Amazon.com
California peach farmer David Mas Masumoto's Four Seasons in Five Senses is about awareness--of the process by which peaches are grown and enjoyed; of the sensual "stories" by which farmers learn their work and place in it; and of farming itself, whose cycles of birth, growth, and decay make it a telling metaphor of life. In a series of short essays, such as "How to Eat Peach," "Got Umami," and "The Art of Grunting" (an amusing exploration of work sounds), Masumoto shows readers his inner-outer world. Masumoto's eye is, however, always fixed on the narratives we tell ourselves. "The best farmers of personalized products strive to create true stories and personal connections through our fruits," says Masumoto, "a journey through four seasons in five senses." But Masumoto also lives in the world of commercial imperatives. "We [farmers] work for pennies," he says, "and people of America spend a smaller percentage of their income on food than do people in any other country." A provider of a highly perishable "handmade" product that must nonetheless reach consumers in a state worthy of his commitment to it, Masumoto is frustrated by the plight of "slow food" in a fast-food world. "Farming must be circular in contrast to the straight lines of business," he says.
Despite repetitiveness, some overreaching prose ("I see with my senses, aware ... a tree with peach lights in it, a siren of harvest time," for example), and an inclination to self-regard (as opposed to self-attentiveness), readers will follow Masumoto's tale avidly, enjoying particularly his depictions of the peach growing process. For those of us lost to modern industrial life, the realization that there is a farmer behind every piece of fruit our supermarkets sell, and that his or her whole awareness can be in that fruit, is a revelation. That disclosure is at the center of Masumoto's enlightening tale. --Arthur Boehm
From Publishers Weekly
In this collection of essays, the author, a writer, lecturer and organic peach and raisin farmer, explores farm life through the five senses, rhapsodizing on-among other things-the color of weeds, the smell of mud, the sound of a shovel sinking into soil, the feel of old work boots and, above all, the "explosion of flavor" from his Sun Crest peaches. Masumoto (Harvest Son) celebrates the homey routines of small-scale, low-tech farming passed down from his Japanese-American clan, and inveighs against industrialized "fast farming" and its flavorless products. In but not of the commercial nexus, his own peaches are "a dialogue between producer and consumer," and they create new memories, "emotions" and "true stories and personal connections." It all adds up to a Thoreauvian manifesto in which the organic farm is the last refuge from a modernity that deadens the senses and deprives us of authentic experience. When Masumoto has something to write about, like his family's wartime internment or the economics of produce distribution, he writes well. Too often, however, his sensual epiphanies degenerate into food porn ("my teeth sink into the peach's succulent flesh, and juice breaks into my mouth as I seal my lips on the skin and suck the meat") or impressionistic sentence fragments ("Chickens. Barns with barn owls. Porches. Straw hats."). A readership of connoisseurs, slow-food enthusiasts, and unhappily deracinated urbanites will warm to Masumoto's ode to the exalted spirituality of organic farming, but some may find it nostalgic and overly sweet. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
More joy of farming. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
We must eat to live, but to eat without savoring the food we consume is to deprive ourselves of a sensuous experience, one that sustains the spirit as it strengthens the body. For farmer Masumoto, such experiences are honored rituals, as essential to his peach farm as sun and rain. Writing lovingly, lyrically of a year spent in his orchard, Masumoto passionately engages every fiber of his being in both his work and his writing, bringing the land to life for his readers. Through his eyes, we see the translucence of peach blossoms about to burst. Through his ears, we hear a symphony as his shovel uproots encroaching weeds. His hands pluck a ripe peach and we brush away the dew, breathe in its musky aroma. He takes a bite and we drink its nectar as we would fine wine. Masumoto is a poet in the guise of a farmer, a philosopher in coveralls and workboots. His elegant memoir should be read slowly, and savored. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
International Examiner, Elaine Iwano, 19 March 2003
Interweaved into the exquisite and sometimes heartbreaking descriptions of nurturing fruit to harvest are sketches of Masumoto's [family].
California Rare Fruit Growers Inc. Magazine, Linda Kincaid, January/Feberuary 2003
Masumoto paints pictures with the simple words of a farmer.
News Tribune , Tacoma, WA, Bart Ripp, 19 February 2003
Mas's new book is about slowing down and savoring your senses.
Portland Oregonian, Sarah Gianelli, 16 February 2003
Masumoto lyrically describes life on his organic farm through each of his five senses.
Seattle Times, David Takami, 14 February 2003
Masumoto writes about his prized crops with missionary zeal and a poetic sensibility.
Booklist
Writing lovingly, lyrically...Masumoto passionately engages every fiber of his being [in] bringing the land to life for his readers.
Kirkus Reviews
Intense, sensuous, lyrical, shaped by the sensibility of a poet and the eye of a farmer.
Bloomsbury Review
An agreeable reader for anyone who enjoys food and quality of life.
Washington Post Book World
Vivid and compelling...Masumoto might well have called this book Simple Pleasures.
Book Description
The nation's favorite literary farmer pays homage to the life of the senses. Rushing from one thing to another, we lose sight of the art of living, which for California farmer David Mas Masumoto is also the art of farming. Not fast farming, of the kind that produces fast food, but slow farming, the kind that notices each change of light and temperature and produces peaches with juice that runs down your chin. On the farm, appreciating the fruits of one's own labor requires all the senses: smell that knows when a peach is ready to be picked; sight that observes the health of a season's crop; touch that measures the weight of a fruit; hearing that recognizes each voice that calls out across the fields; and taste that savors the refreshing tang of a fruit at that perfect moment of ripeness. Taking us into his fields to witness the cycle of the harvest, Masumoto reminds us that we must stop living on the run in order to savor the world around us.
About the Author
David Mas Masumoto is the author of Harvest Son and Epitaph for a Peach. His organic farm is in Del Rey, California.
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