SOURCE: "Past Imperfect, and Future Even Worse," in The New York Times, July 28, 1992, Sec. C, p. 15.

In the following review, Kakutani criticizes the inadequate plot structure of In the Heart of the Valley of Love while praising Kadohata's "obvious talent" as a writer.

In her luminous first novel, The Floating World (1989), Cynthia Kadohata gave readers a meticulously observed portrait of a Japanese immigrant family's experiences during the 1950's. In her latest book, she makes a fast-forward leap into the future, abandoning the emotional intimacy of that earlier book to create an apocalyptic picture of America on the brink of civil disorder and social collapse.

The year is 2052, and Los Angeles has become a frightening, frightened city, ceaselessly patrolled by police helicopters and squad cars. Water and gas are rationed, and nonsynthetic food is hard to find. People are randomly arrested and jailed; some disappear completely. Cancer rates have...