Country of Origin (Revised)

by Don Lee

Book Overview

Lisa Countryman is a woman of complex origins. Half-Japanese, adopted by African American parents, she returns to Tokyo, ostensibly to research her thesis on Japan's "sad, brutal reign of conformity." When she vanishes, Tom Hurley, who is half-Korean and half-white, is assigned to her case at the American embassy, as is local cop Kenzo Ota, who is 100 percent Japanese but deemed an outsider.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 039332706X
• ISBN13: 9780393327069
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 322 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.6" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

excellent reading

I loved this book, the mix of Oriental/Asian/American intrigue was just right, kept me reading and finished it in an afternoon. I hope this author has more up his sleeve!

strong look at what is race inside a fine police procedural

In 1980 University of Berkley graduate student Lisa Countryman, a half-Japanese, half-black American, conducts her dissertation research in Tokyo on the brutal societal conformity of bar girls. Lisa also has a personal agenda to learn more about who she is as a mixed race person. Needing work, Lisa finds employment as a hostess girl at a Tokyo men's club. Eventually she vanishes and her disappearance comes to the attention of American Junior Diplomat Tom Hurley, who has no interest in a half-breed's disappearance except as a nuisance that takes him away from the embassy pool and cocktails, which in his mind is more important to a purebred Hawaiian that he insists he is. In fact he is embarrassed by his roots of being a hybrid half-Korean, half white. Police Inspector Kenzo Ota, who spent three miserable teen years in Missouri, investigates the missing American, feeling strongly this case could make his career if he can solve it fast. This is an interesting look at racial relationships told through the three key characters whose convergence centers on the disappearance. The entertaining story line grips the reader from the moment that Lisa's vanishing is reported and never slows down as Tom half heartedly and Ota fully are engaged in learning what happened to her. Though minor in terms of the plot, the Tokyo embassy is in bright contrast to the stark Iranian hostage situation that is occurring at the same time. Don Lee uses a Japanese police procedural to provide a strong look at is racial origins. Harriet Klausner

Highly Recommended

"Country of Origin" is an incredibly engaging book. It is a little bit of everything, police looking for a missing person, investigations into the Japanese sex industry, and the exploration of racial identity. "Country of Origin's" main character is Lisa Countryman. Lisa is half Japanese and half black and is a graduate student writing her thesis on the Japanese sex industry in Tokyo. Lisa was adopted from a Japanese orphanage by an American couple and has been struggling with her identity ever since. Lisa is also a missing person. There are two men looking for her, Tom Hurley, a U.S. Foreign Service Officer who is rather immoral and dishonest, and Kenzo Ota, a decent Police Inspector and a hypochondriac. The narrative in "Country of Origin" switches from the time of her arrival in Tokyo and then to that Tom and Kenzo as they look for her. I found "Country of Origin" to be an incredibly fascinating story. Lisa's search for identity and her fate in Tokyo, the descriptions of the sex industry and trade in Japan, and the tales of Tom and Kenzo all make this book a great read that I would highly recommend!

Super

This novel works on all levels-as a mystery, as a literary novel, and as a sharp examination of late-20th-century Japan. Don Lee has written a terrific, engrossing story which will be enjoyed by anyone who loves a good book.In 1980, graduate student Lisa Countryman goes to Japan to work on her doctoral thesis. She's half Japanese, half-black, a Berkeley grad who hopes to learn more about her own background through her research. This path turns risky, and at the opening of the novel, Lisa has already disappeared.The US Embassy official assigned to Lisa's case is on shaky ground himself. Tom Hurley is on his own risky path, hiding his own mixed heritage as he pursues an affair with the wife of a CIA official. A man of such compromised morals wants nothing to do with a disappearance of another bi-racial American, especially one who may have been involved in the Japanese sex underground. Lisa's case falls to Kenzo Ota, a Tokyo detective with so many neuroses that he commands no respect. He gets Lisa's case because in the eyes of his co-workers, the disappearance of such a person is of no consequence whatsoever.Don Lee weaves Lisa's story through Ota's search for her with fluidity and skill. His pointed look at Japanese society in 1980 is intelligent and interesting, with the additional intriguing reflection on the US reaction to bi-racial Americans. "Country of Origin" is completely satisfying and I look forward to Don Lee's next novel.