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FRIEND; By Ward Just; Houghton Mifflin: 256 pp., $25  The Best
Books of 1999 | THE BEST FICTION OF 1999  December 05, 1999
"The Stones Cry Out" won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in
Japan and is the first of Hikaru Okuizumi's novels to be
translated into English. It is the story of Tsuyoshi Manase,
whose wartime experiences in the Philippines have created twin
veins of delight and horror that run beneath the landscape of
his life. With a few restrained strokes, Okuizumi tackles the
legacy of World War II and the uncertain possibility of
absolution. Smoothly translated by James Westerhoven, Okuizumi's
prose is full of glassy surfaces that tilt to reveal vertigo-
inducing depths. His characters are allegorical figures of
Japan's past and present, and his message seems to be that there
is no redemption for the horrors of war, no way to lay
nightmarish memories to rest. "Manase's landscapes were worm-
eaten. The canvases had black holes that became wid