Taroko Gorge - Softcover

Ritari, Jacob

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1936071657 ISBN 13: 9781936071654

Publisher: Unbridled Books, 2009

Synopsis

A disillusioned and raggedy American reporter
and his drunken photojournalist partner are the last
to see three Japanese schoolgirls who disappear
into Taroko Gorge, Taiwan’s largest national park.
The journalists who are themselves suspects
investigate the disappearance along with the girls’
homeroom teacher, their bickering classmates,
and a seasoned and wary Taiwanese detective.
The conflicts between them complicated by
the outrageousness of the photographer and the
raging hormones of the young raise questions of
personal responsibility, truthfulness, and guarded
self-interest.
The world and its dangers both natural and
interpersonal are real, changing, and violently
pressing. And the emotions that churn in dark
rooms overnight as the players gather in the park
visitors’ center are as intense as in any closet
drama. There’s enough action and furor here to
keep readers turning the pages, and the cultural
revelations of the story suggest that the human
need for mystery outweighs the desire for answers.

About this title

About the Author

Jacob Ritari has studied with the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist organization in Taiwan and studied Japanese language and literature at Japan s Sophia University. He lives near New York City.

Review

Ritari s first novel is an atmospheric thriller set in a secluded national park in Taiwan where two American journalists, who are between assignments, and a group of Japanese teenagers on a school vacation become trapped after three of the girls go missing and a deadly cyclone bears down on the park. The story is told from the first-person points of view of several of the characters, including one of the journalists, the investigating police officer, and several of the schoolkids. This lends an immediacy to the plot and also increases the psychological tension are each of these narrators reliable? By trapping the teens and journalists in the park, Ritari sets up a traditional country-house plot, but his unique setting and unusual characters make it far different from your average cozy. A promising debut. --Booklist

Jacob Ritari's debut novel crackles with energy; it kept me turning the pages like nothing I've read recently. It should come with a warning: Do not open immediately before bedtime. The setting is a national park in Taiwan, a heavily forested enclave with crevasses, cliffs and critters. A group of Japanese 15-year-olds, just completing their junior school studies, are on a class trip. Then three of them go missing. Where are they? Ritari allows his tale to evolve through the voices of four narrators. We first meet Peter Neils, a somewhat jaded and hard-drinking American journalist on vacation from an assignment in Taipei. Half the time I was all business, he tells us. The other half nothing at all. A man with a philosophic bent, he is attracted to Buddhist thought, particularly to the concept of skilful means, telling people what they need to hear. Walking along the gorge trail with his even more dissipated photographer, Pickett, Neils meets the girls and chats with them briefly in fluent Japanese shortly before they disappear. Michiko Kamakiri then picks up the story. This narrator has no particular liking for any of her female classmates. Rather, there is a propelling sense of being in competition for the three best-looking boys in the group. If we need reminding, adolescent angst is not a pretty thing. Her opposite number would appear to be Tohru Maruyama, more often referred to as Class Rep. He is the first boy in his class, the teacher's assistant, who commands respect (and some romantic longing) from the students. A pleasant but high-strung worrier at the best of times, he feels "no will to live" when the missing girls fail to show up and his normally well-behaved classmates (We're all friends) start to tear at one another. Into this scene of mounting tensions appears Detective Hsien Chao, the Taiwanese old-timer entrusted with the investigation. Hsien Chao dislikes Americans, but hates the Japanese: It seems a few of them [Japanese tourists] never got the message we aren't their colony anymore; or to be realistic, they know that wherever there's money, there's a colony. Chao focuses suspicions on Neils and Pickett -- and bridles when Mr. Tanaka, the Japanese teacher, accuses the Taiwanese of dragging their feet. Taroko Gorge is a thriller, but it's a good deal more. It asks not why bad things happen, but why people have a seemingly endless ability to absorb responsibility for them. Here we're in the world of spiritual inquiry, and Ritari's curiosity about guilt and religious solace delves into Catholic forgiveness, Buddhist reminders of impermanence, Absolute Light's belief in healing. What do we need to hear to make our way back to happiness? Kudos to Jacob Ritari for writing such a compelling first novel and kudos to Unbridled Books for publishing it. --The Minneapolis Star Tribune

About this edition

• Publisher: Unbridled Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1936071657
• ISBN 13: 9781936071654
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256