Multicultural Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring, 1992
The Loom and Other Stories, a first collection by R. A. Sasaki, explores the lives of three generations of Japanese-Americans. Loosely connected, the nine stories that comprise the collection involve themes of loss, cultural identity, generational differences, and mother-daughter tensions.
Throughout Sasaki’s work, much of the narrative richness results from the disjunction between the understated tonalities of the writing and the events that writing describes. In the opening story “Ohaka-mairi,” for instance, the narrator’s tonal mutedness implies the extent to which she is numbed by her sister’s accidental death. In other stories, Sasaki’s mastery of tone ranges from wittily humorous to movingly lyrical. One of the strongest selections in the volume, “Driving to Colma,” is a beautiful story where the complexities of the narrator’s emotion about her father’s illness are conveyed through a scene in which daughter and father drive home in separate cars, one following the other.
Though uneven in places, The Loom is full of acute insights into the experiences of Japanese-Americans. Sasaki writes with great sensitivity, intelligence, subtlety and humor. Recommended for public and academic collections of contemporary literature. ―Traise Yamamoto, University of Washington
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