A look at books

By Ken Steele

Here are a couple of novels worthy of your attention. Both are written by Canadian authors and both are set in the interior of B.C.

Requiem by Frances Itani is the story of the removal and internment of Japanese Canadians during WW II. It is told through the eyes of a Japanese Canadian boy, 6 or 7 year-old Bin, and his family, who are interned on the banks of the Fraser River until 1945 and 1946. Descriptions of their daily life are interspersed with accounts from the man this boy has become in 1997. It can be seen as a lesson in how the past affects the future and shows how, finally, Bin is able to integrate the two.

Tell it to the Trees by Anita Rau Badami showcases the behaviour and secrets of a dysfunctional family living in Merritt Point, B.C. This story also demonstrates how the past behavior of others shapes one's present actions. The point of view is rotated, by chapter, amongst most of the characters in the book: Varsha, the teenage girl, who dotes on and controls her younger brother, Hemai; their stepmother, Surnam; and their tenant, who rents a cottage on their property. Only Varsha's and Hemai's father and his mother, Akka, who lives with the family, are given no original voice.

Both books are available from the Greater Victoria Public Library as either "Fast Reads" or, with holds, off the shelf.