Book Review: A Book of Contradictions: Ink and Ashes by Valynne E. Maetani

Book Review: A Book of Contradictions: Ink and Ashes by Valynne E. Maetani.
Reviewed by Melissa McShane Proffitt.
Ink and Ashes. Tu Books, 2015.
Valynne E. Maetani’s debut young adult novel is a tightly-plotted thriller, with plenty of misdirection and tension. It’s also a story about identity, family, and love. This ought to make it weak, neither one thing nor the other. What gives this novel strength is the interconnection between the two stories. Claire, in tracking down the mystery of who her yakuza father was, grows to better understand who she is—sister, friend, daughter, and woman.
Claire is a strong, compelling character, intelligent, athletic, and dogged in pursuing a mystery. When, on the anniversary of her father’s death, she discovers a mysterious message that points to contradictions in the story she was always told about him, she sets out to uncover the truth about her father, her stepfather, and a mystery over a decade old. Claire is believable as someone who might go to any lengths to solve a puzzle, and her skills (including martial arts and lock picking), while unusual, are sufficiently justified to keep from being over the top.
Though the story doesn’t maintain its taut pacing throughout, it’s nevertheless smoothly told. The romance is the least believable part of the story, as Clare manages not to realize that her best friend has been carrying a torch for her for years. More interesting than the romance is the power of Claire’s friendships with the young men in her life, not only her two brothers but also the three boys who behave like brothers to her. Claire has female friendships, but when she’s in trouble, it’s the boys she goes to for help. The reality of being the only “sister” in a group of five teenage boys comes up frequently, as all of them connive to protect (sometimes over-protect) her from undesirables.
By comparison, Claire’s female friendships are weak and distant, pleasant but not close. There are female characters in this book; they just don’t have much of an impact on the story. Even Claire’s mother is less of a presence in her children’s lives than their adoptive father is. Given this, it’s not surprising that Claire struggles to define herself as a girl within the sometimes oppressive attention of all the men in her life. She’s not a tomboy, but neither is she comfortable with the social interactions expected of a teenage girl, such as dating. This lack of close female connections allows Claire to take an undisputed center stage role and permits her to be ignorant of her best friend Forrest’s romantic feelings (no good girlfriend would have failed to notice that), so it’s central to the story. Still, the marginalization of the other women weakened the book. It’s easy enough to make a girl the star when she’s the only girl, less simple when she’s one among many, and in this respect Maetani took the easy, and less compelling, route.
Reading this book strictly as a thriller is probably a mistake, because there are long sections where the thriller aspects of the novel give way to the ordinariness of life. Maetani employs the conceit of diary entries to good effect here. Claire’s “diary” is written as a series of letters to her dead father, telling him things and asking questions. Each letter comes from Claire at a different age, and each is placed in the story at a time when the content of the letter fits with what’s happening in the present of the story. This matters most in the middle of the story, when the thriller elements disappear entirely; they’re a reminder of the man whose actions as a youth are driving the story now. Even when Claire isn’t in imminent danger, the mystery is still there. It’s unfortunate that this conceit doesn’t persist throughout the book, because a great deal of character development happens within those diary entries, but it’s enough to unify the two faces, as it were, of the book.
In the Author’s Note, Maetani writes of growing up yonsei, fourth-generation Japanese American, saying that after the hundred-plus years since her family immigrated certain traditions were lost or changed. Claire’s family reflects this idea: they are not overtly Buddhist, but they integrate traditions, or their interpretation of traditions, into their modern American lives. Like the blending of plots, the characterization is stronger for this integration. Claire’s mother, otherwise rather a nonentity, stands apart when she consults the lunar calendar for auspicious days when something important was to happen. The overall impression is of a family for whom tradition was important as more than just something to pay lip service to.
Strong stories with non-traditional protagonists are unfortunately rare in young adult fiction. With Claire, Ink and Ashes brings a much-desired diversity to the field, portraying a young woman not only learning to be herself, but discovering her Asian-American heritage as well. Maetani’s debut novel handles questions of identity, courage, and love adeptly, while simultaneously telling an interesting story—a fine achievement, and an enjoyable read.
Ink and Ashes was the winner of the 2015 Best Novel by a New Author Whitney Award, and a finalist for the 2015 Association for Mormon Letters Young Adult Novel Award. Melissa McShane is a novelist, whose work can be found at melissamcshanewrites.com. She was president of the Association for Mormon Letters in 2004-2005.