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A tale full of vivid
movement
and fresh insight.
Los Angeles Times Book Review
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"[What the Scarecrow Said ] is a success
on all levels...The author has done an admirable job mixing his own, obviously prodigious
research into an exciting, compelling story that turns on one of the most shameful events
in American history." - Portland Oregonian
"[Ikeda’s] perceptive and moving first novel
provides a fresh perspective to the body of literature about Japanese Americans during
World War II...This is a novel ambitious in its historical scope and touching in its
sensitive depiction of the human tragedy and the sometimes superhuman grace of being able
to forgive." - San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle –
"Editors
Recommendation"
"If your book groups ‘loved’ Snow
Falling on Cedars (as mine did), and found it a means to learn and talk about the
historical injustices of our World War II treatment of Japanese Americans, you may want to
think of What the Scarecrow Said as a
sequel-that-is-better-than-the-original...Guterson describes acts of bigotry; Ikeda’s
characters experience, and transcend, racism in their daily lives. [Ikeda’s]
sensitive rendering of three successive generations conveys both what is universal and
what is particular to the Japanese American community." - Friends Journal
"This rich and multilayered...rewarding first novel
provides satisfying entertainment while examining a distressing period in American
history. Recommended for most fiction collections." - Library Journal
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Partial Media List
A. Magazine | Ann Arbor Observer | Asian Journal |
Berkeley AAirtime Radio | Chicago Shimbun | Confrontation | Contra Costa Times | East Bay
Area Express Literary Supplement | Explanasian | Fiction Digest | Friends Journal |
Hokubei Mainichi | Kalamazoo Gazette | Kirkus Reviews | L.A. Times | Library Journal |
Madison Capitol Times | Madison Isthmus | Madison WISC-TV 3 | Madison WORT Radio | Main
Line Today | Milwaukee Sentinel & Journal | Nichibei Times | Nikkeiwest | Oxford
University Press Review | Pacific Citizen | Pasadena Presbyterian Clarion | Pasadena KPCC
Public Radio | Portland Oregonian | Publishers Weekly | Rafu Shimpo | San Antonio Express
| San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner | Seattle Public Library Newsletter | Transpacific
| University of Wisconsin Bridges | Washington DC City Paper | Weekly Standard | Wisconsin
State Journal
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"A remarkable first novel...Powerful and
unforgettable. Stewart Ikeda has looked long into the bleak moment and seen its horrors,
but out of that time he has written a moving and tender novel about extreme courage."
- Ann Arbor Observer
"What the Scarecrow Said lives up to the best
tradition of the historical novel. This is a good summer read that lingers long after the
covers close." - San Antonio Express News
[Full-Site
Down]
"This generous story of psychological
healing–eschewing both the traditionally heroic treatment of the time and a
revisionist, damning one–provides a version of wartime life that may be as true as
any." - Publisher’s Weekly
"Ikeda’s novel is not merely a dramatization of
history. A skillful storyteller...Ikeda provides a novel that, while familiar in its
background, is also filled with surprising turns." - Confrontation
"Ikeda calls this first effort a historical novel.
Although it is indeed based on historical incidents and is stylistically more realistic
than Joy Kogawa's Obasan (1981), the novel's general effect is far more lyrical
than, say, a Michener novel. Most literature published on the WWII concentration camp
experiences of Japanese Americans has been written by, and largely about, women. Ikeda's
novel is, therefore, unusual and welcome at the very least because it details the life of
a Nisei man, beginning with his mother's having her legs tied together until her ship
docks at an American port so that her son will be born American and ending with the son's
death as an old man before the U.S. has made a formal apology and reparation…The
novel deserves the attention of scholars of Asian American literature and history and of
any reader looking for a satisfying story." - J. Tharp, Choice
"Because Ikeda refuses to compromise, to make stereotypes of victimized and
victimizer, he achieves characterizations of complex human and historical density..."
- Erica Harth, Brandeis Review [Full, PDF]
"Ikeda's ambitious new novel approaches the subject
of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II from an unusual perspective.
