American Fuji

by Sara Backer

Overview

Japan itself is the comic hero of this sweet and funny, sad and inspiring novel.

Gaby Stanton, an American professor living in Japan, has lost her job teaching English at Shizuyama University. (No one will tell her exactly why.) Alex Thorn, an American psychologist, is mourning his son, a Shizuyama exchange student who was killed in an accident. (No one will tell him exactly how.) Alex has come to this utterly foreign place to find the truth, and now Gaby is serving as his translator and guide. The key to mastering Japanese, she keeps telling him, is understanding what's not being said. And in this "deft and delightful" (Karen Joy Fowler) novel, the unsaid truths about everything from work and love to illness and death cast a deafening silence-and tower in the background like Mount Fuji itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780425230091
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/01/2009
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Sara Backer was the first American and the first woman to serve as visiting professor of English at Japan's Shizuoka University. An early draft of American Fuji was named a finalist in the James Jones First Novel Competition, and a play she wrote as a Djerassi artist in residence was chosen for performance at the Edward Albee Theatre Conference in June 2000. A published poet and short-story writer, Backer lives in New Hampshire.

Read an Excerpt

AMERICAN FUJI
by Sara Backer

 

INTRODUCTION

Gaby Stanton, an American professor living in Japan, has lost her job teaching English at Shizuyama University. (No one will tell her exactly why.) Alex Thorn, an American psychologist, is mourning his son, a Shizuyama exchange student killed in an accident. (No one will tell him exactly how.) Alex has come to this utterly foreign place to find the truth, and now Gaby—newly employed at a Japanese "fantasy funeral" company—is his guide. Gaby, at least, can speak the language, though as she explains to Alex, the key to mastering Japanese is understanding what's not being said. And in this dazzling, unusual novel, the unsaid truths about everything from work and love to illness and death cast a deafening silence—and tower in the background like Mount Fuji itself.

 

ABOUT SARA BACKER

Sara Backer was the first American and the first woman to serve as visiting professor of English at Japan's Shizuoka University. An early draft of American Fuji was named a finalist in the James Jones First Novel Competition, and a play she wrote as a Djerassi artist in residence was chosen for performance at the Edward Albee Theatre Conference in June 2000. A published poet and short-story writer, Backer lives in San Luis Obispo, California.

 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. In what ways does Gaby Stanton typify an American living abroad? How does her perspective on Japanese culture compare to Alexander Thorn's? How do their attitudes change as their relationship develops?
   

2. How do Gaby and Alex's social positions—single American adults—affect them differently in Japan? How do their professional lives affect how they are perceived and how they behave? Does gender play a role? How?
   

3. In what ways does Gaby's "shameful illness" (p. 247) impact her relationships with others? With herself? How is her relationship to her body a reflection of the culture she lives in? Discuss.
   

4. Early in the narrative, Gaby says to Lester: "How many people are happy, no matter where they are? Overall, my life is better in Japan than it was in America. Isn't that good enough?" (p. 30). Is this sentiment sincere? Does her perspective on happiness change over the course of the story?
   

5. How do obligation and affection overlap in Gaby's relationship with Alexander Thorn? With Mr. Eguchi? With Lester? In what ways are her expectations challenged by this duality?
   

6. In what ways is Alexander Thorn's life altered by his quest for answers about his son's death? How is Mr. Aoshima's appearance on Mount Fuji meaningful?
   

7. "America's not my home," Gaby tells Mr. Eguchi (p. 337). Japan is not her home either, she goes on to admit. What factors contribute to her emerging comfort in the role of exile? Alex ends the book by looking "to the east, facing home." How has the idea of home changed for him as a result of his time in Japan?
   

8. How has Gaby's relationship to her home been challenged by the loss of her prestigious university job? By her relationship with Alex? By her illness? How does her behavior in her apartment reflect these changes?
   

9. Are Rie's deformed foot, Aoshima's new heart, and Endo's suicide attempts significant? How? In what ways are they emblematic of Gaby's admonition to "Expect the unexpected?" What is Gaby's reaction to unexpected events in her own life?
   

