A Japanese Art Journey: A Curator’s Memoir of Polka Dot Pumpkins, Paper Dolls and Woodblock Prints

In this sweet memoir, McArthur (Confucius) recounts her path from a lonely childhood in coastal Scotland to a respected career as a curator and art historian. The daughter of a Scottish father and Persian mother, McArthur was bullied frequently by her white peers. The resulting self-loathing began to lift after two of her father’s Japanese students gifted her an elaborate paper doll, which reminded a young McArthur “that people other than white people could create spectacular things.” As an adult, she studied Japanese at the University of Cambridge, but her subsequent job translating Japanese financial news left her feeling aimless and uninspired. Buoyed by memories of the paper doll, she pursued a master’s degree in Japanese art history and launched a curatorial career at institutions including Pasadena’s Pacific Asia Museum and L.A.’s Japan House. As McArthur recalls these professional milestones, she weaves in more intimate anecdotes, covering her marriage and the birth of her son. If the narrative sometimes feels slight, McArthur anchors it with vivid descriptions of art’s soothing power—the “precision and symmetry” of origami, for example, helped calm her as her mother struggled with leukemia. It’s a lovely self-portrait. (Nov.)

Correction: A previous version of this review mistakenly stated that the author married her former boss.