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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
DNF. I just found myself completely disliking and disgusted by one of the main characters, Jay. And I really really don’t like books with infidelity that is excused, and justified in any way. Completely turned me off the book.
A wonderful read to start the Christmas holiday. A story about what it is like to be the child of parents who have moved from another country and who is then caught between two cultures. It is about parenthood, about coming of age, about the trauma of being abandoned, about domestic abuse. I found it hard to put down as I wanted always to know more about Yukiko. What next?
I feel conflicted about this novel. I was really drawn to Yuki’s story but found the other part of the book, Jay’s story, less than compelling. I’m not sure that I'll remember much of this book in a few months time.
Yuki is a shy a teenager in late-60s NYC, an aspiring artist, who convinces her parents to allow her to stay in the city, living with a friend, to finish high school when her parents return to Japan. Yuki soon finds herself in a relationship with an older man, drops out of high school and tries to make a life and pursue art. Her son, Jay, left by Yuki as a child and raised by his father, is struggling with fatherhood and family responsibility. Jay to track his mother down after his father passes and leaves his childhood home to her.
Yuki is a shy a teenager in late-60s NYC, an aspiring artist, who convinces her parents to allow her to stay in the city, living with a friend, to finish high school when her parents return to Japan. Yuki soon finds herself in a relationship with an older man, drops out of high school and tries to make a life and pursue art. Her son, Jay, left by Yuki as a child and raised by his father, is struggling with fatherhood and family responsibility. Jay to track his mother down after his father passes and leaves his childhood home to her.
Yuki is a Japanese teenager, living in New York City in the late 60s; no longer belonging in Japan, she is also an outsider in New York. Her parents return to Japan, and she stays, with an almost friend, and for the next few years tries to be an artist. The story of her son, set in the current day,is also told, as he tries to adjust to parenthood, and wonders why his mother left him. It’s a quietly bleak story, with flashes emotion, of Yuki and Jay’s internal struggle for meaning and place, and for peace within themselves. The characters are deeply flawed, most are unlikeable, and it is a touch melancholy, but it is strangely suspenseful and compelling.
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Abandonment
Moderate: Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Death of parent
Rowan Hisayo Buchanan’s debut novel about identity, abuse, art, and familial bonds, packs several punches. Harmless Like You is a breathtakingly crafted story of mother and son. First, we meet Yuki Oyama, a teenage Japanese-American immigrant, caught in the cross heirs of identity in an early 1970’s New York. Her father has been on a years-long exile to America for work when he is finally called back. Torn between leaving the only land she’s ever known, and losing her family, Yuki ultimately decides to remain in the Big Apple, with her only friend, Odile, the beautiful and cunning aspiring model. Then, we meet Jay, Yuki’s adult son in 2016 Connecticut and Berlin. Still dealing with the abandonment of his mother when he was just two years old, Jay enters into fatherhood, reeling with discontentment and frustration. As the novel builds, Hisayo Buchanan seeks to answer “how does a mother desert her own son?”.
Full of beautiful, literary prose, Hisayo Buchanan’s novel is hard to get into. Once there, however, I was hooked. Her voice is fresh, intelligent, and compelling. The characters are well crafted, and, unlike other books detailing abuse and abandonment, feel real and consistent. Only Jay’s father feels forced for the narrative, but the other characters don’t excuse his behavior, and call him for being unlike a human, flawed and difficult, making the improbability of his character feel possible.
Hisayo Buchanan’s biggest asset though, is her climatic structure. She arrives with a big sense of occasion and gradually and consistently builds the action, never dragging anything out, or forcing us to choke down the complexity of a fleeing mother in the last 20 pages of the novel. Authors I’ve read in the past err on one side or the other, but Harmless Like You splits the difference, making this one of the best crafted novels I’ve read in a while.
And yet, as with any debut, there is room for improvement. At times, it feels Harmless Like You is too big, trying to do too much. While Hisayo Buchanan’s ideas are breathtaking and well argued, they can fell a bit pretentious and awkwardly placed. Similarly, she crammed a lot of themes into this book, all of which were wonderfully crafted, but occasionally felt overwhelming.
Nevertheless, I read Harmless Like You in two blissful, desiring sittings, and wouldn’t have put the book down for anything. It is a breathtaking, accomplished novel, so rich and full, your next read will dull by comparison. For a debut, Rowan Hisayo Buchanan has much to be proud of.
