Henry Holt 2000
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Stone Field, True Arrow
In her debut novel for adults, Kyoko Mori has drawn on ancient myths, reworked with her hallmark lyrical prose, to probe the eternal question: Given the fragility of life, is love too great a risk?
Maya Ishida is no stranger to sorrow. Torn from her artist father and native Japan as a child, raised by her cold, ambitious mother in Minneapolis, she has finally put together a life with few disruptions: a marriage to a man who never asks questions, a quiet job weaving clothes.
But when her father dies, Maya is pulled back into the memory of their parting. She must question her placid marriage, her decision not to become an artist, and even the precarious peace she made with her mother, before she can be released — to feel passion, risk change, and fall in love.
The New York Times Book Review:
A quiet heartbreaking novel that has as much to say about art as it does about longing.
Publishers Weekly:
This first foray into adult fiction by YA author and memoirist Mori (Shizuko's Daughter; The Dream of Water) is graceful in its simplicity of language and in the subtle way in which Eastern and Western folk tales are interlaced with the plot line. The pace of the book is perhaps too leisurely, maintaining a calm, unruffled tone even at the emotional apex, but despite the mannered structure, Maya's cultural identity and family history are lucidly invoked, and her struggle emerges as a universal one.
Library Journal:
The author of Shizuko's Daughter, a New York Times Best Young Children's Book, and the memoir Polite Lies, Mori (creative writing, Harvard) unveils her first work of fiction for adults. The story opens with 34-year-old Maya, a Wisconsin artisan, learning of the death of her father in Japan. Throughout, Maya searches her memories to find any evidence of love from her estranged father, an artist with whom she lived in Japan until she was sent to her mother and stepfather in America. In a work revolving around relationships, Mori takes the reader on Maya's journey of self-discovery. Quiet and reclusive by nature, she undergoes numerous emotional struggles, such as dealing with her twice-divorced mother and confronting the disintegration of her own marriage while flirting with the notion of an impending affair. As a whole, Mori's work and narration are deeply thoughtful and is recommended for larger fiction collections.
Booklist:
Mori's first adult novel explores the ways that people learn how to express and receive love.
Kirkus Reviews:
Memoirist Mori (Polite Lies, 1998, etc.) offers her first adult novel, a meditative though not very sympathetic look at one woman's journey in reconciling her lonely childhood with the bleak present she has created for herself.