The Seventh Stone

Widowed in the twilight of her life by her Kamikaze pilot husband, Momoko lives on to see their son, Akio, build a global business, while she holds onto the traditions of her culture. By the author of Mrs. Mike. 20,000 first printing. Tour.

From the coauthor of 1947's hugely popular Mrs. Mike comes this tale about the feverish fortunes of four generations of a Japanese family--a story that, with its heroics, outsize characters, and Westernized cultural exotica, has considerably more drive and appeal than Freedman's others since (Prima Donna, 1981, etc.). The Sanogawa family--and all of Japan, it seems--are euphoric at the start of WW II: ``the supremacy of the white man in Asia is done.'' Meanwhile, although saddened that the family elders placed him in his father's factory rather than at war, Noboru Sanogawa, at 18, is delighted with Momoko, the bride chosen for him. But the promising marriage, at the start of which the dutiful Momoko almost admits indecorous feelings of love (``Love, she had been taught, was for the geisha''), is doomed--as is Noboru, who chooses a warrior's death as a kamikaze. Later, Momoko and Noboru's son Akio, twice rejected--by death and then by his stepfather's unwilling divorce--contains a rage that, channeled into acts of cruelty and guile, will fuel a financial empire. But after the decimation of the family during the Occupation and the rise of the wily Akio, a different war is about to be waged: ``The swords of the samurai were replaced by the spread of double-entry bookkeeping...now it was the Japanese who bankrolled the increasing U.S. debt.'' Groomed to serve their father's international holdings are weak son Juro and daughter Miko, who's educated in the technologies and cultures of both East and West. Finally, by odd twists of fate and Akio's tortured perfidy, the one survivor remains to unite the two cultures. With a pleasingly soft-spoken narrative reporting monstrous events, and an energetic appreciation of the general subtleties of Japanese interchanges of speech and gesture, plus some not-too- subtle political commentary--a solid mix of rue and woo, high- minded deeds, and a touch of decadence. Addictive. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Japan is the setting for Freedman's first novel in ten years. Its main characters are four generations of a wealthy Japanese family. Joined in an arranged marriage, Nobaru and Momoko come truly to love one another, but the demands of family and country force them apart. Left pregnant and a widow at war's end, Momoko finds love with her husband's friend, but again family traditions demand sacrifice. Momoko's young son Akio grows up bitter over his losses and vows that Japan will yet defeat America, this time in an economic war. He is a brilliant businessman, but what will he do when his plans threaten his daughter's marriage and his mother's happiness? Freedman has brought to vivid life the alien ways of a rigidly traditional society. Momoko is particularly moving in her dignified refusal to be broken by tragedy, her character subtly revealed in small details. Well paced and dramatic; highly recommended to those who enjoy first-class storytelling. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/91.
-Beth Ann Mills, New Rochelle P.L., N.Y.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.