The Book That Plunges You Into Messy American History

In her new novel, Karen Tei Yamashita challenges readers to join her in deciphering a shameful moment from the nation’s past.

Excerpt: In the novel’s more than 400 pages, only one line rang false to me. At the very end, a character addressing a photograph of a child in an internment camp swears, “What happened will be remembered, and people will learn the lessons of the past.” The promise is too neatly optimistic, but also, top-down learning—here’s a lesson; take it with you—is not the book’s dominant approach. Yamashita is doing something rarer and more provocative than that. By writing a historical novel that doesn’t take a settled stance, she undercuts the idea that loyalty is straightforward—or, for that matter, reduced to “yes” or “no.” She also rejects the prospect of a single, stable story about the loyalty questions.

Instead, she challenges her readers to join in the reconstruction of a debate, and a moment of the U.S.’s past, too complicated to understand or remember entirely. By compelling her audience to try alongside her, she shares the frustration of the attempt, but she also shares her own determination. In order to read "Questions 27 & 28," you have to commit, if only for the length of the novel, to the messy project of American history.