. The toothless man wept and thanked my mother for the only kindness he had seen since coming to California.

The book harkens back to this idea of kindness almost 90 pages later as Nomura and Lou try to work on their shaky marriage and he hits upon the idea, "From kindness comes love."

This, for me, is the central idea of this book. For without that redeeming factor, it is mighty difficult to see how someone with the background that Nomura was handed could make anything of their lives, let alone become highly educated, have a long-lasting, successful marriage and a loving family, build an incredibly successful career rising to top management in a multinational company, and nurture deep, satisfying friendships wherever they went.

The first half of the book — dealing with family history, the growing up years, the years in the Japanese concentration camps, the years in the army and the portions dealing with Nomura's family life as a husband, father and grandfather — proceeds in a largely chronological manner and makes for compelling, unputdownable reading.

The rest is devoted to descriptions of friends, career, health, retirement and to life after Lou's death in an accident. The major drawback in this second half is that it hopscotches its way through, weaving back and forth between the years. According to the preface, the author's original idea was to write a series of short stories that were later sewn together as a book. Unfortunately, the original structure leaves its imprint, particularly in the latter half. There is also the sense that Nomura attempts to include every last detail of his experiences, particularly in the chapter dealing with his health, which slows down the reading.

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.

Visit Sujatha Bagal's author page — Sujatha Bagal's Blog