Reviews - Speak, Okinawa: A Memoir

Speak, Okinawa: A Memoir by Elizabeth Miki Brina

418 reviews for:

I saw recommendations for this book on tiktok and thought it would be heart wrenching and difficult to get through and maybe because I read it as an audiobook, I just didn’t enjoy it very much. The historical aspects were great. Loved all l the narration of the history of Okinawa.

reillyreadslol's review against another edition

2.0

emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

crystal_73's review

2.0

This memoir started off strong and then seemed to lose its way, so much so that I decided not to finish it. There were a lot of competing themes, and naturally some were more interesting than others. I enjoyed learning of her mother’s journey and the author’s upbringing, but I was overwhelmed when she launched into the intensity of her internalized racism, how that impacted her relationship with her mom (it’s hard to even like the author at some points), the bouts of the island’s history…I’m sure there’s more in the second half. Overall it felt like she had a lot of ideas of where to take this, and it just wasn’t executed well.

dmartinez422's review

4.0

4.5. A really beautiful story of learning to accept your parents as human beings with their own thoughts and feelings and past. I also learned so much about Japanese and Okinawan history, which despite how much the US influenced it, they don’t teach it.

linerturner's review

4.0

I thought the writing in this story was beautiful. At times, I didn’t love the narrative or the way the different chapters melded together. All in all, a beautiful memoir about a place I knew nothing else about.

jcy's review

4.0

Really beautiful book about immigration, mother-daughter relationships, and Okinawan history. An awesome way to learn more about my Okinawan heritage.