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4.24 AVERAGE
4.24 AVERAGE
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
A really good read, but also really hard to swallow and extremely honest. I cried several times. It deals with themes of cultural identity and complex families, and is intertwined with the fraught history of U.S., Japanese, and Chinese occupation of Okinawa.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Elizabeth's mother meets her father while she is working as a nightclub hostess in American-occupied Okinawa. The differences in their language, culture, lifestyle define their relationship as they raise their daughter in upstate New York. Elizabeth feels disconnected from her Okinawan heritage as a young child but as she reconciles with her mother, and starts to understand the injustices faced by the Okinawan people, she comes to terms with her identity.
This was a beautiful book. A memoir is typically written about the author's life, but in this case, the author pays homage to her mother's challenging life. It highlighted a lot of mother/daughter dynamics, an immigrant story as well as the intergenerational trauma that can follow individuals without experiencing the trauma first-hand. This book does a beautiful job of teaching the reader the history of Okinawa, while keeping it interesting with many personal anecdotes.
I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to learn about Okinawa. I must admit that I was totally ignorant to the history, as well as what is still currently a US-occupied land.
I received a copy as a host of The Gloss Book Club.
This was a beautiful book. A memoir is typically written about the author's life, but in this case, the author pays homage to her mother's challenging life. It highlighted a lot of mother/daughter dynamics, an immigrant story as well as the intergenerational trauma that can follow individuals without experiencing the trauma first-hand. This book does a beautiful job of teaching the reader the history of Okinawa, while keeping it interesting with many personal anecdotes.
I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to learn about Okinawa. I must admit that I was totally ignorant to the history, as well as what is still currently a US-occupied land.
I received a copy as a host of The Gloss Book Club.
"We don't want relocation. We don't want substitution. We want removal."
I find myself struggling for words that accurately describe what a novel this memoir is. Brina writes with an honest edge that makes your chest ache by the end of each chapter. The historical context interwoven throughout make what others may write as merely facts on the page, truly jump off and come to life. The beauty and struggle of Brina's relationship with her mom is the core of this story, and I almost ran out of sticky notes when annotating their scenes. (As well as the meditations on her parents own relationship.)
I also felt painful resemblance between the U.S. Army's occupation of Okinawa and their occupation of Hawaii, which I feel adds more depth to the broader conversation of the U.S. Army occupying Native Lands. My only complaint was that in the middle, for a brief period of time, the narrative grew a little too meandering. (I was also entering a reading slump, so take that with a grain of salt.) An overall amazing read for those who love books about mothers and daughters.
I find myself struggling for words that accurately describe what a novel this memoir is. Brina writes with an honest edge that makes your chest ache by the end of each chapter. The historical context interwoven throughout make what others may write as merely facts on the page, truly jump off and come to life. The beauty and struggle of Brina's relationship with her mom is the core of this story, and I almost ran out of sticky notes when annotating their scenes. (As well as the meditations on her parents own relationship.)
I also felt painful resemblance between the U.S. Army's occupation of Okinawa and their occupation of Hawaii, which I feel adds more depth to the broader conversation of the U.S. Army occupying Native Lands. My only complaint was that in the middle, for a brief period of time, the narrative grew a little too meandering. (I was also entering a reading slump, so take that with a grain of salt.) An overall amazing read for those who love books about mothers and daughters.
Compelling and simply told. A memoir-apology from a daughter to her mother- a woman born in Okinawa and brought to America by a soldier. The isolation of identity in the American Dream. The same dream that has erased so many identities through war and violence. A family portrait, a history of a nation, a reflection of self.
If you liked Crying in H Mart… read this! Deserves just as much hype.
If you liked Crying in H Mart… read this! Deserves just as much hype.