Ian Hideo Levy

Levy Hideo is reputed to be, as his translator (from Japanese to English) puts it, "the first white American novelist to write in Japanese." That being the case, it's hard not to wonder how many reviewers will trot out Samuel Johnson's line in their reviews of A Room Where the Star Spangled Banner Cannot Be Heard. The amazing thing about this novel is not, however, that it was done at all, but that it was done so well. The premise—young American male finding himself in Japan—has been done and done again, but Levy makes it new in that his protagonist does not, as most of these fish-out-of-water do, experience Japan as a means of getting in touch with his inner American, but rather repudiates the America where Kennedy has been murdered and that is sinking deeper into the Vietnam debacle. He finds himself between two cultures, but listing decisively toward the Japanese. Levy's prose, rendered in English by Christopher D. Scott, is striking, as are the images he sprinkles throughout the book's pages. Let's hope people can get past their "wow, look, a monkey riding a bicycle" reactions, and see this for what it is: a novel worth reading.… (mer)