10. Musical toilets, English-as-Beatles-lyrics, moon funerals: to what extent do these absurd-seeming aspects of Japanese culture reflect the prejudices of the narrator herself? Is Gaby Stanton a reliable interpreter of Japanese manners and mores? Why or why not?

Reading Group Guide

INTRODUCTION

Gaby Stanton, an American professor living in Japan, has lost her job teaching English at Shizuyama University. (No one will tell her exactly why.) Alex Thorn, an American psychologist, is mourning his son, a Shizuyama exchange student killed in an accident. (No one will tell him exactly how.) Alex has come to this utterly foreign place to find the truth, and now Gaby—newly employed at a Japanese "fantasy funeral" company—is his guide. Gaby, at least, can speak the language, though as she explains to Alex, the key to mastering Japanese is understanding what's not being said. And in this dazzling, unusual novel, the unsaid truths about everything from work and love to illness and death cast a deafening silence—and tower in the background like Mount Fuji itself.

ABOUT SARA BACKER
Sara Backer was the first American and the first woman to serve as visiting professor of English at Japan's Shizuoka University. An early draft of American Fuji was named a finalist in the James Jones First Novel Competition, and a play she wrote as a Djerassi artist in residence was chosen for performance at the Edward Albee Theatre Conference in June 2000. A published poet and short-story writer, Backer lives in San Luis Obispo, California.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

• What is the role of the gaijin in modern Japan, as you can gather from the novel?
• “Expect the unexpected” is a phrase that is repeated throughout the novel. What are some examples of this, good and bad? Why do you think this is how life is in Japan?
• We see many different types of women in this novel—Gaby, Rie, Junko, Mr. Aoshima’s wife. Discuss the role of women in Japan and why Gaby’s life is seen as a pitiable one.
• Why does Gaby begin to feel compassion towards Alex, when initially she considers him a burden? Discuss the different ways in which they are drawn together.
• For an independent single woman in a foreign country that favors patriarchy and family, Gaby gets along quite well, but is occasionally taken by surprise. Discuss some of the instances where Gaby’s common sense should have alerted her to something amiss. Do you think she chose to ignore red flags on purpose, or have parts of her personality been compromised after living in a foreign land that views single women seen as inferior?
• The oppressive heat plays an obvious role in the novel. How does it symbolize Alex’s quest?
• A theme throughout the novel is Japan’s love/hate relationship with Americans. Discuss the juxtapositions of how Gaby, Alex, and gaijin in general are treated. Why do you think the treatments are so varied? How have things worked for and against Gaby and Alex?
• “The unsaid” is a nuance in Japan that strikes the Westerners in this novel as difficult to maneuver at times. How does this make Alex’s journey more difficult, especially as a non-native speaker? Discuss how his acceptance of “the unsaid” finally brings him answers.
• At one point Gaby states: “Oh, I don’t fit in: no foreigner ever does.” Discuss why Gaby has stayed in Japan all these years, even after losing her teaching job. What does she think keeps her there, and what does she discover is really keeping her there?
• The Japanese are strict on protocol and “follow rules no matter what.” How does this relate to how Cody’s death was handled, and the subsequent cover-up?
• Do you believe Gaby to be the strongest character amongst the Westerners (Lester, Michael, and Alex), even though she is regarded as a “sad woman” in Japan? Why or why not?
• Why does Alex make Gaby feel lonely for the first time she’s lived in Japan?
• Explain the parallel between Gaby and Alex both missing pleasure in their lives, and why they let it continue. What finally changes their attitudes?
• When Lester admits that he spread rumors to get Gaby fired, he claims he did so because he deserved her job more than she did. Is this is a Western way of thinking toward the Japanese, or a Japanese way of thinking toward women? Do you believe that Lester embodies both stereotypes?
• Discuss how Alex finally makes his peace with Japan and Cody’s death.

