Meeting Luciano

The author's confident if quiet voice gives credence to this polished, gentle first novel. When Japanese-American Emily Shimoda finishes college, she moves into her mother's house in Westchester County, N.Y., resuming her old waitressing job at a Japanese restaurant while deciding what to do with her life. Emily is worried that her mother, Hanako, recently divorced by Emily's father, is becoming more and more eccentric. An avid opera fan and Europhile, the cosmopolitan Hanako has decided to renovate her house because she believes with unwavering certainty that opera star Luciano Pavarotti is coming for a visit. Moreover, Hanako seems to be too trusting of the hearty Greek-American contractor, Alex, who aggressively inflates the home improvements, arousing Emily's suspicions and leaving her baffled at her mother's naive allegiance to this take-charge stranger. Under Alex's gaze and through the regenerative enterprise, Hanako blooms, however, taking stock of her newly reimagined life. Will Pavarotti actually show up? The answer to this question is delightfully unexpected, as the novel gracefully explores Emily's past and present to suggest that it is Emily, not her mother, with the identity crisis. Hanako, in her carefully controlled English, has fed her daughter colorful stories of growing up in Japan while making it clear that Emily and her siblings were expected to be fully assimilated Americans. This contradiction has rendered Emily obstinate and confused, ""a frowning girl."" Emily is at times too analytical and detached, almost infuriatingly so, and her nostalgia for an old college boyfriend is a bit forced. Nevertheless, her fraught relationship with her mother is heartfelt and complicated; when she tries to dismiss her concerns about her mother's possible disappointment, she finds she can't. As Emily learns to see her ethnic identity clearly, Esaki-Smith delineates her heroine's maturation as a blend of personal choices, proud heritage and self-exploration. (Apr.)