An easygoing story about a family who leave a lot unsaid.

'Kanazawa' is a book about a man named Emmitt who has a plan at the beginning of the book which falls through pretty quickly. After talking and planning for a long time his wife decides, at the last minute, that maybe it's not such a good plan after all. Emmitt takes this all in his stride and supports his wife and her family as they try and figure out what to do together and how to shape the next part of their lives.

Emmitt is a fantastic husband and son-in-law throughout this discernment. He's a much better person than me and deals admirably with the way that nobody in his family seems to speak openly about anything. He and his wife dance around each other for most of the book and speak about the true issues in their marriage only fleetingly - I really wanted to sit them both down and lock them in a room. For this reason I found it difficult to keep reading at times. Other readers may find that Joiner perfectly captures the frustrations of Japanese family life but it was too much for me to take.

All of this family drama is set intimately within the city of Kanazawa which I now desperately want to go and visit. It would be magical to read this in the place it's set. You can really feel Joiner's love for the setting every time he describes it.

I knew nothing about this book going into reading it, just that a book set in Japan sounded interesting. I absolutely loved it! I can't wait to read the author's backlist and future works. I received an eARC copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, and that has no effect on the content of my review. I genuinely adored this.

In Kanazawa, the protagonist Elliot is an American living in Kanazawa with his wife Mirai and her parents. Just when the two are set to buy a home of their own and Elliot is set to quit his stressful job for a year, Mirai expresses that she not only does not want to buy the house, she would prefer to move to Tokyo. For Elliot and others, this sets in motion a time of both uncertainty and self discovery.

The descriptions of Japanese village life and the countryside were enchanting and calming all at once, and I loved how much time the author took to describe the landscape and towns involved in the story. Elliot's love of Kanazawa becomes the reader's love of Kanazawa.

It would be easy in a story like this for characters to potentially come off as shallow caricatures, but I found every character here to be relatable in their motivations and nuanced in their depiction. It would have been easy for Mirai to come off as insensitive or Elliot as obtuse, but through Joiner's deft portrayal their multifaceted humanity is retained.

This is a quiet, character driven book but that's not code for boring. It's beautiful and often dreamy. The discussions of Japanese literature are engaging and enlightening. Frankly, I want Joiner to follow up with a much longer book so I can get even more lost in his beautiful writing.

Great writing and a great story. I really enjoyed this novel. It was full of well-crafted prose, provided great insight into Japanese society, and was eminently readable. I knew nothing about this book going into reading it, just that a book set in Japan sounded interesting! And didn't fail me.

Thanks very much, Netgalley for the free ARC.

I really wanted to like this book. I've been to Kanazawa and I'm familiar with much of what the author describes. But it was a bit of a slog for me and mostly I just wanted to shake the characters and get them moving in life. Your mileage may vary.

A book that expresses the author’s genuine love for Kanazawa and Japanese literature, Kanazawa follows Emmitt, an American expatriate living in the titular city with his wife, Mirai. Everything seems perfect as the couple is about to sign the lease for a machiya, a traditional Japanese house until Mirai expresses her doubts. This marks the start of the rift between them as Mirai doesn’t share her husband’s romanticised view of the past and instead, strives for a modernised future in the city of Tokyo.

The author’s writing comes to life when it comes to Kanazawa and all that is related to it, but sadly, it doesn’t extend to his characters. There is a coldness that stands out starkly, and I found that disconcerting. I had expected for there to be just as much feeling when it came to Emmitt and his relationship with Mirai as it did for him and his love for the city. Instead, because the warmth for Kanazawa eclipsed the warmth for the characters, Mirai and the others feel greatly like devices to provide more opportunity to talk about Kanazawa. I think this love for the city would’ve been better expressed through other means instead of in a story like this, but that is just my personal opinion.

Other than that, I honestly didn’t pick up on the allusions to Kyōka Izumi’s works because I’ve never read any of them. This is something I’m looking to rectify soon, but if you’ve not read any of Kyōka’s works either, you may end up like me not being able to fully appreciate the many references in Kanazawa. I would highly recommend checking out Kyōka’s works first as there is a multilayered complexity to Kanazawa that would be best realised upon the first read—unless, you don’t mind rereading books.

