Craig Mod's Things Become Other Things: A Walking Memoir, about his traverses in Japan's rural Kii Peninsula, is striking and deeply felt. Framed as an address to his deceased childhood best friend, Bryan, Mod's memoir intermingles present-tense observations and anecdotes from his life on foot with past-tense memories from a postindustrial U.S. childhood. As he perambulates historic pilgrimage routes and finds "an unexpected peace in these recondite hinterlands," Mod shares bits of Japanese history from longtime friend John, who messages him every morning before he sets out.
Along with marvelous scenes captured through his camera lens, which are reproduced in black-and-white and peppered throughout, Mod charmingly relates the small moments of his encounters. Incorporated throughout the narrative--cloaked in a comparison between Bryan's tragically shortened life and Mod's own life--is a critique of how the U.S. handles poverty, education, and social services, which Mod positions as starkly different to his experience of Japan. When he does turn his gimlet eye on Japan, he seems a bit blurred by his entrancement with the country. Nevertheless, this layered and profound memoir shines with care and devotion. --Nina Semczuk, writer, editor, and illustrator