American Woman: A Novel Paperback – September 7, 2004

This is the type of book I typically avoid, but before I had a chance to run I was drawn in by this engrossing account of one fugitive trying to help three more people continue their evasion of the police. I was not far into the book (okay, chapter two) when I realized I was in a fictional account of the Patty Hearst story. For those younger than myself, Hearst is the grandaughter of media giant William Randolph Hearst (see: Kane, Citizen) who was kidnapped by the unknown SLA in 1974, then became devoted to their cause and turned to robbing banks. All but three of the SLA were killed in a shootout and Hearst was arrested about a year later.But Choi avoids some simple fictionalized version of an already bizarre event (this is a time when the idea of truth being stranger than fiction is clearly true). Instead, the "American Woman" is Jenny Shimada, a Japanese-American who is in hiding because of her interest in bomb making, which has put her boyfriend in jail. Shimada has been avoiding exposure by living in a small town doing renovation work for an older woman. Now she is recruited to help these three and we quickly see that all "radicals" are not cut from the same cloth. While she likes to blow up buildings, she does so when no one is in them and she makes sure they belong to the government. The SLA members have kidnapped an heiress and are as interested in armed warfare as they are about their principles, which seem stretched at best.Choi does not judge any of her characters and all are especially well drawn. Shimada is a complex person who seems to have it all figured out one minute, and is completely lost the next. In other words, she is a real person (and yes, she too is based on a real person). Pauline, the Patty Hearst of the story, is interesting not because she is supposed to by Hearst, but because we see how someone taken out of their element and thrown into the extreme opposite responds. She goes from pampered college student to bound, blindfolded, and gagged in closet for days. Her relationship with two of her captors is abusive and dependent, yet she is also drawn to Jenny. What she is not drawn to is her past life -- at one point her and Jenny drive by her old house, but she has no desire to return. That part of her life is gone.Which raises the question of what happens when we do disappear. When they are captured (oops, late spoiler alert for those who did not guess it) they refer to Pauline's year of hiding as "the lost year." But who lost the year? Pauline certainly did not. This plays out as a modern version of if a tree falls in the woods does it make a sound? Choi is playing with the idea of how our lives are and are not dependent on others involved with us, others viewing us, and others we pass by in life. While it seems obvious that losing track of others does not mean they have lost themselves, we often make that assumption -- "they fell off the face of the earth." As Choi is showing, life continues even when the circumstances change. Jenny and Pauline disappear for different reasons, their circumstances both change, and they themselves change, but that does not equate with being lost. But it does raises questions about how we define ourselves when those around us who do define us are gone. What makes make Jenny who she is and which is the "real" Pauline.Choi's prose is full and worth a slow read. The book is cinematic in its layout and she paints clear pictures everywhere she goes. The last section of the book loses some of the hold after the tension has disappeared, but it adds another interesting note to the story in comparing how fame impacts what should be similar situations for two people.Finally, we can return to Choi's title and spend time defining the two words of the title -- American and woman. In what ways is a Japanese-American raised in Japan for many years and an acknowledged bomber of American government properties an American? As the story unfolds the ideas of "woman" are also explored with a range of options considered. In other words, Choi leaves us a lot to think about.

