Scan barcode
alicebme's review against another edition
5.0
This is small and you should read it. Everyone is somebody.
kazen's review against another edition
3.0
I came to this book with more of a historical lens than a literary one - what was it like to be Japanese-American in the years before World War II? What did a Japanese neighborhood in Oakland look like? Mori lovingly sketches all kinds of characters in this collection of short stories, from the town drunk to high schoolers to a lady who makes the narrator doughnuts whenever he stops by.
If you're looking for beautiful writing on the sentence level you may be disappointed. Mori isn't a completely native speaker of English - I was able to back translate some of his sentences into Japanese, where they made a little more sense. That being said, every now and then there's a line describing a character or a feeling that left me rattled, it's so good.
A great book for those with an interest in Japanese-American life in the 30s and 40s, but it's a little harder to recommend outside of that sweet spot.
If you're looking for beautiful writing on the sentence level you may be disappointed. Mori isn't a completely native speaker of English - I was able to back translate some of his sentences into Japanese, where they made a little more sense. That being said, every now and then there's a line describing a character or a feeling that left me rattled, it's so good.
A great book for those with an interest in Japanese-American life in the 30s and 40s, but it's a little harder to recommend outside of that sweet spot.
More...