This year’s historical fiction novels are no joke! If you’ve been needing a reason to get into this genre, D.K. Furutani’s debut novel release should be plenty. When Mikan Road Was Ours spans four generations of a Japanese-American family and centers around Murano, the half-white son of the family’s black sheep.
Murano is a high school English teacher who’s going through the motions of life. He’s grieving his late father and counting down the days until the summer. He soon learns of his inheritance of his great-uncle Benjiro’s unpublished memoir, which holds the key to his father and grandfather’s family history.
This novel thus alternates between the past and the present. Through Benjiro’s storytelling and Murano’s current situation, we get a detailed look into the Murano family record throughout the 20th century. Here are three of our favorite things about When Mikan Road Was Ours by D.K. Furutani!
Book Overview: When Mikan Road Was Ours
Content warnings: death, death of family and loved ones, violence, racism, bodies, forced captivity, serious injury, cancer, chronic illness, pregnancy, guns, heavy drinking, weapons, warfare (Read at your discretion!)
Summary: Amid a sweltering Los Angeles heat wave, Murano, a reclusive high school English teacher, is muddling through life. Reeling from his father’s sudden death as well as his own recent cancer diagnosis, he passes time hazily grading papers and appeasing disgruntled parents while counting down each day until summer vacation.
The monotony breaks when he inherits his great-uncle Benjiro’s unpublished memoir. What Murano expects to be a grim reminder of his position as the half-white son of the family’s outcast instead whisks him away to 1930s California, to a time when the Murano family was inseparable, relishing life together on their bucolic farm. As the memoir introduces him to relatives he never knew existed and unearths hidden complexities of the past, Murano is pulled close to the Japanese identity he’s dismissed all of his life. Faced with the reality of his family’s dissolution, Murano becomes determined to understand its breaking point following their incarceration in American concentration camps during World War II, no matter what hidden truths he might uncover about his ancestors or himself.
Lovingly crafted with poignant and profound attention to historical detail, When Mikan Road Was Ours is a rich meditation on belonging that seamlessly blends the intricacies of heritage, the resilience of family bonds, and the struggle to reconcile a past filled with both heartache and hope.
Dual Timelines
We love when a historical fiction novel weaves together two timelines like in When Mikan Road Was Ours. Benjiro’s chapters take us through his and his siblings’ childhood growing up on their family farm. From the agricultural strikes to the WWII concentration camps, we get a firsthand account of the conditions the Murano family had to endure. And as the protagonist reads through Benjiro’s memoir, he becomes invested in both the history and the Japanese side of him he hasn’t ever been able to claim until now.
Murano’s Character Development
We find it interesting that the main character Murano isn’t given a first name in When Mikan Road Was Ours. Because even though he’s the only remaining male Murano, his family name holds so much more weight to the story. In the beginning, Murano is very withdrawn. He has a drinking problem, which comes back to bite him later. But as soon as he shows up for his great-uncle’s funeral and accepts Benjiro’s memoir from his cousin Kaiya, his life changes trajectory completely. The more he learns about his father, grandfather, and even great-grandfather, the better equipped Murano is break the cycle and find his way back to his family.
The Different Formats
Not only do we have memoir chapters in When Mikan Road Was Ours, but we also get bits of history through emails and letters later down the line. Not to mention the poems and short stories as well, which we loved. In order to really understand why his father Lonnie was the way he was, Murano needs to know what happened to his grandfather Tomoya and his great-grandfather Eito. We won’t spoil too much of what goes on in the second half of the novel, but Murano (along with us readers) gets to go beyond the pages of Benjiro’s memoir.
D.K. Furutani’s debut novel, When Mikan Road Was Ours, is a powerful, multi-generational family saga we absolutely need in our lives!
When Mikan Road Was Ours by D.K. Furutani comes out July 28th, and you can order a copy for it here!
What do you think of D.K. Furutani’s debut novel? Are you interested in reading When Mikan Road Was Ours? Let us know on Twitter! You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram!
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