The Secrets of Mariko by Elisabeth Bumiller: Book Cover

    The Secrets of Mariko: A Year in the Life of a Japanese Woman and Her Family by Elisabeth Bumiller

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    (Hardcover - 1st ed)

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    • Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
    • Pub. Date: October 1995
    • ISBN-13: 9780812926033
    • 356pp
    • Edition Description: 1st ed
    • Edition Number: 1
     
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    Synopsis

    The Secrets of Mariko is a remarkably revealing and intimate look at the life of an ordinary Japanese woman at the close of the twentieth century. Mariko and her husband, three children, and aged parents live in a small house in Tokyo. It is a family typical of hundreds of thousands of others in Japan. Mariko is a part-time meter reader and a very full-time wife, mother, and daughter. She spends her days cooking, keeping house, taking care of the children and her parents, working at her job, and stealing an afternoon now and then for herself. Through Mariko we gain a rare insight into the culture of Japan and begin to understand the obligations and desires that drive Japanese society. Like many Japanese, Mariko knew very few Westerners, and was instinctively reserved with anyone outside the family circle. But somehow she broke through her sense of privacy and let Elisabeth Bumiller, a reporter for The Washington Post, into her life for more than a year. Over time, as they grew to know each other, Mariko gradually revealed her secrets. Most are small but deeply personal, and together they yield a nuanced portrait of a life. The Secrets of Mariko speaks eloquently of what it means to be Japanese, and to be an ordinary woman confronting the choices we all must face.

    Annotation

    As it follows a Japanese housewife named Mariko Tanaka over the course of a year, The Secrets of Mariko transcends reportage to yield the kind of human insights we expect from literature. Meet Mariko, a cheerful, overscheduled woman who cares for three children, two aging parents, and an unresponsive husband. As readers watch Mariko take part in PTA meetings, bicker with her teenagers, and pursue independence through her part-time job, they come to see Mariko as someone whose dreams and disappointments mirror our own.

    Publishers Weekly

    An examination of contemporary Japanese society as seen through a year in the life of a middle-class woman. (Nov.)

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    Secrets of Mariko: A Year in the Life of a Japanese Woman and Her Familyby Anonymous

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    July 21, 2008: I really enjoyed reading this book. Captured my attention and concentration. Learned a lot about Japanese culture in a very fun way.

    Secrets of Mariko: A Year in the Life of a Japanese Woman and Her Familyby Anonymous

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    December 13, 2000: When comparing the cultures of the world, those of Japan and the United States appear to be vastly different. The endurance of the perception of the mysterious Orient endures in the West, and it is difficult to imagine many similarities. By studying a Japanese wife and mother, Elisabeth Bumiller provides insight into this matter in her book The Secrets of Mariko. Bumiller enters into a lengthy study of suburban Japanese culture, letting her discoveries and events guide her progression into her subject's life. Her easy, pleasant writing style and enjoyable story assembles an image of a typical Japanese woman that, in the end, American readers may find surprising. Mariko is the woman that Bumiller trails for slightly over one year. Bumiller chose Mariko because of her apparent middle class status, white-collar husband, and teenage children, hoping that she would provide an ideal example of the average Japanese woman at the beginning of the 1990's. Bumiller speaks no Japanese, so she hired a translator, Sachiko, a younger Japanese woman whom we learn during the course of the book is more cosmopolitan and independent than Mariko. Bumiller relies on only Sachiko throughout her study but writes little about her dependence upon a translator and how it will affect her research. One of the many events the three women attended was the neighborhood Parent Teacher Association meeting. Mariko is a member of the all female PTA, and Bumiller gained insight on the social rules of interaction from these meetings by witnessing the consensus style of Japanese diplomacy. Although a purchase by the PTA was approved by consensus early on in this meeting, a single member dissented near its end. What was earlier a closed issue was now reopened for discussion. In the end, the decision was even put off until another meeting. From her American perspective, Bumiller found this sequence of events confusing. Mariko also held a part time job reading meters for a utility company. Although she enjoyed the responsibilities and flexibility of her job, she would elect to go for many weeks at a time without working to meet her various family responsibilities. The traditional roles of wives are rarely observed as they were in pre-war Japan, but it is also the case that a wife in Japan is less likely to pursue a professional career. Thus, it seems from the book that women frequently enter and leave the part time work force as the circumstances of their family lives dictate. A lively activity that Bumiller describes is Mariko's participation in Sanja Matsuri, a festival in which participants carry a portable Shinto shrine, mikoshi, along the street. Japan has many similar festivals that carry a mikoshi, but Mariko had worked her way up to this, 'the biggest-and raunchiest-religious festival in all of Tokyo.' (Bumiller 65) The procession of the mikoshi shrine is raucous and energetic so as to let the spirit inside enjoy the ride, thereby bestowing good fortune upon the community. This festival, spiritual in origin, was in actuality an opportunity for Mariko and the others to have fun and get drunk. Although Mariko's husband Takeshi disapproved of her involvement, he did not act to oppose her attendance. Takeshi played a minor role in the family's affairs during Bumiller's study. For instance, he chose not to attend Mariko's samisen concert or his children's school events. Takeshi's lack of family involvement was one facet o