Purple Mountains: America from a Motorcycle [Paperback]

What differentiates and distinguishes this excellent work are reunions, reflections and the use of color. The reunions with family and friends often meld with the reflections (thanks to the discipline of daily journal entries), yielding the opportunity to reveal his American experience along with his Japanese roots in Hawaii (where the dream started). What could be more Japanese-American than the image of a teenage boy of Japanese parents flying low around Hawaii on a motorcycle? Bikers always feel more alive on their machines, and being alive, as C.S. Lewis puts it, we have "the privilege of always moving, yet never leaving anything behind. Whatever we have been, in some sort we are still."

And he is a brave man. Mr. Miyake does not dwell on his (meritorious) Naval service in Viet Nam, but merely uses it modestly to amplify the relationship he has with those fellow vets he will visit.

The third distinguishing feature is the use of color, and it is striking. Miyake paints America. No one could fault him if he emphasized the black of asphalt or somber earth tones, sort of a unifying strip of color for his journey. But the dominant color of the book - irrespective of the title - is green. And it is probably a tip of the hat to F. Scott Fitzgerald. Miyake is his own man, and has traveled from Rochester, N.Y. to Alaska and back, the twin magnets of wife and hearth drawing powerfully.

All this folds up neatly into a well-made origami of an American eagle, perhaps a symbol of who he is...a best-blend of Japanese and American culture and values, strong accent on American.