Criminals, a book reading and conversation
Saturday, April 26, 2 pm
Join Host Steven Okazaki with guests Judi Nihei and Jan Masaoka, for a book reading and conversation on Ben Masaoka’s Criminals and the Post-War Sansei Experience. Masaoka’s moving debut novel tells the story of a brother and sister struggling to break out of a small Japanese American community in the late 1950s and early 60s.
Criminals follows the lives of a sister and brother, Ruth and Hank Tanazaki, as they struggle to free themselves from the weight of their parents’ generation in a small Japanese American community in Los Angeles in the late 1950s and early 1960s. This poignant story of the double-edged nature of community—a force that supports the group, at cost to the individual—explores the possibilities and limits of seeking personal freedom through creativity. Masaoka’s dazzling, deeply-moving debut is also an eloquent addition to the canon of Asian American literature.
In Criminals, America is Godzilla rising from the sea at Venice Beach to stomp on the Japanese American Dream, barely noticing the dreamers below as they fight back with rocks, sticks and gaman. Masaoka’s hang-loose brilliance takes us on a vividly observed, wonderfully quirky, and deeply moving exploration of generational trauma. He captures the desires, blows, and little victories of a family on the fringes of a community where everyone is trying so hard not to rock the boat, they don’t notice their children are adrift. —Steven Okazaki, Academy Award-winning filmmaker
Join us for a book reading, book sales, and conversation.
About the Author
Ben Masaoka (1952–2024), born and raised in Venice, California, took off for Hawai’i as soon he could, living on the beach and working odd jobs so he could surf. He eventually settled in Seattle where he married, taught High School English, and raised a family. His short stories have been published in the Chicago Review of Books and Catamaran Literary Reader. CRIMINALS is his first and only novel. He died in September 2024 a few weeks before it was published.
Hosted by
In conversation with
Judi Nihei met Ben at a screening of Steven‘s Unfinished Business in Seattle. She says, “I’m grateful his voice is being heard.”
Jan Masaoka, Ben’s first cousin, says: “Ben’s book is a time machine. It transported me back to the Japanese American world and our family life in LA in the 1950s.”