Scan barcode
alicihonest's review against another edition
4.0
Slow at times, and a few plot lines abandoned, but very poignant and an interesting perspective on racial tensions in Los Angeles and the riots.
chrisiant's review against another edition
4.0
Well, I sure know how to pick 'em. Every character in this book has some awful traumatic incident in their past, mostly involving godawful racism, whether Japanese internment camp or WWII shipyards or police on the streets in the 60s in LA.
Reading a novel that revolves around police brutality in the Watts riots during a week of police-involved shootings while I'm on vacation was perhaps not the wisest, but it was a good read, and not totally predictable. Also cheers for a lesbian POC main character who doesn't fall for a dude along the way (even if who she fell for was a little predictable). And yay for novels set in complex racial terrain.
Reading a novel that revolves around police brutality in the Watts riots during a week of police-involved shootings while I'm on vacation was perhaps not the wisest, but it was a good read, and not totally predictable. Also cheers for a lesbian POC main character who doesn't fall for a dude along the way (even if who she fell for was a little predictable). And yay for novels set in complex racial terrain.
jhbandcats's review against another edition
5.0
I found this novel a bit difficult at first - it wasn’t holding my absolute complete total interest, there were so many characters and so many generations of them - but I am SO glad I stuck with it. For me, the second half captured my absolute complete total interest - though I still found it challenging to keep the characters straight. I wish there had been a family tree at the beginning of the book. That said, I think it’s definitely a 5-star read.
This novel deals with three generations at tumultuous times in LA: the Japanese internment in concentration camps, the Watts riots, and the period shortly after the Rodney King riots. The main characters are either black or Japanese, many having arrived in LA just after WWI. Both races face overwhelming prejudice, discrimination, and violence in their new home, and that cascades down to the succeeding generations.
Chapters are told from varying characters’ perspectives, sometimes at different ages; for instance, we see Frank in WWII, during the Watts riots, and (from his granddaughter’s viewpoint) in the 1980s and 1990s. We see Lois as a teenager in 1963 and as a middle-aged mom in 1994. Because of the traditional reticence of their parents and grandparents, these contemporary characters know little to nothing of their history, the difficulties their families faced, and the hatreds they endured.
An aside: Every time I read a novel set in the past, I learn so much. For instance, I just learned that the Dachau concentration camp was liberated by Japanese-American soldiers who were never recognized for doing it. Instead, they were shunted aside so white soldiers could take the credit. The irony, of course, is that they liberated a German concentration camp while their families were stuck in US concentration camps.
I highly recommend this one. I can tell that the story will stay with me, always a sign of a great book.
This novel deals with three generations at tumultuous times in LA: the Japanese internment in concentration camps, the Watts riots, and the period shortly after the Rodney King riots. The main characters are either black or Japanese, many having arrived in LA just after WWI. Both races face overwhelming prejudice, discrimination, and violence in their new home, and that cascades down to the succeeding generations.
Chapters are told from varying characters’ perspectives, sometimes at different ages; for instance, we see Frank in WWII, during the Watts riots, and (from his granddaughter’s viewpoint) in the 1980s and 1990s. We see Lois as a teenager in 1963 and as a middle-aged mom in 1994. Because of the traditional reticence of their parents and grandparents, these contemporary characters know little to nothing of their history, the difficulties their families faced, and the hatreds they endured.
An aside: Every time I read a novel set in the past, I learn so much. For instance, I just learned that the Dachau concentration camp was liberated by Japanese-American soldiers who were never recognized for doing it. Instead, they were shunted aside so white soldiers could take the credit. The irony, of course, is that they liberated a German concentration camp while their families were stuck in US concentration camps.
I highly recommend this one. I can tell that the story will stay with me, always a sign of a great book.
readtotheend's review against another edition
5.0
4.5 stars. Really moving historical fiction about Los Angeles in a 50 year time span between the 40s and 90s. Japanese American law student Jackie Ishida looks to the past to uncover some of her grandfather's history and secrets after he passes. The book covers the Watts Riots, internment and the LA Riots in the 90s. I haven't read a book about Japanese American and Black relations in LA and you can really see the history runs deep. It also gave a tiny glimpse of what it was like to be Asian American but not Japanese American during internment. That is something I've always been really curious about - how Asian Americans experienced the internment years when they were not Japanese. The parts about the riots always hit home for me because my parents owned a small business in a Black neighborhood for years and owned it when we had a small riot in Chicago. Very similarly to this book, my dad had a unique relationship with his neighbors because he reached out and got to know them and while many business burned, his business neighbor's stood outside my dad's business and protected it from damage. It's such a huge memory in my childhood and one that I've always been very proud of - that my dad always treated and still treats all people with kindness and respect and has always put relationship before dollars. This book was fantastic and truly a wonderful addition to the book of historical fiction, particularly that of LA.
beccavela28's review
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
5.0
dreesreads's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars. Family saga, mystery, crime drama, with a bit of romance thrown in.
After Frank Sakai's death, his daughter Lois finds an old will naming someone she doesn't know, and a box of memorabilia. She tasks her niece, Frank's granddaughter Jackie--with figuring out what it's about.
Jackie learns a lot about her grandfather--his life when interred, his WW2 experiences, his store, his community (Angeles Mesa), his family, his friends. She also finds out all about what happened during the Watts riots.
This book is interesting and worth the read, and I especially liked the real places referenced. I found the romance to be an odd distraction in the story--unless the idea was to contrast a current relationship with a historic relationship?
After Frank Sakai's death, his daughter Lois finds an old will naming someone she doesn't know, and a box of memorabilia. She tasks her niece, Frank's granddaughter Jackie--with figuring out what it's about.
Jackie learns a lot about her grandfather--his life when interred, his WW2 experiences, his store, his community (Angeles Mesa), his family, his friends. She also finds out all about what happened during the Watts riots.
This book is interesting and worth the read, and I especially liked the real places referenced. I found the romance to be an odd distraction in the story--unless the idea was to contrast a current relationship with a historic relationship?
tora76's review against another edition
5.0
When Jackie Ishida's grandfather dies, her aunt finds in his closet a box of cash from the sale of his old store, along with an old will leaving the money to someone they've never heard of. Jackie agrees to help find this guy, only to find out he died. Was murdered, in fact, along with three other boys, in her grandfather's store during the Watts riots in 1965. As she and James Lanier, a cousin of the boy, look into the murders, Jackie learns more than she expected to about her grandfather.[return][return]I really loved this book a lot. It's set in LA, but not the Hollywood LA that you usually see in books and movies (it's so rare to see a portrayal of the LA I know and love). The main character is a lesbian, but it's not The Plot, just a fact about her (what? You mean there can be stories about gay people that aren't about being gay???). She's also Japanese-American, but this isn't a story about internment camps (they are mentioned, during some flashbacks in her grandfather's POV, but it's not the point of the story, and boy is that rare). [return][return]It's also a really neat story. My one complaint is that it's really tell-y. Like, it could have been cut down by at least a third if the author had just trusted the readers instead of having so much internal exposition about what people were thinking and feeling every step of the way.
idontkaren's review against another edition
5.0
A really nice historical fiction mystery set in the Crenshaw District of LA. It's pretty sad.
kristinrob's review against another edition
4.0
A story about race, war and love in post WWII Los Angeles.