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4.24 AVERAGE
4.24 AVERAGE
Sometimes you read a book at the exact right time in your life, when the experiences you've had allow you to really absorb the words that someone else has assembled in perfect order, that's it's like the book has managed to illuminate some fundamental truth that you always knew but could never articulate. This is one of those books for me. I don't read memoirs often, but I devoured this gorgeously written book in one night, stopping only to mark the passages I wanted to reread and getting tissues when my tears obscured the words on the page.
Speak, Okinawa is a rich and multilayered story of a woman reckoning with her own identity, the traumas that her parents carry with them, and the history of a unique place. Brina writes with luminous insight and astounding maturity about her experiences growing up as an American who was often treated as an outsider, of internalizing systemic racism and the impacts that had on her relationships with her white father and Okinawan mother, or her difficulties in connecting and relating to half of her identity. She explores her parents' struggles - her father as a Vietnam veteran who quietly carries PTSD and survivor's guilt with him every day of his life, and her mother as the fifth daughter of a poor family who saw marriage as an escape only to succumb to alcoholism when she found herself in a strange and alienating world that never truly welcomed her. And she recounts the history of Okinawan under Japanese and American occupation with haunting clarity.
This is a rare and special book, and Elizabeth Miki Brina is a singular talent. I can't wait to read more from her.
Speak, Okinawa is a rich and multilayered story of a woman reckoning with her own identity, the traumas that her parents carry with them, and the history of a unique place. Brina writes with luminous insight and astounding maturity about her experiences growing up as an American who was often treated as an outsider, of internalizing systemic racism and the impacts that had on her relationships with her white father and Okinawan mother, or her difficulties in connecting and relating to half of her identity. She explores her parents' struggles - her father as a Vietnam veteran who quietly carries PTSD and survivor's guilt with him every day of his life, and her mother as the fifth daughter of a poor family who saw marriage as an escape only to succumb to alcoholism when she found herself in a strange and alienating world that never truly welcomed her. And she recounts the history of Okinawan under Japanese and American occupation with haunting clarity.
This is a rare and special book, and Elizabeth Miki Brina is a singular talent. I can't wait to read more from her.
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
medium-paced
i just wanted *more* out of this. it’s prob more of a 4 generally, but for what i was hoping to get out of it it didn’t quite deliver. also WHY WAS THE JAPANESE NOT CHECKED smh
Although I appreciated the author’s reflection on her childhood and grappling with her identity, I found the self-hate experiences that she included and the way she treated her mom as a kid too uncomfortable for me.
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, War
Moderate: Alcoholism
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I have all the feels for this memoir!!! Similar to Family in Six Tones by Lan Cao, this memoir is about the journey of a young Asian (Okinawan to be exact!)-American to understand her war-bride Okinawan mother, to find her true self-identity, and her own root. There are parts of the book that leaves me sad for hours especially when she wrote about how her mom yearns for the sense of belonging in a new and strange country.. If you are not an immigrant or have ever spent a prolong period in a foreign country by yourself, you could never relate to her mom’s experience. The book also explains in vivid details about the history of Okinawa which I love! Overall, this is such a great memoir and what a beautiful wedding picture of her parents she shared with the readers right on the first page!
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced