The Rain Ascends

This new edition of "The Rain Ascends" deserves to outlast the critics of its first release whose displeasure hinged on its apparent lack of political correctness and the fact that it was not "Obasan". Kogawa abjures a simple-minded hang 'em and burn 'em approach and writes with profundity and compassion on the subject of pedophilia, to which there was fleeting reference in Obasan. The result is a complex, thoughtful and deceptively simple story. In the telling of the tale, she has clearly laboured to sort through issues of voice and perspective, sensitive to all points of view in a painful debate. This is a fine book.