310
PARTISAN IliVIEW
fleeting disappointment; the sudden revelation that despite moncy and
position you can sometimes draw a short straw.
It is hard not to notice that the hero of Brad Leithauser's
Equa/ Justice,
Danny Ott, has scarcely arrived in Kyoto when he finds himself in the
pursuit of othcr
galjill.
Danny is twenty-two, his girlfriend has dumped
him, he is in japan for the first time, and by p:lge nine hc is already
tracking down :lnother Amcric:l on Imadeg:lwa-dori in Kyoto in the hope
of a meeting. Failing tlut, he heads to McDonald's for a hamburger and a
Coke. The other American turns out to be one Greg L3laising, a few years
older than Danny and decades more cynical, who has been in Kyoto long
enough to know where cheap drinks :Ire sold and wOlllen can be found .
Danny and Greg quickly take up a daily routine of jogging along the
kall/O,I~a/i'a
(Kamo River) by day and drinking thelllselves into oblivion at
night. Though Danny does have some contact with
lIi/lOlIjill,
one
Professor Umeda, and teaches English
to
japanese students, that activity is
largely off<;tage. At center stage arc Danny :lnd Greg, and eventually a
young American womJn nallled Carrie, with whom DJnny has a tcdious
re:lltionship that drags on far longer than :I sensible reader can put up
with.
One's first thought is thJt this is not [Ir frolll what In American ser–
vicel11:1n might expect in a foreign post: immoderate drinking, a Dear
john experience, and the consoling company of SOllIe AlIlerican buddies.
But these aren't servicemen: they arc lost-generation groupies on
tour,
duplicating the serviceman's experience without the servicelllan's excuse;
indenture
to
a state that has cast him up on :In alien shore.
Why;> Answers lie at home, which is ::dways the point of reference.
Danny is in flight. His parents arc recently divorced; his girlfriend has de–
fected to another man. Danny has decided it is tillle for a sabbatical and
has decamped to japan as a place to shake ofT the P:lst and gear up for the
future. He is taking only a year ofT fi'om Harv:lrd, so his convalescence is
strictly limited - it ends on registration day of the following year. Greg,
the drinker, the lost soul, the ex-pat in the lIl:lking, tries
to
envision him–
self in romantic terms. Asked if he will move back to Americ:l, he con–
fesses:
"Honestly, I don 't know. I mean, I c ln't re.llly go cll/)'where - can
l'
- until that map on Illy wall begins to look enticing again.
Spcclk to
II/I' ,
o
Raud McNall)'.
Gut sOllletimes I do think I've sort of tr.lpped my–
sclf. What
alll
I going to do back in the States) I go back,
['Ill
unelll–
ployed,
['Ill
just a spoiled bUill , whereas here I have a dignified role ,
['Ill
an
expatriatc.
A sort of Helllingway expatriate seventies-style. Or
eighties-style. What year is it)"
