You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
An interesting book with clear limitations. By focusing on a collective of picture brides the author is able to paint a picture of life might have been like for Japanese-Americans more broadly than focusing on any one individual's experiences. On the other side however the lack of any characters or individual fates to relate to drives in a gaping chasm between the reader (at least in my case) and the stories that are being told. It's like reading 20 book summaries but not a single book. It feels surface level, like an endlessly ongoing list of variables being counted down and at the end nothing sticks out as particularly strong or memorable. The reading experience a fleeting collection of a lot of things, connected by a theme and background that is the only thing holding this book together.
dark
informative
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Minor: Child death, Sexual assault
emotional
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
informative
fast-paced
Haunting and beautiful: The gorgeous prose draws you in, and then the story begins. Captivating. Multiple voices blend together to tell of heartache and struggle, of lost love and lost souls. Breathtaking in a way that leaves you silent long after the last word.
This books is amazingly brutal. Every sentence was a different Japanese experience--- the repetition was at times, annoying, but I think it stood for the repetition of japanese-american experiences. Some of the "stories" were brutal. I think the shortness of these stories spoke to the ease of forgetting these experiences. By the end the Japanese are taken out of their home and are but a memory.
Read for the Pioneer Book Challenge - Its a PEN Faulkner award nominee. It was really beautiful and compelling. Heartbreaking.
Told in a collective "we", it tells the story of Japanese immigrants in the early 1900s through to WWII. In simple but elegant and precise language, the book tells hundreds of one-line histories, individually yet still as a collective. You read how varied were the young Japanese women came to America. Who they thought they were going to marry vs the the real man who had sent for them. The kinds of jobs they had. How they built their lives in this foreign land. Their relationships with their husbands. Birthing stories. How they raised their babies. How they interacted with "them" (i.e. the Americans) in their towns. And, inevitably, their treatment during WWII.
I've read a few books about Japanese internment camps. It's hard to read about. So many atrocious parts of our history due to racism. It's awful. We can do and be better.
The book ended with the empty towns and the neighbors (and kids) shocked by the departure of the Japanese. But they eventually forget and move on. :( I wanted more about their experiences in the camps and after the war.
I would read it again. Well done Julie Otsuka!
Told in a collective "we", it tells the story of Japanese immigrants in the early 1900s through to WWII. In simple but elegant and precise language, the book tells hundreds of one-line histories, individually yet still as a collective. You read how varied were the young Japanese women came to America. Who they thought they were going to marry vs the the real man who had sent for them. The kinds of jobs they had. How they built their lives in this foreign land. Their relationships with their husbands. Birthing stories. How they raised their babies. How they interacted with "them" (i.e. the Americans) in their towns. And, inevitably, their treatment during WWII.
I've read a few books about Japanese internment camps. It's hard to read about. So many atrocious parts of our history due to racism. It's awful. We can do and be better.
The book ended with the empty towns and the neighbors (and kids) shocked by the departure of the Japanese. But they eventually forget and move on. :( I wanted more about their experiences in the camps and after the war.
I would read it again. Well done Julie Otsuka!
It was ok. Very short, surprisingly I think the thing I liked best about it also caused it to not grab me quite as much. It is told with a "group voice" all of these Japanese women speak collectively about "us" which I found to be very cool. But because there is not one central character I couldn't connect to any one family story. I think she gets her point across, and it is told beautifully, more like a long poem and less like a short story. I also would have liked to see it go a little longer. It ends with the families being sent to the internment camps, I would have like to explored life in the camps a little more.
On m'avait conseillé ce livre en me disant qu'il était reconnu pour sa polyphonie. C'est une approche que j'aime beaucoup dans la littérature. Je m'attendais donc à lire une alternance de voix donnant la parole à chacune de ces femmes.
En réalité l'autrice nous laisse entendre les voix entremêlées de plusieurs femmes japonaises à travers une écriture à la première personne du pluriel. Ce nous collectif qui résonne comme un chœur rend leur désespoir poignant et unanime.
Ce roman est bien écrit, fluide et rythmé. Il aborde les thèmes comme le racisme, la prostitution et les violences sexuelles.
C'est une bonne lecture.
En réalité l'autrice nous laisse entendre les voix entremêlées de plusieurs femmes japonaises à travers une écriture à la première personne du pluriel. Ce nous collectif qui résonne comme un chœur rend leur désespoir poignant et unanime.
Ce roman est bien écrit, fluide et rythmé. Il aborde les thèmes comme le racisme, la prostitution et les violences sexuelles.
C'est une bonne lecture.