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kingofspain93's review against another edition
4.5
I’m a white american, so I’m lacking cultural context
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For a long time The Barren Zone is largely about Iki’s life in Siberian prison camps, and I startled to settle in and expect most of the action to happen via flashback with a few interludes in the present. Instead, about halfway through it begins to loosen up and spin out. I’m ignorant of astrophysics but picturing a galaxy being born; first everything is in an incredibly dense center and then it expands explosively at first but then gradually for millenia into a spiral light-years across. It is not that the portions detailing his imprisonment are boring; they’re vital to the novel and it would feel hollow without them. I was just rabidly curious about the trajectory of Iki’s career with Kinki Trading, and gratified that I got to see more of it than I expected. Additionally, there are beautiful moments where the novel shifts temporarily to focus on other characters. These little asides don’t impact the plot in any way. They appear to occur simply to give a clearer idea of post-war Japan, or really of Japan period. They are striking and open-ended. There are no loose threads, just an endless world.
Eleven years of internment in Siberia had taught him that no country should wage war unless it had unmistakable assurance of winning it.
The Barren Zone appears pro-war and it may well be, but if it is it’s not any recognizable american idea of what war is. Yamasaki is silent about the factors driving Japanese involvement in WWII, as well as about Japanese imperialism in Northeast China, Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines. Iki’s ethos, and possibly the novel’s, is that Japan should never have entered the war only because it could not guarantee victory, which is a pretty good stance for a colonial empire to hold. However, as the relationship between Iki and his family shows, there is an enormous amount of emotional story-telling going on below the surface. At least for me, as an american, it is below the surface. There is a lot that I am missing. I came away honestly thinking that Yamasaki is just disinterested in making a pro- or anti-war argument, and instead wants to inhabit her characters and their worldviews. If Iki is a remnant of a militant Japan that was brutalized and exploited by the United States, then Chisato is the bridge between pre-war and postwar Japan. She is everything than can be. She is a moment of stillness far away from the hectic and warlike path of business that Iki has chosen in order to support his family. Yamasaki managed to tell a beautiful story about an unbeautiful time.
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