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A review by hmgelo02
The Yokota Officers Club by Sarah Bird
5.0
This novel was my book club's selection for September, chosen mostly because it takes place on Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, where many of us currently live. I had few ideas of what to expect from this book, but I closed its final pages glad that I'd taken the time to read it.
[b:The Yokota Officers Club A Novel|445730|The Yokota Officers Club A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)|Sarah Bird|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GFTCK52WL._SL75_.jpg|2891087] takes place in two decades: the present is during the Vietnam war era; the other is during the post-WWII occupation of Japan by Americans during the Cold War. From the perspective of someone who lives here on Okinawa, as well as being an officer's wife, it was fascinating to read what life on base and within a classified unit was like long before I ever came here or entered life as a military spouse.
I had an idea that life even just ten or fifteen years ago was much more regimented than what I experience today, but the description of officers' careers ending over the actions of their family members is a new concept to me. Also, while I sometimes feel that the restrictions put upon us when living in base housing is strict, today it is nothing like the scrutiny that faced families in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s.
After reading the epilogue - a conversation between the author and her mother and sisters - I realize how much [a:Sarah Bird|191417|Sarah Bird|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg] injected her own experiences into the writing of this novel, which makes it all that much more compelling. This book is well-written, highly enjoyable, and even if I weren't as intimately familiar with the setting or lifestyle that she's describing, I still would have enjoyed this book.
[b:The Yokota Officers Club A Novel|445730|The Yokota Officers Club A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)|Sarah Bird|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GFTCK52WL._SL75_.jpg|2891087] takes place in two decades: the present is during the Vietnam war era; the other is during the post-WWII occupation of Japan by Americans during the Cold War. From the perspective of someone who lives here on Okinawa, as well as being an officer's wife, it was fascinating to read what life on base and within a classified unit was like long before I ever came here or entered life as a military spouse.
I had an idea that life even just ten or fifteen years ago was much more regimented than what I experience today, but the description of officers' careers ending over the actions of their family members is a new concept to me. Also, while I sometimes feel that the restrictions put upon us when living in base housing is strict, today it is nothing like the scrutiny that faced families in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s.
After reading the epilogue - a conversation between the author and her mother and sisters - I realize how much [a:Sarah Bird|191417|Sarah Bird|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg] injected her own experiences into the writing of this novel, which makes it all that much more compelling. This book is well-written, highly enjoyable, and even if I weren't as intimately familiar with the setting or lifestyle that she's describing, I still would have enjoyed this book.