The greater portion of the novel is set in 1944 upon a craggy New England hill, which a
middle-aged Nisei, released from the camps and hired as gardener by an independent-minded
Irish American widow, is attempting to turn into a real farm. Through a series of
flashbacks, the earlier life of William Fujita is portrayed…The New England scenes
are especially vivid…the novel is often haunting in its descriptions of Fujita's
encounters with the alien terrain and climate of Massachusetts, and in its tender
portrayal of his blossoming friendships on the hill." - Joseph Milicia,
MultiCultural
Review
"At a time when the Smithsonian atom bomb exhibit and national history standards
are edited for anti-American content, [Ikeda's] first novel What the Scarecrow Said
is a revelation. Thorough historical research meets epic novel in his story of protagonist
Bill Fujita, and what merges is a long overdue "history from below," a
surprisingly detailed account of life during World War II viewed through the eyes of an
interned Japanese American [who] must start over in the present while trying to understand
and communicate the past. The latter is also Ikeda's task -- one that he fulfills
admirably with a wealth of historical detail. Some of the book's most effective passages
are Ikeda's imagining and recreating of Japanese Americans' responses: to the poster that
declared their imprisonment; to the U.S. government's 'loyalty question,' to a
sociologist's questionnaire to the internees. At the same time, Ikeda is careful not to
represent the "Japanese American experience" in Fujita or in any of the book's
characters." - Jerome Chou, A. Magazine
"[A] solid exploration of difficult times--a first novel that is never so weighed
down by politics as to overshadow the importance of the personal stories at its
center." - Kirkus
Reviews
[Top]
What the
Writers Said
Gregory Maguire, Wicked
"I was greatly pleased to find Stewart David
Ikeda’s novel, What the Scarecrow Said, in my hands. It is an auspicious
debut. Here is the life story of William Fujita, family man and farmer, who is caught in
the crosswinds of a difficult historical moment. The quality of compassion and
understanding for Fujita’s plight never allow us to simplify or codify our
understandings of the Japanese-American plight during World War II; Ikeda, though a young
writer, is already too good to deal in generalizations. What Ikeda accomplishes in
What
the Scarecrow Said is vast, subtle, and very welcome indeed.
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"A beautiful story!"
Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston,
A Farewell to Manzanar
(with James D. Houston)
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Nicholas Delbanco, The Writer’s Trade
and Running in Place
"[Mr.] Ikeda has a topic here of authentic interest,
and his strategies of presentation are original throughout. He has a natural
tale-teller’s bent, a graceful way with dialogue, a diction that’s quirky in
just the right way...I have great faith in this novel, and admiration for its author: all
augurs well indeed."
Charles Baxter, A Relative Stranger and Shadowplay
"Ikeda’s is a richly textured and layered book
that sets characters, cultures, and histories into counterpoint, and the result is a
finely tuned story about forms of animosity and love both inside and outside the
Asian-American community during a difficult historical period."
Kelly Cherry, My Life and Dr. Joyce Brothers
and Writing the World
"Stewart David Ikeda has written a large, rich,
encompassing and informative novel that causes us to re-think cultural perspectives. His
varied characters, wrangly and reticent, inquisitive and dreamy, sensible and headstrong,
move us deeply in their search for a place in the sun."
David Mura, Colors of Desire, Turning
Japanese: Memoirs of a Sansei
"In a compelling and complex narrative, Ikeda
explores the intricacies of race and identity against the backdrop of World War II and the
internment of Japanese Americans. What the Scarecrow Said presents us with a new
American hero, the Nisei William Fujita, as he works to retain his dignity and sanity amid
a barrage of losses, both private and public, familial and political. Coming into the
lives of two widows in a small New England town, Fujita surprises both them and the reader
with his quiet resources and personal secrets. The result is a story of eloquence and
pleasure, sadness and endurance, a revelation of the ways we Americans come to terms with
our differences and our conflicting conceptions of who we are. This is a necessary novel,
and I’m grateful for its presence."
Al Young, Sitting Pretty and Seduction by
Light
"Because we regularly forget that the majority of
Americans are descended from immigrants, migrant workers, indentured servants and slaves,
this story of William Hiroshi Fujita–his ‘dangerous’ origins, his passions,
his dreams, his suffering and struggles–seems crucially on-target. With imagination,
soul, refreshing spells of zaniness, and with all-seeing eyes, Stewart David Ikeda evokes
the very America that tormented and spiritualized a Japanese-American family like
Fujita’s, a family addicted to hope and the future; a family invincibly American.