Pick up Harmless Like You when it’s released in February 2017.
ARC provided by publisher via a Goodreads giveaway
Full of beautiful, literary prose, Hisayo Buchanan’s novel is hard to get into. Once there, however, I was hooked. Her voice is fresh, intelligent, and compelling. The characters are well crafted, and, unlike other books detailing abuse and abandonment, feel real and consistent. Only Jay’s father feels forced for the narrative, but the other characters don’t excuse his behavior, and call him for being unlike a human, flawed and difficult, making the improbability of his character feel possible.
Hisayo Buchanan’s biggest asset though, is her climatic structure. She arrives with a big sense of occasion and gradually and consistently builds the action, never dragging anything out, or forcing us to choke down the complexity of a fleeing mother in the last 20 pages of the novel. Authors I’ve read in the past err on one side or the other, but Harmless Like You splits the difference, making this one of the best crafted novels I’ve read in a while.
And yet, as with any debut, there is room for improvement. At times, it feels Harmless Like You is too big, trying to do too much. While Hisayo Buchanan’s ideas are breathtaking and well argued, they can fell a bit pretentious and awkwardly placed. Similarly, she crammed a lot of themes into this book, all of which were wonderfully crafted, but occasionally felt overwhelming.
Nevertheless, I read Harmless Like You in two blissful, desiring sittings, and wouldn’t have put the book down for anything. It is a breathtaking, accomplished novel, so rich and full, your next read will dull by comparison. For a debut, Rowan Hisayo Buchanan has much to be proud of.
Pick up Harmless Like You when it’s released in February 2017.
ARC provided by publisher via a Goodreads giveaway
Truly beautifully written - it is rare that I have to stop to savor the prose when I'm reading, yet I found myself doing so constantly while reading this. The understated story with an overarching feeling of perpetual sadness was right up my alley as well.
A really simple story told in a beautiful and emotive way.
The structure of the book, how it alternated between Yuki's and Jay's stories, was very effective, particularly towards the end of the book when their paths were about to converge. I liked how the book only focussed on a small handful of characters because it meant that there were no pointless characters. The characters' diverse range of ethnicities was done well, it didn't seem gratuitous and didn't play to stereotypes.
The best thing about the book was how emotive it was. I could really feel the loneliness and emptiness that Yuki was feeling, as well as the frustration her and Jay both felt at their newborn children. Yuki's decision to leave her husband and child was deeply saddening but was rationalised so well by her thinking she'd come back once she felt better.
My favourite character was definitely Edison. His and Yuki's relationship reminded me of Katsuya and Kyoko from Fruits Basket. I also loved Jay and Mimi's relationship, prior to having Eliot, and hope that their relationship is reconciled beyond the end of the book.
The only thing I would have liked to know more about was Yuki's time in Berlin. Did she go there in the hopes of finding Lou?
The structure of the book, how it alternated between Yuki's and Jay's stories, was very effective, particularly towards the end of the book when their paths were about to converge. I liked how the book only focussed on a small handful of characters because it meant that there were no pointless characters. The characters' diverse range of ethnicities was done well, it didn't seem gratuitous and didn't play to stereotypes.
The best thing about the book was how emotive it was. I could really feel the loneliness and emptiness that Yuki was feeling, as well as the frustration her and Jay both felt at their newborn children. Yuki's decision to leave her husband and child was deeply saddening but was rationalised so well by her thinking she'd come back once she felt better.
My favourite character was definitely Edison. His and Yuki's relationship reminded me of Katsuya and Kyoko from Fruits Basket. I also loved Jay and Mimi's relationship, prior to having Eliot, and hope that their relationship is reconciled beyond the end of the book.
The only thing I would have liked to know more about was Yuki's time in Berlin. Did she go there in the hopes of finding Lou?
Not a good sign when you find yourself actually saying out loud, "This is bullshit!" while you're reading. I tried really hard to go along with this but it only got worse as it went along. Not a single relationship in this book feels true, instead it all feels like someone's idea of how people act. In the end, the book is very hard on a bad mother and goes very easy on a bad father, so wait, I guess one part did feel true after all.
emotional
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:
Yes