Father of the Four Passages

by Lois-Ann Yamanaka

Lois-Ann Yamanaka’s new novel, Father of the Four Passages, is the unforgettable story of Sonia Kurisu, a streetwise young mother, lounge singer, and artist who single-handedly struggles to raise her child, Sonny Boy. In vivid sequences alternating between the past and present, we learn of Sonia’s childhood: her abandonment by her father and mother; her own abandonment of the church; her contentious relationship with her sister, Celeste; her string of bad lovers; her problems with drugs and alcohol—and of her wish to reconcile with her father and make something of her life by being a good parent to her son, who has begun to show signs of developmental problems.

Tormenting Sonia is the memory of the three other children she never had, a memory that manifests itself in angry outbursts, self-loathing, and self-abuse and can only be relieved, ultimately, by a quest for forgiveness and the glimmering of self-knowledge.

A work of raw energy, searing honesty, and mesmerizing drama, Father of the Four Passages is an extraordinary testament to the redemptive power of love, and stands as Lois-Ann Yamanaka’s most ambitious, powerful, and disturbing novel to date.

Genres: Fiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Lois-Ann Yamanaka is the author of Saturday Night at the Pahala Theatre, Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers, Blu's Hanging, Heads by Harry, Name Me Nobody, Father of the Four Passages, The Heart's Language, and Behold the Many. Her work has received numerous awards including the Hawai'i Award for Literature, the American Book Award, the Children's Choice for Literature, the Pushcart Prize for poetry, and Yamanaka was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.

Reviews

[Robert Dunbar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine Michener's Hawaii as a collaboration between Mary Gaitskill and Toni Morrison. Instead of all that tropical grandeur, the book would have seethed with emotional veracity, and the details of poverty and cultural oppression could have taken flight in passages of magical realism, informed by a scathingly feminist perspective. That description comes pretty close to Yamanaka's Hilo books, a grueling chronicle of contemporary, working-class Hawaiians.

In Father of the Four Passages, the main character, Sonia Kurisu, flees a past of abuse and abandonment to settle in the surreal landscape of Las Vegas, where she peddles herself (as exotica), while attempting to create a stable environment for her possibly autistic son. The effort is doomed.

Sonia is as haunted as the mother in Beloved, engaged in a constant internal dialogue with the infants she aborted while scarcely more than a child herself. The ghosts drain her, leaving nothing for the living boy who needs her. A return to Hilo is their only chance at salvation.

Despite Yamanaka's poetic and even dreamlike prose, her characters inhabit a dysfunctional paradise as ravaged as any post-apocalyptic battlefield. Not for the squeamish, the book details Sonia's abortions as well as the bleeding, both physical and spiritual, she experiences in their wake. That a novel so steeped in pain, drug abuse, catastrophic relationships and family betrayals can ultimately be so full of hope – becoming a tale of reconciliation and forgiveness – remains something of a miracle.

[Jason Nomura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Parts of the book dragged and the plot was confusing and twisting at time. Not among my favored books from this author who I really like. At times it was a struggle to continue reading. Some chapters flowed well as I expect from her, however they were not the majority.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was just not for me. Rating a 3 bc I feel like I will like some of her other work better.

Usually I love books like this -messed up, a complicated notion of motherhood, unapologetic character flaws, etc- but for some reason I couldn't get into Four Passages. The writing is good, the story is interesting...I don't have a great reason for not liking it but I just didn't.

If anyone has recommendations for her other books, I'd love to hear them; Yamanaka is one of the authors whose work I'm trying to read more of as part of my state reading project (Hawaii). Any other Hawaiian authors/books (fiction or great nonfiction) recs are appreciated!

[Zac · Rating 5 out of 5]

An almost unbearably dark novel (a troubled woman is haunted by the ghosts of her three abortions) Yamanaka's skilled control and poetic verse keeps it from becoming outright horror and manages to somehow make a grizzly subject matter beautiful. I am not a fan of magical realism, in general, but if this is magical realism done right, then I stand corrected. How Yamanaka is not celebrated among the best writers in America is beyond me. I'm a fan for life.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

The voice of this author is so unique. Poetry meets novel. Highly recommend!

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an interesting one for Yamanaka. Different from some of the other books of hers that I have read. Still solid on characters, story, and all that and just as emotionally engaging as her other works, but this book has a darker tone than I've seen Yamaka work with. There is hope mixed in there as well, but this book definitely works with darker themes than I've seen Yamanaka attempt in the past. The book does an excellent job, though. It is an impressive book from an author that people need to be familiar with.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is highly provocative and often disturbing. It is almost with morbid curiosity that I worked my way through it. The ending was highly uplifting and the commentary on humanity is fascinatingly eye-opening.

[Jsharp · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd book....the prose is unusual and poetic. The author very much thought about the structure in relation to the content. But the book itself is perplexing and you have to be interested in taking a journey.

[Cara · Rating 4 out of 5]

a dark, disturbing, but spiritual read.

[Emily Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lois-Ann always telling it like it is.
Always honest