Part allegory, part social saga, part mystery, part yarn, and wryly narrated,
What the
Scarecrow Said reads like a love story whose moving unfoldment spans the depth and
breadth of the American Century...I have no doubt that this first novel [will] get a lot
of attention, which it certainly deserves. What a striking, moving, thoroughly
unpredictable read!"
Bret Lott, Jewel and Reed’s Beach
"The premise of this story is wonderful: a displaced Japanese American set in the
midst of old New England during World War II. Immediately I found myself compelled to find
out exactly what this man would do, how these widows would survive…The dream-like
tone here, too, sets this off in a way that lends a bit of magic to the events, the
geography, the time, the people...I like the feel of the characters, especially Mister
Fujita, him letting out now and again with his ‘Pal,’ a great word that sets him
off as distinctly American, which this story is."
[Top]
What the Readers Said
Jessica Peoples, Westerville, OH: "Story
of Enduring…" (1/24/01)
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Amazon.com
Average Reader Rating
B&N.com
Average Reader Rating
Ask the Author
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This story ... shows the power of one man overcoming
the struggles that he faced. During a time of hatred and judgment, William Fujita found a
way endure. World War II was not the best time for him and his family. Each day he faces
the cruelty of people around him. But through the friendships with people he came to work
with, he was able to love and prevail over evil.
The book takes the reader into the mind of a man that is
suffering through a lot and finding the strength to endure. Not only is this book
encouraging, but it also shows a life that many chose not to see during World War II. The
description shows the truth that had been hidden. However, now it has become a great story
of discovery. A discovery of the lives that people tried to block out. It is not an
extravagant tale of a man that went on to be famous. The story is about a simple man that
still made a difference and had to face the prejudice numerous times in his life.
A reader, New York City: "Wonderful,
fresh, book" (8/23/98)
This is an incredibly fresh and wonderful look at
Asian-American issues - past present and future - as well as other issues that are
universal to both adults and children of all races
A reader: "It is a great book;
beautifully written, important story" (10/27/96)
Just read it and hope Mr. Ikeda keeps writing for a long
time to come
Chades6@aol.com (25 year old
assistant DA in NYC): "Extraordinary book" (1/5/99)
Extraordinary and unique novel about a Japanese-American
during World War II America.
Capitola Book Café: (5/25/96)
"This extraordinary debut novel by a respected
teacher of Asian American studies and writing at the University of Wisconsin tells the
story of one of America's darkest moments: the internment of hundreds of thousands of
Japanese Americans during World War ll. As it spans five generations it focuses on the
life and spiritual changes of William Fujita, a skilled nurseryman in Pasadena who is
interned at Gila River, Arizona. Ikeda's novel seeks deeper human truths of reconciliation
and peace in remarkable ways."
What the
Publisher Said
Stewart David Ikeda's epic novel of a Japanese
American family begins with the birth of its hero aboard the ship that brings his parents
to the United States and ends in the aftermath of a great national shame: the internment
of Americans of Japanese descent during World War II. William Fujita is cast out of
California, uprooted from the family nursery business he loved so much,
"relocated" into an armed prison camp, and beset by almost unutterable loss.
Barred from his home, he finds himself on the cold slopes of New England in the closing
months of the Second World War. There, he must battle grief, prejudice, and his own
conscience to survive and to reconcile himself with families old and new. As he searches
for the mysterious Yoneko - a young woman who holds the key to connecting his shattered
past to his uncertain future - Fujita meets unexpected allies in a small Massachusetts
farming town. Working for Margaret Kelly, a fiery widow who discovers the grief and
passion beneath his reserved surface, Fujita endeavors to prepare for planting that
unpromising tract known as Widow's Peak. Together with Margaret, a war widow named Livvie,
and her scared and damaged young son, Garvin, Fujita becomes an unwilling participant in
an impromptu family bonded by sacrifice, intrigue, and unanticipated love.