All in all, I enjoyed this glimpse into the life of an expatriate. The differences in cultures, the way one thinks and perceive things compared to another’s—the nuances are intriguing and have been expressed well in Kanazawa. I only wish that the characters felt as alive as the portrayal of the city in this book.

David Joiner’s story of cultural and marital conflict’s set in Kanazawa, in the north-west of Japan, a city famous for its arts and crafts, increasingly popular as a tourist destination. The novel centres on Emmitt an American university lecturer who’s settled in Japan together with his Japanese wife Mirai, an accomplished ikebana practitioner. The couple live in relative harmony with Mirai’s parents. The slender plot concerns the beginnings of a rift between Emmitt and Mirai, set off by his obsession with purchasing and renovating a traditional, but dilapidated, Japanese house, one that fits with his particular fantasy of being one with authentic Japanese culture and history. But the prospect’s less than pleasing to Mirai who doesn’t share Emmitt’s romanticised view of Japan’s past, instead she dreams of a different future in Tokyo. Interwoven with their experiences are references to the life and work of the writer Kyōka Izumi, born in Kanazawa in 1873, as well as to his many fans including Mishima - whose family also had ties to the city. Joiner’s prose, particularly when it comes to his characters, tends toward the efficient rather than the memorable or persuasive yet comes alive in his lovingly-detailed depiction of Kanazawa itself, as well as the surrounding countryside and landscapes. Despite some reservations, especially around the dynamics of Mirai and Emmitt’s relationship, I found this incredibly absorbing mostly because Joiner’s obvious love of Kanazawa and of classic Japanese literature was hard to resist. Although I did sometimes wonder why he’d elected to represent these interests through fiction rather than non-fiction or memoir. Also included are useful background notes about Kyōka Izumi’s life and work, and I’m looking forward to exploring his stories for myself in the future.

Thanks to Netgalley UK and publisher Stone Bridge Press for an arc

When I saw this coming up for review on Netgalley, I immediately downloaded it, without having read the blurb. (sumimasen!) I fell in love with the book cover immediately, and then there is of course the title that caught my attention- Kanazawa - the ancient samurai city in Japan.

Although I have never been to Japan (yet), I have - albeit a very rudimentary- knowledge of Japan, its customs, traditions and manners.
I have an ikkyu in jiu jitsu and aikido, and have - as part of my fascination for Japan (and anime fan), collected shiboridashi & kyusu ever since college - when I started starting drinking proper tea (matcha, sencha and gyokuro).

This delightful novel consists of two layers: the first one is about Emmitt and his Japanese wife Mirai who are at the crossroads in their lives. We are observers and witnesses of their daily struggles, yet, the author also wants us to observe how Japan ‘works’ for a 外国人 ( - foreigner).
Here, we see two worlds collide, the western world vs the Japanese take on the world. Through Emmitt’s pov (US) we see how to go about and how easily it is to offend somebody.
Mirai didn’t turn up to sign for the lease, - she would rather risk her marriage and her relationship with her husband, than disagreeing in public, for fear of ‘mentsu wo ushinau’ - and is later shocked to hear her husband quitting his university job, without having found another position. (Being unemployed in Japan will gain you no sympathy, the government may even revoke permission to stay in Japan if you are out of work).

This delightful novel tells it all, from umeboshi (salted plums, yes, salted fruit, and it is truly delicious!), to numerous examples of how to offend (talking on buses/trains, raising your voice, being too loud, or inconsiderate in public, not knowing your place, et&), working 100+ hrs/week, the devastating social pressure, traditional vs modern Japan, culture, literature, and places to see.

The novel reads like a diorama, not only does it give us a glimpse into everyday Japanese family life, but it also tells us about all the beautiful and old things (Noh theater, art, gardens, literature, and much more) Japan has to offer to the world.

Thank you Netgalley and the author for this review copy, this opinion is my own.

4.5 stars.

A book with a Japanese-Anglo angle and a stunning view of the city of Kanazawa. The author has achieved a great thing with this book.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my feedback.

Great writing and a great story. I'm going to have to circle back to his other books. Recommended.

Thanks very much for the free ARC for review!!

I read this via NetGalley - thank you!

