cover image Salaryman

Salaryman

Meg Pei. Viking Books, $21 (304pp) ISBN 978-0-670-83979-7

Modern-day emigration of white-collar workers carries a unique set of trials, artfully captured in this insightful first novel. In moving from Tokyo to New York City and then to Chicago, electronics executive Jun Shimada embarks on a spiritual journey that painfully challenges one after another of his repressive, conservative values. The son of a famous Japanese poet, Shimada has adopted these values as much to reject his father's bohemian legacy as to succeed in the homogenous corporate climate of Yamamoto Electronics. But just being with Yoshi Yamamoto, his stern fatherly boss, is ``like having a needle in your arm and watching with patience as the blood leaves your vein slowly.'' Shimada'a wife, Taeko, makes the move to America unwillingly, and their marriage and family life become casualties of the expedition as do, in turn, their health and spirits. Pei skillfully relates this tale of disintegration and rebirth in Shimada's voice. Sometimes sensitive, sometimes solipsistic, he is neither consistently reliable nor consistently likable, but he is convincing. And while his breakdown and subsequent transformation occasionally suggest the subjects of a trendy self-help book, Pei's effective storytelling and her seemly, lyrical prose neutralize that threat. (May)