SOURCE: A review of In the Heart of the Valley of Love, in Kirkus Reviews, Vol. LX, No. 10, May 15, 1992, pp. 629-630.

The following laudatory review of In the Heart of the Valley of Love also provides a brief plot synopsis.

In an acutely moving second novel, Kadohata (The Floating World, 1989) again records the spin of worlds—of pain or maybe love. Some of it makes sense; some of it does not. ("Is the world as wiggly for you as it is for me?") The time is 2052 in L.A., decaying in a disintegrating landscape where the stars have faded behind pollution, disease is common, raw violence is on the rise, and the gap between castes, government, police and people turning feral is unbridgeable. A 19-year-old Japanese-American woman hopes to survive.

Narrator Francie leaves her aunt after the aunt's boyfriend has been arrested. She enjoyed observing their love, but...