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By
Todd A. Shimoda and
L. J. C. Shimoda (illustrator)
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Jump down to see edition details for: Hardcover
Bibliographic Detail
Publisher
Doubleday
Publication date
April 1, 2002
Pages
349
Binding
Hardcover
Book category
Adult Fiction
ISBN-13
9780385503525
ISBN-10
0385503520
Dimensions
0.75 by 6.75 by 8.25 in.
Weight
1.25 lbs.
Availability§
Publisher Out of Stock Indefinitely
Original list price
$24.95
§As reported by publisher
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Summaries and Reviews
Summary
A unique and beautifully illustrated new novel combines the seemingly incompatible world of Japanese calligraphy and American brain research in the story of a young Japanese-American woman studying neurobiology who finds a key to understanding how the brain works in her boyfriend's calligraphy teacher, the victim of a stroke.
Amazon.com description: Product Description: Illustrated throughout with beautiful calligraphy, The Fourth Treasure is an original, surprising novel that weaves a suspenseful love story across and through two very different countries, cultures, and generations.
Tina Suzuki has just begun her first year of graduate study at the UC Berkeley Institute for Brain and Behavior Studies. Born and raised in San Francisco by her Japanese immigrant mother, Tina knows nothing about the rest of her family, and very little about her cultural heritage. But when her boyfriendâs Japanese calligraphy teacher suffers a stroke and loses his ability to communicate but continues to create magnificent calligraphic art, Tina knows she has stumbled across an ideal research subject.
However, getting the sensei to participate in her study poses a series of uncomfortable obstacles for Tina: the jealous opposition of her boyfriend, the political and (romantic) minefield of dealing with her professors and fellow students, and the willful reticence of her ailing mother. It seems that the blank personal history her mother had always presented is in fact a tightly wound scroll full of scandalous secrets. In ways she could have never expected, Tinaâs studies will inevitably lead to revelations about her own family.
Juxtaposed with Tinaâs story is that of the stricken sensei as a younger man, in Kyoto, and the history of the ancient inkstone he carries with him. The inkstoneâs history, and the senseiâs art, reach back hundreds of years into a Japanese culture that no longer exists but that continues to reverberate on both sides of the Pacific.
As the dual narratives unfold, they are enhanced by intriguing marginalia that illuminate both the senseiâs Japanese calligraphy and Tinaâs studies of the brain.
The result is a unique, unusually satisfying literary experience.
Tina Suzuki has just begun her first year of graduate study at the UC Berkeley Institute for Brain and Behavior Studies. Born and raised in San Francisco by her Japanese immigrant mother, Tina knows nothing about the rest of her family, and very little about her cultural heritage. But when her boyfriendâs Japanese calligraphy teacher suffers a stroke and loses his ability to communicate but continues to create magnificent calligraphic art, Tina knows she has stumbled across an ideal research subject.
However, getting the sensei to participate in her study poses a series of uncomfortable obstacles for Tina: the jealous opposition of her boyfriend, the political and (romantic) minefield of dealing with her professors and fellow students, and the willful reticence of her ailing mother. It seems that the blank personal history her mother had always presented is in fact a tightly wound scroll full of scandalous secrets. In ways she could have never expected, Tinaâs studies will inevitably lead to revelations about her own family.
Juxtaposed with Tinaâs story is that of the stricken sensei as a younger man, in Kyoto, and the history of the ancient inkstone he carries with him. The inkstoneâs history, and the senseiâs art, reach back hundreds of years into a Japanese culture that no longer exists but that continues to reverberate on both sides of the Pacific.
As the dual narratives unfold, they are enhanced by intriguing marginalia that illuminate both the senseiâs Japanese calligraphy and Tinaâs studies of the brain.
The result is a unique, unusually satisfying literary experience.
Editions
Hardcover
The price comparison is for this edition
from Doubleday (April 1, 2002)
9780385503525 | details & prices | 349 pages | 6.75 × 8.25 × 0.75 in. | 1.25 lbs | List price $24.95
About: A unique and beautifully illustrated new novel combines the seemingly incompatible world of Japanese calligraphy and American brain research in the story of a young Japanese-American woman studying neurobiology who finds a key to understanding how the brain works in her boyfriend's calligraphy teacher, the victim of a stroke.
About: A unique and beautifully illustrated new novel combines the seemingly incompatible world of Japanese calligraphy and American brain research in the story of a young Japanese-American woman studying neurobiology who finds a key to understanding how the brain works in her boyfriend's calligraphy teacher, the victim of a stroke.
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