Behind the
Yellow Filter
Stuart Held
Outskirts Press
Reviewed by Carianne Carleo-Evangelist
Behind the Yellow
Filter a novel by first-time author Stuart Held is a wonderful
debut by a veteran professional of photography.
While the author possesses the insight necessary to make this a
technically
accurate book, he balances this knowledge with the realization that the
reader
does not want to be bogged down in details.
CIA agent Robert Schein is a very real and three-dimensional
character whose voice we can truly hear through the writing of Mr.
Held, who
has a way with words. While there is little doubt that he fine-tuned
his
communicational skills through his extensive marketing work, the
characters
hold their own without needing to be ‘sold’. This is just one part of
what
makes the book a wonderful and engaging read. A second part that
contributed to
that was the flow of the text, Mr. Held did not dwell in details but
moved the
story along at a pace that kept the reader involved, yet wanting to
know more.
For this reader, I enjoyed the book on two separate levels:
that of a photography aficionado and someone who has lived for nearly
two years
in Japan.
While
I might be more knowledgeable about Japan
than some of the other readers, the author brought historical Japan
to life for me. Often when one studies the history of Japan
it is via the long-past cultural history, but the economic history of
the
country is equally important given the country’s current role in the
forefront
of technological development.
While Mr. Held excelled in his use of information coming
from the photography industry, his work would have benefited from the
input of
someone with a keener knowledge of the Japanese language, which is
always a challenge
for foreigners. Perhaps though, this was intentional as it showed that
Mr.
Schein was not at all ‘at home’ in this new language. He relished in
the words
that were the same, but struggled where there was a divergence from
English,
something that anyone who tackles Japanese will come to realize.
In all this is a solid book, one that will be enjoyed by
both those with an interest in a different side of Japanese history, as
well as
camera/photography aficionados.