Think of gin and one thinks of England. Think of tequila and Mexico, vodka and Russia, brandy and France. Think of sake and one thinks only of Japan.
Mentioned in the third-century Chinese manuscript "The Records of Three Kingdoms," in "The Book of Wei" and in the eighth-century Japanese chronicle "Kojiki," sake has played an important part in literature and history. Given to kamikaze pilots before suicide missions — as an offering in Shinto ceremonies — sake is almost mythical. After all, the god Susanoo defeated the eight-headed Orochi after the serpent became drunk on stolen sake.
Like rice before it is fermented, Joyce Lebra's "The Scent of Sake" is polished. There are as many characters as there are types of sake and the author handles them with alacrity and humor. The cast includes drunken and cheating husbands, geishas, duplicitous employees and evil rivals, and the novel portrays the complicated relationships between mothers and sons, masters and servants, geishas and customers, legitimate and illegitimate children.