Search - Dreaming Water

Gail Tsukiyama is one of my favorite authors. She writes small, elegant books that always manage to touch my heart and make me think about the beauty and meaning of life.

In Dreaming Water we meet Hana, a young woman dying of Werner's syndrome, a disease that causes a person to age at twice the normal rate. Hana lives with her mother Cate, a widow in her early sixties who looks as if she is Hana's child. Over the course of two days we learn about Cate and Hana's life, both present and past, and of their strength in dealing with an illness that changes everything.

Although the main subject of this book is Hana's illness we also come to learn about her parent's marriage, her mother the child of old world Italian immigrants and her father a Japanese American 'detained' at Heart Mountain, an internment camp where his family was sent for their 'safety' during WWII. We also learn of Hana's lifelong friendship with Laura whose own life is falling apart. She has come to visit Hana bringing her teenage daughters with her, to meet the Godmother they don't know.

While reading this book one is aware that there will be no happy ending. Despite the sadness that permeates the story there is also a spirituality to the book, in accepting one's fate and making a life that is the best that it can be. Overall is the story of a mother's love and devotion to her child, of facing immeasurable heartache with strength and determination.

Highly recommended.

I couldn't put this book down while reading it and would find myself stuck in parking lots and lobbies, absorbed in this author's story. I highly recommend this one.

Dreaming Water is an exploration of two of the richest and most layered human connections that exists: mother and daughter and lifelong friends.

Hana is suffering from Werner's Syndrome, a disease that makes a person age at twice the rate of a healthy individual: at 38, Hana has the appearance of an 80. Cate, her mother, is caring for her while struggling with her grief at losing her husband, Max, and with the knowledge that Hana's disease is getting worse by the day.

Hana and Cate's days are quiet and ordered. Cate escapes to her beloved garden and Hana reads and writes letters. Both are drawn into the past, remembering the joyous and challenging events that have shaped them; spending the days at Max's favorite beach, overcoming their neighbor's prejudices that Max was Japanese-American and Cate, Italian-American and coping with the heartbreak of discovering Hana's disease.

One of the great joys of Hana's life has been her relationship with her beautiful, successful best friend, Laura. Laura has moved to New York from their hometown in California and has two daughters, Josephine and Camille. She has not been home in years and begs Hana to let her bring her daughters to meet her, feeling that Josephine in particular, needs to have Hana in her life. Despite Hana's latest refusal, Laura decides to come anyway. When Laura's loud, energetic, and troubled work collides with Hana and Cate's daily routine, the store really begins.

This is about a mother's courage, a daughter's strength, and a friend's love. It is about the importance of human dignity and the importance of all the small moments that create a life worth living.

I have found a new favorite author! This book has the spareness of the Orient, as Gail seems to be Japanese. At least her characters are at least half Japanese. This book is about a girl (Hana) with Werner's Syndrome, which makes her body age at twice the normal rate. She becomes quite old and frail at the age of 36, and her father Max(full Japanese) has died, so she lives alone with her mother, and they both fall into routines of life. This routine, which has begun to become stale, is livened by the visit of Laura and her two girls, Josephone (13) and Camille (a couple years younger). Laura and Hana had been best friends from small children through college. But they haven't seen each other in about 10 years. Hana has aged dramatically, and doesn't want Laura to come visit. But Laura decides she is going to take her girls to visit anyway. The action of the book takes place over about five days, with detours back to explain the courtship of Cate (Hana's mother) and Max, and their lives together as they remember being a happy family and having a lovely daughter.
The writing is spare, and written consecutively by Cate, Hana and Josephine. Laura and Camille are seen through the eyes of the others. Each chapter is relatively short, and the book is a quick read, but there are more than enough insights and understandings to make you think about it long after you finish reading.