cover image Strawberry Road: A Japenese Immigrant Discovers America.

Strawberry Road: A Japenese Immigrant Discovers America.

Yoshimi Ishikawa. Kodansha International (JPN), $19.95 (263pp) ISBN 978-4-7700-1551-8

In this Japanese bestseller, slated for film release in the U.S. and Japan later this year, the author recalls his adventures and misadventures as a teenager studying and working on his brother's California strawberry farm during four years of the turbulent '60s. An appealing, often humorous account, translated into sometimes halting ``Japlish,'' it reflects Ishikawa's struggles to learn English and adapt to American customs as this astute observer vividly evokes the opportunities, dashed hopes and groping patriotism of immigrant would-be Americans. A gallery of exotic characters people the narrative--Haight-Ashbury hippies, illegal Mexican fruit pickers and prostitutes, Japanese issei and nisei still bitter about their WW II internments, and farmers and entrepreneurs who--like Ishikawa's brother--married American citizens to provide other Japanese family members green card entry to the U.S. (Apr.)