Where the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye: A Journey
Marie Mutsuki Mockett's family owns a Buddhist temple 25 miles from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. In March 2011, after the earthquake and tsunami, radiation levels prohibited the burial of her Japanese grandfather's bones. As Japan mourned thousands of people lost in the disaster, Mockett also grieved for her American father, who had died unexpectedly.
Seeking consolation, Mockett is guided by a colorful cast of Zen priests and ordinary Japanese who perform rituals that disturb, haunt, and finally uplift her. Her journey leads her into the radiation zone in an intricate white hazmat suit; to Eiheiji, a school for Zen Buddhist monks; on a visit to a Crab Lady and Fuzzy-Headed Priest's temple on Mount Doom; and into the "thick dark" of the subterranean labyrinth under Kiyomizu temple, among other twists and turns. From the ecstasy of a cherry blossom festival in the radiation zone to the ghosts inhabiting chopsticks, Mockett writes of both the earthly and the sublime with extraordinary sensitivity. Her unpretentious and engaging voice makes her the kind of companion a reader wants to stay with wherever she goes, even into the heart of grief itself.
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A beautiful tale that is part evocative travelogue and part lyrical meditation on grief, this soulful and haunting book made me cry in a way I like to cry when reading a good book.--Heidi W. Durrow, New York Times best-selling author of The Girl Who Fell from the Sky
An intriguing . . . travelogue through a landscape of Japanese spiritual belief, with forays into history, folklore, and memoir. [Mockett] has the ability, fully available only to those on the margins, "to see through more than one set of eyes, if one learns to pay attention to one's environment." It is this gift of double-sightedness, of bringing to bear both the "dry" rationality of the West and the "sticky" sensibilities professed by the Japanese, that makes this the most interesting book so far to have come out of the disaster.--Richard Lloyd Parry "New York Times Book Review"
A fascinating, wide-reaching exploration.-- "San Francisco Chronicle"
Affecting . . . effectively evokes the beauty of Japanese culture and the sorrow that swept the country in the tsunami's wake.-- "San Jose Mercury News"
Mockett skillfully knits together a portrait of loss and recovery, pulling together many individuals' experience of grief into a collective search for peace.-- "Minneapolis Star Tribune"
An illuminating journey into grief and Japanese culture, a place that few would dare to venture.-- "The Japan Times"
What a remarkable and moving book about traveling from one land to another, and learning different ways of coming to terms with death amid life. Engrossing and powerful, it speaks volumes about the many ways people grieve and live.--Will Schwalbe, author of the New York Times bestseller The End of Your Life Book Club
Marie Mockett brought me into the high drama of the tsunami, through her most personal landscape, and into the awe of the eternal.--Luis Alberto Urrea, Pulitzer Prize finalist for The Devil's Highway
This illuminating journey through loss, faith, and perseverance . . . gives the reader a rare view into one of the richest death cultures in the world.-- "Library Journal, Starred review"