Editorial Reviews

"Sometimes, one must accept what has happened without understanding it." Poet and short story writer Backer's highly entertaining, seriocomic debut novel explores this intrinsic Japanese philosophy from a unique perspective--that of a single American woman living and working in Japan. The concept of blind acceptance, difficult for any American to understand, is especially frustrating for Gabriela "Gaby" Stanton, 36, fired from her beloved teaching job at Shizuyama University for mysterious reasons. Gaby now works for Mr. Eguchi of Gone with the Wind, a company that sells fantasy funerals, including burial on the moon. Middle-aged Alex Thorn is also a victim of the collision of East/West culture. Alex has come to Japan seeking answers concerning the death of his 20-year-old son, Cody, an exchange student attending the university where Gaby taught. Cody died in a motorcycle accident, and his heart was removed for a transplant. But Cody had adopted a Buddhist philosophy that strictly prohibits organ donation. Alex's search for the details of his son's death lead him to Gaby, since Gone With the Wind shipped Cody's body home to America. Backer adeptly evokes her characters' emotional dislocation as Gaby and Alex negotiate a country where natives often can't read their own language and group needs supersede those of the individual. (Mar. 19) Forecast: The novel's ending should satisfy an American readership's need for closure, but its slow unfolding may defy their accustomed sense of pacing. Patience, reader-san, "There is much to be learned from following a path." If booksellers emphasize the novel's quality (and point out that Backer was the first American and the first woman to serve as visiting professor of English at Japan's Shizuoka University, and that an early draft of American Fuji was named a finalist in the James Jones First Novel competition), success should ensue. Rights sold in the Netherlands and France. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This debut novel by Backer, a former professor of English at Shizouka University in Japan, is about American (and other English-speaking) expatriates in Japan. One would think, given the author's background, that something more than a fairly conventional romance novel might emerge, but unfortunately that is not the case. Despite Backer's thorough knowledge of Japanese people and places and occasional keen insights, her story is sadly derivative. If you believe the Japanese people to be arrogant, insular, misogynist, and xenophobic, then this is the book for you. Backer's Japanese characters show themselves to be narrow, bigoted folk who call foreigners names and ask them insulting questions at will. Toward the end, Backer gives each of her main characters epiphanies that help them realize the grace and beauty of Japan, but by then the reader will simply be unable to ignore the preceding diatribe. This is an optional purchase.--Tom Cooper, Richmond Heights Memorial Lib., MO Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

A lively debut about the innocence of Americans abroad in modern Japan. Gaby Stanton, a 36-year-old expatriate in her fifth year of teaching English at a small Japanese university, is peremptorily fired. No explanation furnished. No appeal possible. Well,"This is Japan, expect the unexpected," she's been told often enough to have become a believer. Unexpectedly, then, she lands a job at a company called Gone With the Wind, owned and operated by one Mr. Eguchi, cool, shrewd, and, it turns out, yakuza-connected (read: mafia). She's to sell fantasy funerals, suddenly a hot status symbol among affluent Japanese. For a fix on the degree of affluence, Eguchi counsels the ever-reliable toilet test whenever Gaby makes a house call:"Toilets tell truth about people," he insists. Enter dour, straitlaced Alex Thorn, psychologist, and author of Why Love Fails, a self-help book that developed out of his own bitter experience. Alex is in Japan to investigate the presumably accidental death of his college-aged son, a death surrounded by mysterious circumstances. Whatever these are, Gone With the Wind appears to be at the heart of the case, especially since Alex has a bill from the company"for services rendered" that also seem shrouded in mystery. Alex wants answers. Pretty soon, Gaby finds herself wanting to help. And, to her surprise—skeptical as she is about the opposite sex—finds herself attracted to him. In the days that follow, Gaby and Alex learn enough about the so-called accident to be certain it involves a money-making scam of considerable significance. They also learn a good deal about each other. As for dour Alex, he lightens up, discovering more than he everthoughtpossibleabout coming to terms with the unexpected. While cultures clash, love flourishes: a funny, warmhearted first novel just a bit overlength.

Kirkus Reviews