Reviews tagging 'War'

Obasan by Joy Kogawa

9 reviews

amfelix's review against another edition

3.75

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Read for an English class. The writing and description was beautiful but the content is very depressing. A must read for CanLit but also to be informed of Canada's past mistreatment towards Japanese-Canadians and the internment camps they were subjected to. Personally, didn't like it for the content of the book but I also understood that the purpose of the book was not to enjoy it and that it wasn't a light read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, War

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment

janeblue's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Death of parent, War, Injury/Injury detail, Deportation

raaahella's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

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This was an interesting perspective to learn and I am glad I made time to read through it. How complicated a Canadian born from Japanese descendants must have been between the '30's onwards. Even decades later rhe main character still faces microagressiins and anti-feminist pushes towards needing to be married. 

I am uncertain why the book was called Obasan, as her character shows little.emotuon and speaks very little so it was hard to grasp her perspective.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, War, Classism

Moderate: Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Deportation

The very end of rhe book is very hard to read as it describes what happened in Nagasaki, Japan during WWII.

jadziaaudrey's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Grief, Death of parent, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Deportation

seth5678's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Death of parent, War

juliebruzon's review against another edition

4.0

emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Death of parent, War

Moderate: Racial slurs, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment

saroosh's review against another edition

4.75

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Death of parent

Minor: Violence, War

rzh's review against another edition

4.0

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read this for a canadian literature course at university: very moving, lovely prose, and a valuable insight to the japanese-canadian experience towards the end of the second world war. can definitely understand why it forms a key part in most canadian literature courses in university. perhaps quite difficult at times to tell whether the narrator is in the past or the future, but i’d say that’s definitely intentional and forms an interesting comment on different characters’ approaches to family and cultural history. 4 stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Genocide, Pedophilia, Sexual assault

ilovegrassjelly123's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional reflective

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Nearly cried

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, War