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The First Noble Truth, the book, is a hauntingly well-written exploration of this truth.
The book follows the lives of two women, Krista from Vermont and Machiko from Japan, as they live, suffer, and eventually become friends. In Krista’s life, a lot happens, most of it pretty appalling. Machiko leads a more “normal,” day to day life, yet the author is so good at writing about our day to day existence that the passages about Machiko are just as hard to put down.
The descriptions of Machiko’s inner life are among the best passages in the book, and also the most difficult to read. Machiko has a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder that compels her to pluck out her hair and pick at her skin. We are treated to detailed descriptions of the satisfaction Machiko gets from plucking a nice, coarse hair, one that brings a wet bit of skin with it and leaves a clean wound behind. A TV ad for a depilatory rockets her into fantasy, just as if she were a pedophile or an alcoholic. She plucks all over her body. She stays up into the wee hours plucking. She hates herself in the morning.
Yes, it’s gross, but believe it or not, it’s a page-turner. You find yourself reading this blow-by-blow description of an out-of-control compulsive behavior with almost the same kind of compulsion with which Machiko plucks. (I do NOT recommend this book for people who are tempted to pluck or pick, as it is likely to make them fall off the wagon.)
But the book is not all hairs and horror. There are also restful passages that describe the town where Machiko lives, the rice paddies, the temple, the tatami mats. Similarly, in Vermont, there are passages about the beauty of the trees in Krista’s mother’s garden. Yet even these descriptions of Nature are often infused with an ominous tension that vibrates through the whole book.
One really outstanding thing about this book is how well it describes life in modern Japan, without being about modern Japan and without resorting to clichés. We get to see all kinds of sensory details about how the Japanese keep warm in the winter (heated tables that you stick your legs under); how they celebrate various holidays; their family and social dynamics; their food. The language is particularly well-done. Though written in English, the characters’ turns of phrase sound distinctively Japanese. Yet Machiko is not just a generic “typical Japanese woman” (obviously); she feels different within her own culture. And in every scene in which we, say, go to the school or to the family temple, there is something else going on, something relating to the plot.
Saying more would spoil the book, so I’ll just say that there is “so much more” that I have not covered.
I had a love-hate relationship with this book. First, I loved it, because it is so well-written. By about three-quarters of the way through, I dreaded to pick it up, because I knew something horrid was about to happen and wasn’t sure I wanted to see the particulars. By the end, I loved it again.
To what can I compare The First Noble Truth? Pearl Buck comes to mind. The Good Earth, Pavilion of Women … is The First Noble Truth really as good as these great works of literature? It sure seemed like it to me, and it’s definitely the same genre. I give it four out of four stars.
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