The Climate of the Country: A Novel - Hardcover

Mueller, Marnie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1880684586 ISBN 13: 9781880684580

Publisher: Curbstone Books, 1999

Synopsis

This new novel by award-winning author Marnie Mueller tells the tragic and dramatic story of Tule Lake Japanese American Segregation Camp during World War II. It is narrated from the unique insider view of Denton Jordan, a conscientious objector, and his wife Esther, who are both living and working in the camp. 

In this gripping tale of the disintegration of loyalty, love, and friendship, we experience a disturbing piece of American history. Violence erupts when Camp Director Ted Andross imposes repressive and culturally insensitive measures against the Japanese American detainees. Already imprisoned Issei are asked to renounce the Emperor - their God - in order to prove their loyalty to the United States. Their children, even though they are U.S. citizens, are forced to make the agonizing choice between family and country. The crisis pits Andross against his staff, husband against wife, and friend against friend. In the midst of this tension, Denton, a pacifist during a time when being a man meant "shouldering a gun for America," is struggling to save his disintegrating marriage with Esther, the daughter of Jewish intellectuals working to get Jews out of Europe. 

The novel explores the difficulty of living up to one's own principles and the psychological impact of trauma on personal relationships - dramatizing how intense pressure can lead to anger, self-doubt, infidelity and murder.

About this title

Review

In 1943, almost a year after 120,000 Japanese Americans had been rounded up and placed in relocation camps, the United States government asked them to sign a loyalty oath renouncing all allegiance to Japan. Those who refused were once again moved--in some cases separated from their families--and placed in Northern California's Tule Lake Segregation Center. Marnie Mueller was born in Tule Lake, to a teacher and a camp administrator. Now, in The Climate of the Country, she transforms her parents' experiences into a gripping tale of violence, political intrigue, and even erotic love.

Mueller's protagonist, Denton Jordan, is a conscientious objector, so conscientious that he neglects his wife and child for his new work in the relocation camp. When one of Denton's protégés, embittered by the loyalty oath, becomes a leader of the camp's militant pro-Japanese faction, tension escalates. After a riot, the army takes control and lays down a set of draconian rules: curfews, passes, and, worst of all, no speaking Japanese. Intrigue surrounds Denton's job, his marriage begins to falter, and he finds himself torn between his heart and his head--only one of many conflicting loyalties animating this complex and lovely book.

Struggling to make sense of their place in a country that considers them enemies, the Japanese internees must balance family and country, tradition and modernity. Meanwhile, Denton--married to the daughter of European Jews--learns what his pacifism truly means. In the end, he finds it's not about being courageous ("That was too romantic and naïve a way of looking at an ugly, messy, tormenting choice") or, conversely, about being afraid. Instead, his pacifism is "about believing to the bottom of his soul that there was a way, other than committing extreme and cruel acts, to make change in the world." The Climate of the Country is that rare thing, a novel of conscience that brings ideals to life. --Chloe Byrne

About the Author

Marnie Mueller (born Tule Lake War Relocation Center) is an American novelist.

About this edition

• Publisher: Curbstone Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1880684586
• ISBN 13: 9781880684580
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 305