The Berry Pickers

Author: Amanda Peters

Publisher: Catapult 2023

The Mi’kmaq are a First Nation people from Northeastern Canada and the USA. A Mi’kmaq family living in Nova Scotia travels with other families to berry fields in northern Maine to pick blueberries during the summer. (The story began to evolve in the 1950s.) The father of the family is the leader of the group. There are five kids in this family: three of them—Ben, Mae, and Stevie—are teenagers; Joe is just two years older than the youngest, Ruthie, who is only four years old. They live in a cabin in the berry fields during the blueberry season.

One day, Ruthie disappeared. The whole group searched for her throughout the summer but could not find her. One of the most affected by her disappearance is Joe.

Somewhere in Maine, four-year-old Norma, the only daughter of a family, is experiencing regular nightmares. She remembers a close friend named Ruthie and her baby doll. Norma’s mother thinks that Norma is just having bad dreams.

When Norma was about nine years old, she noticed that her skin was darker than both of her parents’. When asked why, her father explained that it was due to genes, mentioning an Italian grandfather in the family. Her mother is overprotective and does not let Norma walk anywhere or associate with anyone in the neighborhood.

Eventually, Norma forgets all about Ruthie. However, the Mi’kmaq family still hopes to find their missing daughter someday.

This is not a book I would usually pick up to read. I joined a book readers' group this month. They meet via Zoom on Wednesday afternoons during the first week of every other month. The next meeting is scheduled for October 2nd, and the book they are reading is this one. I joined this group for several reasons: first, they are former colleagues; second, there is sufficient time allocated for reading a book; third, there is no pressure even if I do not read the book; and fourth, I liked the way the discussion went at the only meeting I attended.

Amanda, the author, is of Mi’kmaq and settler ancestry, so I assume she knows about Mi’kmaq culture. She is also a good writer. However, I could not emotionally connect with the story. In my view, Norma seems too naive. There is almost no information about her school days, her friends, the bullies, or even her teachers, even though she attended school.

Towards the end of the story, the Mi’kmaq family prepares “tapatat” (potato) and “piteway” (tea). Tapatat and Piteway are Mi’kmaq words. I know that potatoes are native to the Americas, but tea is not. The British only began growing tea in the 19th century after learning from the Chinese. 

(Read “For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World’s Famous Drink and Changed History” by Sara Rose.)

In Sri Lanka, we used to drink "Polpala," and "Ranawara" which are like tea but not tea. Is it possible that "Piteway" refers to a native drink similar to Chrysanthemum "tea" or Polpala "tea", or Ranawara "tea"?

I do not know.

Dear Life

Author: Alice Munro
Publisher: Vintage 2012

Alice Munro was a Nobel Prize-winning short story writer from Canada. She captured rural life in Canada, especially the lives of women, quite remarkably in her stories from the 1940s onward. Some of her stories evolved or started to evolve on the train from Toronto to Vancouver. Stories such as “To Reach Japan” from her book “Dear Life” and “Chance” from her book “Runaway” come to mind.

I traveled on the same train from Edmonton to Vancouver. This was the longest passenger train I have traveled on. It had an observation deck for every three compartments that you could freely move between. There was a small cafeteria below the observation deck. There were about 30 people in the three compartments to which I was assigned. The train was scheduled to leave Edmonton one minute after midnight on Wednesday and was scheduled to arrive in Vancouver at 8:00 AM on Friday.

(The following pictures were taken when the train stopped at Jasper on Thursday around 9:30 AM.)

 

The first two rows of a compartment (of the train) were reserved for families of three or more. They also got priority boarding. A mother and two daughters occupied these seats in our compartment from Edmonton to Jasper. They left the train at Jasper and were replaced by a family of five: father, mother, two sons, and a daughter.

Even during re-boarding, groups of three or more received preferential treatment. We (I traveled with a friend named Nalin) decided that we needed to form a group or family. 

Unlike me, Nalin stays connected to Sri Lankan culture by watching all the tele-dramas from Sri Lanka and keeping up with political developments. When we were growing up in Sri Lanka, we addressed our neighbors, and even strangers we met, with titles like “mama” (uncle), “nanda” (aunt), “akka” (elder sister), and “nanagi” (little sister). When my mother and I visited a boutique near the Sri Maha Bodhi in Buddha-Gaya, the vendor called my mother “Loku Amme, enna, enna” (Come, come, Elder-mother!). Apparently, they picked this up from Sri Lankan pilgrims. I also remember many songs by M. S. Fernando, a popular Baila singer of the 60s and 70s, with titles like “Mage Nangi” (My little sister) and “Pol Vikunana Magi Akke” (Coconut seller elder-sister Magi).

