Picking Bones from Ash by Marie Mutsuki Mockett

The theme of mother-daughter bonds and the search for identity is explored in this novel. In the mountains of rural Japan, in 1954, Satomi lives with her mother, Akiko, who runs a pub, or *izakaya.* Satomi has sufficient talent to enter piano competitions and subsequently goes to college on a music scholarship; however, she struggles in her search for an authentic life. Her independence is nearly thwarted at various times by her cruel stepsisters and her penury. Additionally, a man she started a platonic but deep relationship with abruptly leaves to join a Buddhist monastery. She goes to Paris to study Western classical music and meets an enigmatic American man, Timothy. When Timothy mysteriously disappears, she has to make some bold decisions about her future.

The story then moves forward to the 1980′s, San Francisco, and we are introduced to Satomi’s daughter, Rumi. Now motherless–Satomi left her and her father when she was a baby–Rumi and her American father collect, sell and trade rare Asian artifacts. Rumi possesses a mystical talent: these artifacts “speak” to her in vibratory ways. Rumi believes that this talent is inexplicably bound to the hidden facts of her mother–and her mother’s disappearance. This leads her to Japan, on a physical and spiritual journey to search and find the answers to her identity.

In non-linear narrative, the story weaves both Satomi and Rumi’s lives together. The ethereal quality of the prose is often dreamlike and sensuous, and the author educates the reader well about the culture of rural Japan–the food; the religions; and material and spiritual aspects of Japanese life.

As the tale unfolds, however, the story loses its stride. The rich and promising beginning wobbles and wanes, and the story weakens in its intensity and focus. The secondary characters are generally thin, dotting the landscape of the novel in order to support the story of Rumi and Satomi, but otherwise not very interesting. Therefore, when characters from the 50′s appear in the latter part of the story, they don’t reverberate. By the end of the book, I felt that I was reading a tract on cultural anthropology. The information that the story imbibes is often fascinating, but the tale flattens . I have witnessed this before with first-time novelists, where the tone is inconsistent and the prose becomes too expository. Mockett is learned in her subject and gives us a portrait of Japanese culture, but there isn’t enough *story* in this adventure. Or, rather, the story loses amplitude. The strength of the novel at the beginning carried me through, but I was disappointed with the withering denouement.

The sensuality and the poetic largess of this author is palpable. I suspect that she will acquire a deft novelistic command and finesse that will coalesce in her next novel.

Picking Bones from Ash; Mockett, Marie Mutsuki; Graywolf Press; $16.00