The year is 1974 and Japanese-American Jenny Shimada is working as a restoration specialist in an old house in upstate New York. Her work is meticulous and the elderly woman whose house it is is excited to have such beautiful work done and at such a low price. Jenny can't complain about the pay or long hours. She is on the run from the FBI and has been for several years. She and her boyfriend made bombs and exploded several buildings in support of the anti-war effort for Vietnam. He was captured and is serving a long term in federal prison. Jenny went underground and is living a lonely life with only tenuous connections to the movement to sustain her.Then one of her contacts insists on seeing her. He recruits her to go help three other people in the movement who are staying in a farmhouse but cannot be seen in the nearby town. They need someone like Jenny to act as their front, running errands while they write a book about their experiences. Their experiences are from San Francisco where they kidnapped the wealthy daughter of a millionaire newspaper mogul. Although the parents paid the ransom, the daughter did not return but re-emerged several months later as a willing participant in a bank robbery, having joined the terrorist organization herself. Jenny agrees to help the three individuals, a married couple from the original group and the heiress who is now called Pauline. She lives with the couple until an event ends their stay there then Jenny goes on the run with Pauline. They manage to avoid the manhunt for another year until they are captured.Readers who are older will not read far before they realize this is the story of Patty Hearst. Her kidnapping and reemergence as a participant in the activities of the Symbionese Liberation Army were one of the major stories of the Vietnam War era. Jenny is, in real life, Wendy Yoshimura, a Japanese-American woman born in the relocation camps of World War II who grew up to rebel against the society that could do such a thing to her family. The women's struggle to understand each other and the gradual change in them while on the run explores all the nuances of the terrorist and anti-war experience of that time. The story is told through Jenny's eyes and that distance gives the reader new ways to think about this story. This book is recommended for literary and historical fiction readers.

This is the second novel I read by Susan Choi, who is a recent discovery for me. Her writing is complex and rich. The first novel I read by her was "My Education," which was pretty amazing. This one was written earlier and concerns a young woman who became involved in anti-establishment terrorism during the Vietnam war. She is wanted by the law and on the run, living an anonymous life, when another underground friend puts her in the position of having to protect three other revolutionaries who are on the FBI most wanted list. She in no way wants to be in this position, but has little choice. The way her relationship with the others evolves, particularly with the heiress (shades of Patty Hearst) who was kidnapped and then espoused her captors' ideals, is the crux of the story. Susan Choi is able to create characters who come to life with minute details and longer, in-depth delving. She changes POV a couple of times, but mostly we are looking through the lens of the heroine, who may have been too young and too in love when she started out on this path. However, that's not a conclusion the author presses. The characters are always given full responsibility for their actions and reactions.I recommend this book. The only drawback might be that sometimes Choi's descriptions feel a little too long and repetitive, as if each paragraph was a meditation. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I found myself getting impatient in a couple of places.

American Woman draws its plot from the Patty Hearst Kidnapping in 1974. It is more than a simple retelling of known facts. The author opens up her characters – their psychology, their background. She gives a sense of the times and of real people in those times.The abductors of Hearst were a tiny group of activists who emerged in Berkeley in the early 1970s. They advocated revolutionary violence when most radicals were in retreat as the 60s were left behind. Their bizarre name – the Symbionese Liberation Army – indicates a disconnection from American society and politics. In a brief violent existence, the abduction of Hearst booked the SLA a place in history.SPOILER ALERTBefore continuing – I should point out that I assume most readers will have a familiarity with the subject. If you do not, you may want to read this review later.Following her kidnapping Hearst went on the run with her abductors, taking part in bank robberies and other actions. The novel covers this period. An issue then and subsequently was whether she was converted or terrorized or brainwashed. Choi suggests a more complicated picture, but it is not her main interest, nor is Hearst, Pauline in the novel, the principal character.That is Jenny, based on Wendy Yoshimura, Pauline’s companion in hiding. Other characters are based on true figures in the story, though all names are changed. I am intrigued to know whether Choi met with Wendy. I assume Hearst keeps her past off limits these days.The author considers the two women in terms of their social position. Pauline shaped by her privilege and class, Jenny defined by her Japanese ethnicity. However, in the revolutionary underground they are divorced from mainstream society and are stripped of those lives – right down to false names and identities. The author explores what this means for their understanding of themselves and their interaction. They come to be close, to be lovers. Following their arrest and separation class and race are reasserted, trumping gender. As a perspective on the strength or weakness of sisterhood this is the most interesting aspect of American Woman.Susan Choi is a really good writer. Time and place are not referenced by multiple references to TV programmes, fashions or music. Her characters are not wise before their time, not equipped with hindsight. Jenny and Pauline are credible. The political positions of the SLA are neither satirized nor excused – they are stated and elaborated as required.Recommended.