 

(The Observation Deck)

(A Picture Taken from the Observation Deck)

In the same row on the other side of the aisle sat a woman who got on the train in Winnipeg. Behind us sat a woman who got on the train in Edmonton with us. Nalin coined the name “Kathuru Akka” (K Akka)—meaning “scissors elder sister”—for the woman in the same row, and I coined the name “Kulati Nangi” (K Nangi)—meaning “meek younger sister”—for the woman behind us.  My name has a K in it, and naturally, I became K Sunil. Nalin proposed his name to be K Nalin (“Kottu Nalin”) since he prepared Kottu for dinner on the day I arrived in Edmonton.

Thus, the four of us—K Akka, K Nangi, K Sunil, and K Nalin—formed the “K family” for the purpose of receiving preferential treatment at the next stop when we had a chance to exit the train.

There was only one other stop (at Kamloops) where we got to go out, and no preferential treatment was given to anyone at that stop. Therefore, we did not get an opportunity to tell our family members about our scheme.

(At The Kamloops Stop)

There were two VIA Rail attendants assigned to our three compartments. We identified them as "Danda" (meaning "the tall guy") and "Honnda akka" (meaning "good elder sister").

Once we got on the train at Edmonton, it was Danda who was in charge. One of his duties was to explain the facilities available in the three compartments, as well as the rules and regulations. He started with K Nangi. His voice was gentle, smooth, humane, sensitive, and very friendly. He spent an unnecessarily long time in his compassionate, loving voice explaining things to her, even though she was not responding in kind. This was the original reason why we called her "Kulati Nangi." Finally and reluctantly, he moved on to us. He lost all gentleness, smoothness, compassion, and love when he reached us. He asked in a grim voice, "Did you hear what I said to her?" I told him, "No."

He went through his script very quickly and, as a conditioned reflex, asked if we had any questions at the end. I said I did. "Is it OK to shave in the lavatory?" He was taken aback at first and then started to explain, "There are thirty people in these three compartments and you should not use the lavatory for too long..." but he stopped when he realized that I was just pulling his leg. He smiled for the first time, pointed his finger at me, and then moved on to the next row.

H Akka was in charge after the train left Jasper, and she did the sensible thing. She stood in front of the compartment and went through the script out loud so that everybody in the compartment could hear her, and there were no questions.

There was a sheik security guard with a curled-up mustache and a big pot belly at the Edmonton station. He opened our bags and went through every inch of them, looking for scissors and knives. One German traveler had to give up his small penknife, sealed in a security envelope, only to be collected when he departed at Vancouver. Everything was so strict.

K Akka had a pretty hat, and she found some defect on it and decided to fix it. To our great surprise, she pulled out a needle, thread, and a pair of scissors. This was not any normal pair of scissors; it was the mother of all scissors. Later, the father of the family of five pulled out a knife to open a pack of snacks for his daughter.

Conclusion: The security guards at Winnipeg and Jasper were not sheiks with curled-up mustaches and pot bellies.

Everybody we met on the train was very nice. Even Danda, who abandoned our little sister (K. Nangi) for a better-looking girl ("Lassana Nangi", meaning "pretty younger sister"), who got on the train at Jasper, is a nice guy. He was probably a college kid doing a summer job as a train attendant.

Let me just say, if Alice Munro were alive and traveling with us, there would be enough material for her to write at least four new stories.

We arrived at Vancouver Pacific Central Station just one hour off schedule.

(Outside The Pacific Central Station)

The Mill House Murders

Author: Yukito Ayatsuji
Publisher: Pushkin Press 2023

His father was a famous artist.  He had a successful real estate business.  When his father died he sold his business and with a combined money from both his and his father’s earnings he was rich enough not to work for the rest of his life.  He built a house in a reclusive area among the mountains, with its own mill to generate electricity and enough gallery space to display all of his father’s paintings.  

He has a butler, a cook, and a beautiful young wife.  This is how he described his young wife.

Yurie was slim and 150 centimeters tall.  She was rather fair for a Japanese person, with firm smooth skin.  Her luscious hair hung down to her waist.

He had a serious vehicular accident soon after the death of his father, and as a result, he is severally disfigured.  He wears a mask to hide his face and glows to hide the injuries to his hands.

