cover image Fish & Fashion

Fish & Fashion

Mari Lorraine Kimura. A Zone Publishing, $14.99 trade paper (357p) ISBN 978-0-9832193-0-9

Kimura's overly detailed memoir charts the life of a Japanese-American woman who worked in the fishing industry before becoming a successful stylist and costume designer in Hollywood. Kimura drops celebrity names and encounters throughout, including her childhood meetings with Donnie and Marie Osmond. Her father actually comes across as the "creative genius" she dubs him, although his accomplishments are lessened by some major missed opportunities. According to his daughter, Tadao Kimura was the real inventor of the California Roll, and blew opportunities to be an early investor in Microsoft and distribute Hello Kitty products in the U.S. The author's decision to end her memoir abruptly in 1992%E2%80%94just as she "discovered the missing link to an amazing technology that may someday revolutionize the way to environmental cleanup"%E2%80%94is an odd one, even if the event did turn her into a "pro-environmental, self-educated scientist." Nonetheless, Kimura's prose is solid, if not gripping, and readers who persevere will get a partial picture of an interesting and original life.