Review of James Melville's A Haiku for Hanae

James Melville is a fiction writer from London. He was born in 1931. Later he studied philosophy, and was conscripted into RAF. He then did school teaching and adult education. He spent a lot of years overseas in cultural diplomacy and educational development. During a number of overseas assignments, Melville came to know, love, and write about Japan and the people of Japan. Melville had two sons and was married to a textile artist. He later continues to write novels in the Otani series from his home in Herefordshire, England.

In A Haiku For Hanae, Melville uses realism along with conversationalism to convey the story. His realism pulls people in by causing fiction to become real and to set the scene. His conversationalism is used to give a grasp on the character's mindset, and so on.

One example of realism is where he writes, "At around ten-thirty on Tuesday in May the commuter rush was long over." on page 2. Here he goes into detail a little bit to pull fiction into realistic detail. He also uses a realistic detail to set the scene and environment.

Another example of realism is where he writes, "Otani's own view of westerners was hardly more sympathetic than inspector Takada's..." on page 9. At this point he uses the way a true Japanese person would think of a westerner and applies it to his characters. In applying this to his character's he gives his characters a touch of realism causing them to seem more like real Japanese people/citizens.

Next is conversational attribute. One example of Melville being conversational can be found on page 13 where he wrote this dialogue: "'Not all...' 'Oh?' 'Sir...' 'Officer...'". Here he uses a short dialogue to convey part of the story. Since it is a dialogue telling part of the story it is conversationalism.

A second dialogue can be found on page 111. Here he writes the dialogue: "Gracious me, you are a hard nut...". This dialogue also tells a part of the story as well.

Therefore Melville uses conversationalism and realism which defines his style as realistic and conversational. He uses realism to pull people in and set the scene. Where as he uses conversationlism to give us the reader a grasp on the mindset of his characters as well as move the story along.

With his style of being realistic and conversational, he also puts out elements of fiction based from the Japanese culture. Melville also describes various geographical information along with some holidays. He speaks on the Japanese ideal of perfection and modernism.

One thing that sticks out immediately is the perfectual police. During World War II Japan signed with axis powers. After doing this they constantly raided China. Eventually we (USA) bombed Japan with two nukes, Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Afterwards Japan had surrendered and allowed our military forces to occupy them, they were not allowed to have a military of their own. So what Japan had did was start to build a police force. Since then the Japanese have been trying to perfect their policing and law methods. And this is why the perfectual police concept of fiction has reflected a fact from a time ago.

The next thing deals with commuting and modernism. In a search for a perfectual government and modern technology. Japan has done so much with identification. The book speaks a lot about commuting and a perfectual government. Commuting and government of course have nothing to do with each other, but trying to perfect both is a part of modernism. Therefore they have been connected.

The third aspect he includes is geography. He speaks constantly on the coastlines, seas, etc... In fact, he goes so far that he put map earlier in the book. This puts in an aspects of realism.

A forth aspect he included was the Japanese yen and the European ideals. He goes into little detail with the yen, but he goes on from time to time showing the importance of Japanese deals with other country. He gives a slight focus on the trade with other countries.

All of these examples are examples of Japanese culture are postlude (fiction or not) to things that happened historically. However he goes into an obvious example, the Golden Week. He does not go into detail about this, but he does mention that it is a very important that people take off for it, usually.

Next comes his shibui, in Japanese this an adjective that means elegant, restrained and in the best possible manner or taste. This is how people describe Melville's novels. However his writings are more than shibui. Some how Melville finds a way to blend words of London with Japanese words.

One example of his usage of Japanese words would be the word haiku. A haiku is a strict poem which shows the Japanese respect and liking of discipline. The poem is always to have a top line of 5 syllables, a middle line of 7 syllables, and a base with 5 syllables. However, this poem may be very strict if one masters it, they could surely write a poem more meaningful than a thousand words. (Haiku page 154) Here is an example:"The dark lonely manHe stands like a cold night rose.the stars gleam his eyes."

A second example is his usage of the word Noguchi. This word means ninja. In Japan the ninja is well known as a master of stealth and tricks. The usage of this word preludes to something greater than what has been written in A Haiku For Hanae. (Noguchi page 2) A third example is Melville's use of the word immaculate. Immaculate means having no stain or blemish. He once uses this word to describe the perfection of someone's clothes. (immaculate page 2)

A fourth example was his usage of the word commuter. A commuter is one who uses the buses, etc... to travel around the city rather than personally driving somewhere. In Japanese culture commuting is how a lot of people get around. (commuting page 2)

These examples show how James Melville uses English words with a London style to describe the Japanese culture. Melville shows simply by his words a special genius. His genius is having an affinity for elegance and a flowing together of words as the liquidated ink forms and dries on the papers at which collects a part of his elegance.

As for characterization, Melville uses a variety of behavior and gives a lot of information to develop his characters. For this paper I have chosen to focus on Otani. Just to be brief. In chapter one Otani is introduced as a friend of Hanae's who happens to be very respectful. Otani is also a detective. Ontani also gives a hint of being very realistic and detailed.

In chapter two Otani is a man that likes to know who he works with, but he does not want to seem conspicuous by asking too much. He doesn't blow his cover. And he knows how to operate smoothly. In chapter six, Otani is very intelligent and able to reason and deduce a lot of mysteries. He is very conscious of all he does, yet he is defensive to specific questions.

In chapter ten it mentions the warmth and comfort Otani feels with Hanae. Otani is shown to have compassion and care by how he reacts to things, what he notices, how he speaks, and what he thinks. Also Otani looks out for others and pays a lot of attention to detail.

In the end, all is done. Otani has pulled everything together in a calm-headed elegant sort of way. Finally, everything is somewhat concluded and in a strange way back to normal. Then Otani's directness is shown (page 161) when he speaks about his feelings towards Noriko.

The author's tone is one of softness and elegance. He uses a smooth style to speak and inject small amounts of information. Then he adds a touch of finesse and elegance to mention those things at which are abrupt.

One example of this is on page 45 paragraph "A" where he says, "He was still metaphorically in the dark1, though his formidable host had not so much ushered2 as driven him into a study and into a chair that Mori cleared for him by the simple expedient of pushing all the books and files on it to the floor3." Here in the first underlined part he smoothly enters into his description. In the second underlined part he uses finesse to keep the statement going. Then finally in the end, the third underlined part he elegantly ends his statement with an abrupt action.

Another example of this is on page 139 paragraph "C" where he say, "Kuroda edged back1 so that he was partly in shadow2 and Otani joined him3." With the first underlined part the way Melville describes Kuroda's quick action he used an elegant expression. He uses finesse to keep the statement going. Then he concludes with a somewhat smooth line.

In conclusion of tone, the author uses this elegance, smoothness, and finesse to set the tone. He sets a tone of imagery with these qualities. It allows the reader to imagine and picture the story as it is happening. The reader can feel like they are in the story.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Melville, James. A Haiku For Hanae. New York: Ballantine Books, 1989.