Good Reads / Community Library Notes
Phantoms
Christian Kiefer
Review by Priscilla Comen
Phantoms
Christian Kiefer
Review by Priscilla Comen
Phantoms, by Christian Kiefer, is the story of Ray Takahashi who returns from battles in France and Italy to the verdant valley where he once lived. When he disembarks at the train station he’s met with insults. When he’s insulted by the ranch foreman, he knocks him to the ground. When he goes to the home of his old friends, the Wilsons, Mrs. Wilson yells at him to get off her porch. Author Kiefer takes us along the dirt, dusty roads where peach trees, plum, and pears grow in military style rows.
Two decades later, John Frazier writes the story he remembers after his return from Vietnam. He goes to his grandmother’s and she lovingly takes him in for as long as he wants to stay. After being hired at a gas station, his aunt, Evelyn Wilson, comes in. Mrs. Wilson comes to John’s grandmother’s house later and asks John to drive her to San Jose, three and a half hours away, where he finds himself at the home of Mrs. Takahashi.
The author tells us the back story of Hiro Takahashi who leaves his beloved Japanese orchard for America. His parents arrange a marriage for him to Kimiko, a young girl. They move through the California valley from picking job to picking job. She has a baby whom they name Ray. The year is 1923. Hiro meets Homer Wilson and goes to work for him in the orchard. One day, Kimiko helps Mrs. Wilson deliver her baby, a dead boy. Jump forward to the 1940s and the buses coming to take the Takahashis and their Japanese friends to camps in places like Tule Lake for internment. Kim burns everything Japanese that she owns. Author Kiefer describes the buses so we can smell the diesel fuel, hear the roar of the engines, and sense the fear of the families.
Later, after John drives Mrs. Wilson to San Jose, the two women sit silently for a long time. Kim brings out tea. Mrs. Wilson tells about taking her daughter, Helen, to a clinic in Seattle where Helen delivers a baby and gives it to a nun, saying, “Take him.” He has Japanese features and Mrs. Wilson feels she has done the right thing. The truth dawns on Mrs. Takashashi and she says, “Raymond.” Kim tells Mrs. Wilson that Ray never came home. Mrs. Wilson says he did; people saw him, such as the foreman at the ranch. Kim begs Mrs. Wilson to help her find her son.
They go to a Buddhist temple where the priest tells them Ray had slept there and in a field nearby. Why didn’t Ray go to his parent’s home on his return? Does Mrs. Takahashi find what happened to her son Ray? Many questions need answers as we read this story of two families and the outcome of their lives. Does John write the book of his experiences in Vietnam for which he has notes by his typewriter? Are the memories too painful? Find this excellent novel on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.
Two decades later, John Frazier writes the story he remembers after his return from Vietnam. He goes to his grandmother’s and she lovingly takes him in for as long as he wants to stay. After being hired at a gas station, his aunt, Evelyn Wilson, comes in. Mrs. Wilson comes to John’s grandmother’s house later and asks John to drive her to San Jose, three and a half hours away, where he finds himself at the home of Mrs. Takahashi.
The author tells us the back story of Hiro Takahashi who leaves his beloved Japanese orchard for America. His parents arrange a marriage for him to Kimiko, a young girl. They move through the California valley from picking job to picking job. She has a baby whom they name Ray. The year is 1923. Hiro meets Homer Wilson and goes to work for him in the orchard. One day, Kimiko helps Mrs. Wilson deliver her baby, a dead boy. Jump forward to the 1940s and the buses coming to take the Takahashis and their Japanese friends to camps in places like Tule Lake for internment. Kim burns everything Japanese that she owns. Author Kiefer describes the buses so we can smell the diesel fuel, hear the roar of the engines, and sense the fear of the families.
Later, after John drives Mrs. Wilson to San Jose, the two women sit silently for a long time. Kim brings out tea. Mrs. Wilson tells about taking her daughter, Helen, to a clinic in Seattle where Helen delivers a baby and gives it to a nun, saying, “Take him.” He has Japanese features and Mrs. Wilson feels she has done the right thing. The truth dawns on Mrs. Takashashi and she says, “Raymond.” Kim tells Mrs. Wilson that Ray never came home. Mrs. Wilson says he did; people saw him, such as the foreman at the ranch. Kim begs Mrs. Wilson to help her find her son.
They go to a Buddhist temple where the priest tells them Ray had slept there and in a field nearby. Why didn’t Ray go to his parent’s home on his return? Does Mrs. Takahashi find what happened to her son Ray? Many questions need answers as we read this story of two families and the outcome of their lives. Does John write the book of his experiences in Vietnam for which he has notes by his typewriter? Are the memories too painful? Find this excellent novel on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.