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jaymoran's review
4.0
But the cultivation of the written word, the language that sustains thought, is an individual matter, a thing that endlessly changes as it’s propagated inside each person’s head. It’s like planting seeds of language deep inside the heart. It’s simple when you’re young, but with the passing years it can get difficult to dig into the hardened earth. I’m neither young nor very old yet, and my hope is that I can use not only the visual input of reading but the output of writing, however clumsy, till one day a whole forest of language has grown into the soil of my heart.
4.5
Farewell, My Orange is a tender, moving look at friendship, culture, language, and belonging. In a small town in Australia, two women meet at their English language class, one who moved from Japan seven years prior with her husband and baby, the other more recently from Africa who was abandoned by her husband shortly after arriving and left to raise their two sons by herself. Their relationship is explored in a realistic way; they don't immediately become inseparable, and it's mostly in hindsight that they realise how important they were to one another in their times of difficulty. Kei handles the subject of racism brilliantly without permitting it to take centre stage and overshadow her characters - it affects them, it's something they know is going on around them but they thrive anyway, taking pride in their identity and their own story.
I could've easily read another 100 or so pages of this book...I didn't really want it to end. The only reason it's not 5 stars is that I felt like there needed to be a little bit more. The pacing near the end was slightly rushed, in my opinion, and I wanted Kei to slow down a little and let the characters exist for a while longer.
4.5
Farewell, My Orange is a tender, moving look at friendship, culture, language, and belonging. In a small town in Australia, two women meet at their English language class, one who moved from Japan seven years prior with her husband and baby, the other more recently from Africa who was abandoned by her husband shortly after arriving and left to raise their two sons by herself. Their relationship is explored in a realistic way; they don't immediately become inseparable, and it's mostly in hindsight that they realise how important they were to one another in their times of difficulty. Kei handles the subject of racism brilliantly without permitting it to take centre stage and overshadow her characters - it affects them, it's something they know is going on around them but they thrive anyway, taking pride in their identity and their own story.
I could've easily read another 100 or so pages of this book...I didn't really want it to end. The only reason it's not 5 stars is that I felt like there needed to be a little bit more. The pacing near the end was slightly rushed, in my opinion, and I wanted Kei to slow down a little and let the characters exist for a while longer.
jchant's review
5.0
Update: 2024: I just reread this wonderful little book and gave it a fifth star.
This sweet little book tells the story of two immigrants to Australia who meet in an ESL class. Salimah is a refugee from Africa, and Sayuri has moved with her academic husband from Japan. Theirs is an unlikely friendship, but each provides support and caring to the other. I was drawn into their story from the first page. Highly recommended.
My local library system has a "10 to Try" challenge again in 2019. The idea is to read a book in each of 10 categories during the current year. The category that this book fits into is: Read a book by an immigrant author. (Like Sayuri in the novel, author Iwaki Kei immigrated from Japan to Australia.)
This sweet little book tells the story of two immigrants to Australia who meet in an ESL class. Salimah is a refugee from Africa, and Sayuri has moved with her academic husband from Japan. Theirs is an unlikely friendship, but each provides support and caring to the other. I was drawn into their story from the first page. Highly recommended.
My local library system has a "10 to Try" challenge again in 2019. The idea is to read a book in each of 10 categories during the current year. The category that this book fits into is: Read a book by an immigrant author. (Like Sayuri in the novel, author Iwaki Kei immigrated from Japan to Australia.)
gum1311by's review against another edition
5.0
No surprise that this novel by Japanese author, Iwaki Kei, won the 2013 Japanese prize for literature.
Beautifully written story of two immigrants in Australia, navigating isolation and a new language.
With passages such as this: “Often, she cried as she showered. She twisted the two taps, the one with the blue circle and the one with the red circle, in a single movement, then stood stock-still under the water that spurred from the lotus-shaped shower head. At that moment when the cold and hot water blended to create the perfect temperature, the tears always came. She could feel their special warmth despite the hot water streaming over her”, Farewell My Orange is a hidden gem.
Beautifully written story of two immigrants in Australia, navigating isolation and a new language.
With passages such as this: “Often, she cried as she showered. She twisted the two taps, the one with the blue circle and the one with the red circle, in a single movement, then stood stock-still under the water that spurred from the lotus-shaped shower head. At that moment when the cold and hot water blended to create the perfect temperature, the tears always came. She could feel their special warmth despite the hot water streaming over her”, Farewell My Orange is a hidden gem.
emkoshka's review against another edition
3.0
This was a very gentle read about the friendship that develops between two immigrants trying to find their way to new lives in a small coastal town in Australia: Salimah, a Nigerian mother of two boys who works in the meat department of the supermarket, and Sayuri, a Japanese woman who is passionate about reading and writing in English. Originally written in Japanese, the English translation is excellent. I found Salimah's story the more compelling one, and its ending was absolutely gorgeous, an evocation of that sunny orange cover.
allie_oop's review against another edition
4.0
I'd give this 4.5 stars if I could. Beautiful language, lovely strong characters, good glimpse of privilege from the outside looking in.
8little_paws's review
4.0
I read this novella as my final book of 2018. Only 125 pages, but covers Australian immigration, racism, motherhood, second languages, the meaning of self sufficiency and work. I am not sure yet if it's a 4 or 5 star, but either way, it's really quite good.
lonesomereader's review
5.0
There’s perhaps no greater challenge to one’s sense of self than travelling to a foreign country where you don’t speak the language. This experience is so instantly disorientating and isolating that you’re forced back into a state of infantilism struggling to communicate what you mean with those around you. It also provokes self-reflection making you consider assumptions about the meaning of culture and language. Whenever I’ve spent time in a foreign country I’ve felt simultaneously energised with curiosity and very vulnerable as I pondered these issues. This experience is powerfully conveyed in Iwaki Kei’s novella “Farewell, My Orange”. The story primarily focuses on the experience of two women who move to Australia: Salimah from Nigeria and Sayuri from Japan. They meet in an English language class. Gradually they form a bond amidst their different feelings of estrangement and establish a more robust sense of independence. It’s a poignant tale of friendship that considers the ways in which meaning is filtered through language.
Read my full review of Farewell, My Orange by Iwaki Kei on LonesomeReader
Read my full review of Farewell, My Orange by Iwaki Kei on LonesomeReader
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