your first thought is “Where has this person been all my life?”Nina. I’ve just met a writer named Nina. Nina Revoyr. Akashic Books, that wonderful class act run by rock musician Johnny Temple, has sent me a copy of a novel by her called The Age of Dreaming (due out in April). Not only is it a tremendously intriguing book about a fascinating period--the 1910s and ’20s, the golden age of silent movies--but it’s also a superb work of publishing art: French covers (the fold-over sort that provide instant, unloseable bookmarks), an evocative cover photo, and all the trimmings.
Revoyr’s Jun Nakayama was a Japanese actor who became a movie star in Hollywood. He might remind you of Sessue Hayakawa, who appeared as the terrifying prison camp commander in David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai. Into this mix, Revoyr ladles recognizable chunks from a genuine Hollywood mystery--the murder of a famous director which, although it was never officially solved, was thought to be the work of the mad mother of a very young and emotionally fragile Southern actress.
Jun starts his story in 1964, 42 years after the murder and his abrupt retirement from the film world. Thanks to wise investments, he now lives in comfort in Los Angeles, thinking only occasionally about the past. But when a journalist and budding screenwriter calls to ask for an interview, Jun is set off on a truly amazing voyage of self-discovery. Driving his vintage Packard through neighborhoods now unimaginably changed to him, he contacts old associates from the period. A strong undercurrent of racial prejudice runs through this book: a scene in which Jun takes some Japanese associates to a golf driving range in Westwood, only to discover that a new rule bars “Orientals and Negroes” from playing there, could break your heart.
Revoyr, who is half Japanese herself (her mother was Japanese, her father Polish-American) seems to get it all right. She also is a master of her art who has been compared by advance readers to Kazuo Ishiguro (author of Remains of the Day) and Vladimir Nabokov. Enter her dream world. You won’t regret it.
2 comments:
The minds, they do think alike. I just finished this very book a few days ago and adored it on so many levels.
I will write this novel and the author's name on a note and put it on my desk. But since it does not come out until April, here's hope that you and other reviewers will be reminding the reading public so that the book does not get lost in the spring deluge of new books.
Lyn LeJeune- The Beatitude Network-Rebuilding the Public Libraries of New Orleans at www.beatitudesinneworleans.blogspot.com
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