Description:
In 1943, almost a year after 120,000 Japanese Americans had been rounded up and placed in relocation camps, the United States government asked them to sign a loyalty oath renouncing all allegiance to Japan. Those who refused were once again moved--in some cases separated from their families--and placed in Northern California's Tule Lake Segregation Center. Marnie Mueller was born in Tule Lake, to a teacher and a camp administrator. Now, in The Climate of the Country, she transforms her parents' experiences into a gripping tale of violence, political intrigue, and even erotic love. Mueller's protagonist, Denton Jordan, is a conscientious objector, so conscientious that he neglects his wife and child for his new work in the relocation camp. When one of Denton's protégés, embittered by the loyalty oath, becomes a leader of the camp's militant pro-Japanese faction, tension escalates. After a riot, the army takes control and lays down a set of draconian rules: curfews, passes, and, worst of all, no speaking Japanese. Intrigue surrounds Denton's job, his marriage begins to falter, and he finds himself torn between his heart and his head--only one of many conflicting loyalties animating this complex and lovely book. Struggling to make sense of their place in a country that considers them enemies, the Japanese internees must balance family and country, tradition and modernity. Meanwhile, Denton--married to the daughter of European Jews--learns what his pacifism truly means. In the end, he finds it's not about being courageous ("That was too romantic and naïve a way of looking at an ugly, messy, tormenting choice") or, conversely, about being afraid. Instead, his pacifism is "about believing to the bottom of his soul that there was a way, other than committing extreme and cruel acts, to make change in the world." The Climate of the Country is that rare thing, a novel of conscience that brings ideals to life. --Chloe Byrne
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