I really enjoyed this book. It's the portrait of a marriage - or rather, two marriages. It's told from the POV of an American man who has married a Japanese woman and is living with her and her family in Kanazawa. He is fascinated by traditional Japanese life. She is an Ikebana artist, so is immersed in that tradition, but is less drawn to other aspects, more blase, maybe. This is the tension in their marriage. There is also tension, or maybe mystery, at the heart of her parents' marriage.

I really enjoyed the depiction of day to day life in Japan. This didn't feel like a book written by a tourist, it felt like a book written by a resident. I felt like i was being shown round by a local. There's a description of an amateur Sumo competition that felt like something you just wouldn't see unless you got very lucky.

Relationships alter subtly. Tensions rise and fall. Marriages are complicated. Japan is more than just Tokyo and Kyoto.

Well worth a read.

Now I wanna go visit Japan even more. Hmm, didn’t think that was possible. Well written and beautiful. No complaints on my end

Lyrical writing a story that transformed me from my reading chair to a place I really knew little about.Kanazawa comes alive the town the atmosphere.The story so well written a story of a marriage of difficult moments .So well written a book I will be recommending.#netgalley#stonebridgepress

4 Stars

I very quickly gained the impression that David Joiner has spent a long time in Japan and also in Kanazawa. This novel about finding out what to do with your life was just so Japanese in the best way.

I have often thought that many Japanese authors have a distinct way of narrating and dealing with their topics. Usually the narration is layered, with straightforward prose that is yet full of hints of more meaning between the lines. This also is the case with Kanazawa. David Joiner does a great job of showing us the different perspectives on the question of what to do with your life. Should you work a job that is exhausting and draining you of any joy because it is the more responsible choice? Should you seek to do something that brings you joy instead? What type of house do you want to live in? What kind of place to you want to spend the rest of your life in?

It is clear that there is no simple answer to any of those questions and that everybody has to find an answer for themselves. And we follow Emmitt as he is struggling with all of these issues. I enjoyed Emmit's journey, which was mostly very relatable and plausible and I thought it was great to see how one would deal with such questions living as an expat in a very different culture that is not particularly famous for being inclusive of otherness.

The only thing that was somewhat frustrating was the frequent (non-)communication between Emmitt and his wife Mirai. The way she acted felt really quite crass, especially in the beginning of the story, when she just doesn't show up to a very, very important appointment and the two never really talk it out properly but rather revolve around the whole thing over months in fragments of conversations. However, to be fair, that kind of oblique, indirect communication felt quite Japanese to me, so cannot really fault the author much for it - but a little bit I do fault him as it did feel somewhat like her actions were serving as a plot device to create conflict.

I did love the highlight on famous authors and other artists from Kanazawa that are not very well known outside of Japan. And generally, I thought it was great to read a story set in Kanazawa! I must think that Joiner loves the place and surrounding country as he managed to write about it in a way that really makes me want to at least visit.

In this beautiful novel, set in a eponymous city on the Sea of Japan on Japan's western side, David Joiner's central character, Emmitt, has built a life with Mirai and her family ("She had always made Japan more accessible to him, and a happier place to make his life"). Dissatisfied with his position as a teacher of English in a local university, Emmitt feels his students are phoning it in and so longs for a more immersive Japanese experience, to live in a traditional home or machiya, and translate the works of Izumi Kyoka, a native of Kanazawa who died in 1939. There is so much included in these pages. Mirai, pursuing a career as an Ichibana artist ("People didn't allow themselves to see art in their everyday lives, and this diminished her chances to communicate with a potential audience") dreams of moving to Tokyo in the belief it will be beneficial. Oddly, I didn't feel a connection with Marai as strongly as that with her parents who, although always referred to as "his father and mother-in-law, "are never named. And of course Emmitt. This is the thinnest of outlines. Every page provides illumination of what it means to live in a country where art is revered, authors iconified, and I must admit to my lifelong admiration for the Japanese aesthetic - a minimalist style unchanged for centuries providing peace and beauty. Highly highly recommended.

This didn't grab me at all and I kept waiting for it too. Love the cover and the premise but something just didn't connect for me. Thank you!

I really enjoyed this book a lot. I would recommend it to everyone and it’s now one of my favorites!