Four of his friends—an art dealer, a surgeon, a professor of humanities, and a Buddhist monk—come to see him once a year on the day his father died.  They actually come to admire his father’s paintings.  

The year was 1985.  There were no cell phones, and there was an additional former friend was visiting him that particular year.

The cook falls from a first-floor balcony to her death that particular stormy day.  The decapitated body of the additional former friends was found in the incinerator in the basement, and the Buddhist monk, along with a painting went missing.  Police declared that the cook’s death was an accident and the missing Buddhist monk was the murderer.

A year later, in 1986, the art dealer, the surgeon, and the professor returned for their annual visit.  The only addition to the house is a new cook.

At this point, I have to mention a few links to author’s previous book for the potential readers of this book.  The mill house was designed by the same architect who designed the decagon house, and he has a tendency to include secret passages to his designs.  The son of a Buddhist monk, who was the brother of a police officer in the decagon house murders story, is a friend of the missing Buddhist monk.  He arrives uninvited because of those connections as he does not believe his missing friend was the murderer.

Once again, I did not see the ending coming.  I was surprised primarily because I was following the deductive reasoning presented.  As a matter of fact, one of the main clues was hidden from the reader until the end of the story, which is why I could not guess the outcome and was surprised at the end.

I like this story very much.  I would give it four and half stars out of five.

Act of Oblivion

Author: Robert Harris
Publisher: Harper Colins 2022

I bought this book because: (a) I have a collection of all his other books, (b) I am happy with his historical novels, and (c) Amazon offered the Kindle version for $1.99.

The history behind this novel was novel to me. Stating it very concisely, Charles I, the king of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, was in financial difficulties; his newly instituted taxes were unpopular; and his religious activities were also unpopular. In the 1640s, a mostly Puritan army led by Oliver Cromwell defeated the king's armies, and the king was taken prisoner. His nefarious deals with the Scottish Parliament and foreign powers to free himself further eroded relations between him and the Puritan army. After a short trial, he was beheaded in 1649, and Cromwell became the Lord Protector of England until his death in 1658. The English monarchy was reestablished in 1660 with the coronation of Charles II, his son.

(Read Wikipedia for further information.)

Soon after, Parliament passed the Act of Oblivion to capture and prosecute all who signed the death warrant of Charles I. Even the signatories who had died, including Cromwell, were dug up and their bodies hanged. The regicides who surrendered suffered horribly.

“The lord Chief Justice placing a small square of black cloth upon his head and pronouncing the terrible sentence, again and again: `The judgement of this court is that you be led back to the place from whence you came, and from thence to be drawn upon a hurdle to the place of execution, and there you shall be hanged by the neck, and being alive shall be cut down, and your privy members be cut off, your entrails to be taken out of your body, and you living, the same to be burnt before your eyes, and your head to be cut off, your body to be divided into four quarters, and your head and quarters to be disposed of at the pleasure of the King’s Majesty; and the Lord have mercy upon your soul.”

Two of the regicides, Colonel Edward Whalley and his son-in-law, Colonel William Goffe, managed to escape to America. The Puritans in the British colonies were willing to help them hide from the hunters. However, the large bounty offered for their capture made it very difficult for them to remain hidden.

In his Author’s Note at the end of the book, Robert Harris states:

This novel is an imaginative re-creation of a true story: the tracking down of the `regicides’, the killers of King Charles I, the greatest manhunt of the seventeenth century—in particular, the pursuit of Edward Whalley and William Goffe across New England.  The events, dates and locations are accurate, and almost every character is real, apart from Richard Nayler.  I suspect there must have been such a person—you cannot sustain a manhunt without a manhunter—but whoever he was, his identity is lost to history.

The story was a bit boring at times due to the lack of excitement, which I think you cannot expect from a 'true story.' However, since this is a novel, the author could have added more exciting events to spice up the story. Other than that, I did enjoy reading it.

Sweet Bean Paste

Author: Durian Sukegawa
Publisher: A One World Book 2022

I have been to all inhabited islands of Hawaii except Molokai. The reason I could not go was due to the objections of my traveling companions. There was a leprosy colony on Molokai. Since leprosy is known as an infectious disease, nobody wanted to risk exposure. This was in the late 1990s.

Leprosy is caused by a bacillus (a rod-like bacterium), Mycobacterium leprae (M. leprae). The microorganism was discovered by a Norwegian physician, Gerhard Armauer Hansen, in 1874, and the disease has been known as "Hansen’s disease" since then.

