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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A powerful legacy of war, told with exquisite restraint., 22 Dec 2002
"Even the smallest stone in a riverbed has the entire history of the universe inscribed upon it," Okuizumi remarks in his opening sentence, and he illustrates his belief in this principle by choosing a "small" man as his main character, a sometimes helpless man on whom the history of the universe will be written as he struggles with the themes and challenges which have occupied men since the beginning of time. Tsuyoshi Manase is a young Japanese survivor of the World War II battle for the Philippines, but he has not survived intact. In the war's aftermath, he is beset by personal demons that are at least as terrifying as the war itself. An amateur geologist and rock collector after the war, Manase marries unhappily, has two sons, and runs his business as a bookseller. He tries to escape the humanizing emotions which made his life as a soldier such an emotional hell, and which allow his post-war nightmares to flourish, by retreating to his rock collection and his workshop. He can never escape the final days he spent in a cave in Leyte, however, a time in which following orders meant closing his eyes and killing the dying, even his friends, as they stared at him with the enlarged eyes of the starving. With taut prose and stunning imagery, Okuizumi generates sympathy for this damaged veteran whose internal war continues long after the peace treaty, and affects, especially, his relationships with his sons. The climax, when it comes, is breath-taking, its power enhanced by Okuizumi's restraint and his belief that the careful reader will figure out the details for himself. As the reader's comprehension of the events grows, so, too, does his understanding of the stones, the river, and the universe which Okuizumi creates here. This is a novella of tremendous power which transcends national boundaries and touches on what makes us all human. Mary Whipple
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