AUTUMN LIGHT / SEASON OF FIRE AND FAREWELLS

Returning to his longtime home in Japan after his father-in-laws sudden death, Pico Iyer picks up the steadying patterns of his eve ryday rites: going to the post office and engaging in furious games of ping-pong every evening. But in a country whose calendar is m arked with occasions honoring the dead, he comes to reflect on changelessness in ways that anyone can relate to: parents age, childr en scatter, and Iyer and his wife turn to whatever can sustain them as everything falls away. As the maple leaves begin to turn and the heat b...[Read more]