Hansen’s disease is ancient. The term "Arun Kushta" (අරුන් කුෂ්ඨ) was used in ancient Indian literature to refer to leprosy. Indian physicians used the oil of Tuvarks seeds to treat the disease.

(Ref: "Mycobacterium leprae: A historical study of the origins of leprosy and its social stigma" by Luigi Santacroce et al. Infez Med. 2021; 29(4): 623-632.)

Leprosy is not highly contagious. However, people who are exposed to a person with leprosy are 5-8 times more likely to develop the disease. Symptoms include light-colored or red skin patches with reduced sensation, numbness, and weakness in hands and feet.

Promin was one of the effective drugs for leprosy developed in the 1940s. Leprosy can be cured with 6-12 months of multi-drug therapy. The currently recommended treatment regimen consists of three drugs: dapsone, rifampicin, and clofazimine. Early treatment avoids disability.

This is a story about a Japanese woman who contracted leprosy as a young girl and was then restricted to a leprosy colony in Tokyo in the 1940s. Even though she was fully cured of the disease, she was not allowed to leave the colony until the late 1990s.

Under the 1953 Leprosy Prevention Act, most people affected by leprosy were isolated and forced to move into sanatoria. The act was abolished on April 1, 1996. The Japanese parliament enacted a new law to compensate family members of former Hansen’s disease patients in November 2019.

As a novel, this book is an abject failure. The characters were chosen haphazardly, and there is no rhyme or reason for their actions. The ultimate goal of the story is to expose the stigma associated with Hansen’s disease, but the author has done a very poor job of achieving this.

The author should have written a non-fiction book instead. However, I am not sure he has the skills to succeed in writing such a work. A more skilled writer could have produced a better fiction or non-fiction book about Hansen’s disease. For example, Gina Kolata wrote an excellent non-fiction book about the flu virus of 1918, titled "Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It."

However, the book is popular among its readers. One World first published it in 2017. Since then, it was reprinted in 2018 (twice), 2020, 2021 (three times), and 2022 (twice). Perhaps someone else should read the book and write a review.

The Decagon House Murders

Author: Yukito Ayatsuji
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo 2020

A group of university students, who are also members of the university’s mystery club, goes to a nearby island to spend a week during the semester break. They identify themselves by the names of well-known Western mystery writers.

Ellery (named after the pseudonym “Ellery Queen” used by the American fiction writers Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee) is a third-year law student, Agatha (named after Agatha Christie) is a third-year pharmacy student, Carr (named after John Dickson Carr) is a third-year law student, Leroux (named after Gaston Leroux) is a second-year literature student, Poe (named after Edgar Allan Poe) is a fourth-year medical student, Orczy (named after Baroness Orczy) is a second-year literature student, and Van (named after the pseudonym “S. S. Van Dine” used by the American fiction writer Willard Huntington Wright) is a third-year literature student.

The island was owned by a famous architect who killed his wife and his servants, and then set himself and his house on fire six months ago. The fishermen in the area say they see the ghost of this dead man walking on the island and are afraid to go there. There is one other building on the island, which has a regular decagonal shape, and that is where the students are staying. The entrance, kitchen, and bathroom are on three sides of the decagon, and seven rooms are on the remaining sides. The center of the building is another regular decagonal meeting room with a decagonal desk and chairs at its center. The plates and glasses in the kitchen are all decagonal in shape.

The first day ended without incident. Orczy was the first to wake up on the second day. She noticed something she had not seen the previous day had been placed on the table. Seven milky-white plastic plates were on the table. Red characters had been printed on each of them: The First Victim, The Second Victim, The Third Victim, The Fourth Victim, The Fifth Victim, The Detective, and The Murderer. The implication: at least five of them are going to die, and the murderer is one of them.

I was guided by the analysis of the students on the predicament they face throughout the book. Unlike other mystery novels, the deductive reasoning of the characters in the novel prevented me from guessing who the murderer was until the end. In that sense, this is a great mystery novel. When the premise is invalid, no matter how good the reasoning is, the predictions are all going to be wrong.

Once again, I was taking a break from my project, but mysteriously I always find something (sort of) related to my project in these randomly selected books.

…

Just before he left the room, Kawaminami asked about the full bookcases in the back that had caught his attention.  Kōjirō explained that, besides his work as a social studies teacher, he was also doing research on Buddhism.  With a shy smile, he explained he was researching the “emptiness of the heart” in early Mahayana Buddhism.

…

(Page 61)