An identity nourished in body and heritage

Linda Furiya grew up acutely aware of being different. She was the only daughter of the only Japanese American family in the tiny town of Versailles, Ind., and the physical and cultural differences that separated her from her classmates were obvious. In grade school, she endured teasing and taunts from her Caucasian classmates. But the differences felt the most acute the first day she brought her lunch to school, as she writes in "Bento Box in the Heartland":

"I expected a classic elementary school lunch of a bologna, cheese, and Miracle Whip sandwich and a bag of Durkee's potato sticks, but all I saw were three round rice balls wrapped in waxed paper. Mom had made me an \o7obento\f7, a Japanese-style boxed meal.... My desire to emulate my classmates was palpable. My \o7obento\f7 lunches were a glaring reminder of the ethnic differences between my peers and me."

Food became a touchstone of her childhood -- and this cozy memoir. The Furiyas' family life centered on meals, traditional Japanese dishes lovingly and efficiently home-cooked by her mother. Although born in America, Furiya's father had been raised in Japan and returned as an adult after World War II; her mother was 30 when she came to America. Neither parent spoke English well, and familiar foods became a way to preserve their identity in a strange land:

"Japanese home cooking had become the only daily thread my parents had to their culture. Even I knew that the Japanese food symbolized something greater than sustenance. It ... assured them they could make it through the daily challenges of living in a country not their own."

Much of Furiya's story centers on the complex relationship she shared with her mother. Her father appears only at scattered points in the book; when the author was growing up, he was usually gone, working two jobs to support his family. Her two older brothers receive scant mention.

Isolated in a rural town by her limited English and her inability to drive, Furiya's mother relied heavily on her daughter. Furiya soon came to resent both her mother's demands and the need to fulfill them. They shared not just the usual conflict between generations, but also the gap between traditional Japanese culture, with its emphasis on consensus, etiquette and male domination, and '70s American culture that stressed independence, freedom and gender equality.