ADVERITSER BOOK CLUB
'Samurai' author stays close to truth

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Books Editor

Author Gail Tsukiyama met with book club readers last month. Advertiser library Photo • Dec. 10, 2002

Q. What is your new book, "Dreaming Water," about?

"When I had finished 'The Language of Threads,' I felt I had come full circle, that I had finished a series of books that I somehow needed to write about Asia. Not that I won't ever write about Asia — I probably will again very soon — but I had finished that time around World War II. I always equate it to Picasso's blue period; I was ready to go on the red. (In the current book), I wanted to write a contemporary story. I wanted it to be set in California. And it didn't have to have Asian characters."

But then, when she had decided that one of her characters would suffer from Werner's Syndrome, which causes premature aging, Tsukiyama said, she was right back where she started, because she learned that Japanese are genetically predisposed to this condition. "So I took my two best food groups — the mother is Italian and the father is Japanese. It's a story about a mother and daughter in the last day's of the daughter's life, but it's not as much of a downer as I think everybody thinks it is. It's much more about living than about dying."

Q. What influences your choice of covers for the different books?

Editor's note: Authors generally do not have choose the covers for their books. They may give their opinion of the publishing house's choice, but it may not be heeded.

"I was very lucky: My first editor was an art history major, and she was very careful about the covers from the very beginning. She wanted a certain kind of cover that told you what the book was about. Nobody was more shocked than me when they sent me the cover . . . because I thought what a brilliant idea to set off the garden with a Japanese screen. ... I think that was instrumental in a lot of people picking up the book. . . . They're formatting all the books now to appear the same so that they do become 'Gail Tsukiyama books,' which I wish they wouldn't, but it's all a marketing thing."

Q. Has anyone translated your books from English into Japanese?

"Not yet. They've been translated and done very well in European languages . . . and they're sold in Hong Kong and Singapore, Indian and Australia in the American editions, but they haven't been translated into any Asian language."

Q. You said you do a lot of research. How much of your writing is factual?

"I just heard an interview with Ann Patchett, who wrote "Bel Canto." She was asked, 'How did you know so much about opera?' And she said, 'Because you act like you do.' You're the writer, take the power seat. ... You want to make sure when you're writing about disease, about wartime situations, you have to get it right because so many people are such good readers and they know so many things that they will call you on it. ... You try to stay as close to the truth as you can. ... You can move toward the fictional realm, but if you're writing about something that really occurred, you have to stay close to the truth."

Q. Would you want any of these books to be produced as a movie, and which one would you want to see that way?

"'The Samurai's Garden' has been asked about and even optioned, and there has been a little bit of interest in 'Women of the Silk' and 'The Language of Threads.' But you know, I have all Asian characters. I think that makes it very difficult for Hollywood to be banging down my door — (unless I) could fit Tom Cruise or Mel Gibson into 'The Samurai's Garden' ... I've had friends who had books turned into movies. Some of them have loved the outcome, and some of them have thought, 'Oh, I should never have done that.' I think if you keep the heart of the book then that's what every writer would want. I don't know how much creative control they allow the writer. I think when you say, 'I'm going to sign the contract and you make the movie,' you have to let go, because if you don't you have heartache."