The Electrical Field

The Electrical FieldBy: Kerri Sakamoto In her memorable first novel, first published twenty years ago, Kerri Sakamoto takes a deeply shattering look at one of the darker eras in Canadian history. Set in a small Ontario town in the 1970s, the novel opens with the discovery of the beautiful Chisako and her lover dead in a park. In the ensuing investigation, suspicion immediately falls on Chisako's husband, Yano, who abruptly takes their two children and moves away, leaving

By: Kerri Sakamoto     

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In her memorable first novel, first published twenty years ago, Kerri Sakamoto takes a deeply shattering look at one of the darker eras in Canadian history.


     Set in a small Ontario town in the 1970s, the novel opens with the discovery of the beautiful Chisako and her lover dead in a park. In the ensuing investigation, suspicion immediately falls on Chisako's husband, Yano, who abruptly takes their two children and moves away, leaving the community afraid for the children's fate. At the same time, the town's inhabitants are forced to confront the dark shadow of their past, and its aftermath on the citizens of the community.
     It is Chisako's neighbour, Miss Saito, who tells the story. Living on a farmhouse overlooking a field of electric towers, Miss Saito lives mostly alone, duty-bound to care for her invalid father and only encountering her sullen younger brother for supper. Her own memory a fractured collage of past and present, Miss Saito recounts her observations--of Chisako and the bruises that were and weren't there, of the abuse Miss Saito herself faced in her younger years at the hands of her father, and of the destruction wreaked by the aftermath of the Japanese internment on mind and spirit, culture and pride of the Japanese-Canadian citizen.
    What starts as a murder mystery unravels into a melancholic rumination on pain and survival in a hostile world. The Electrical Field crackles with the same intense electricity as the towers that fill it.