false 239736 1 At first blush, Lydia Minatoya's novel <I>The Strangeness of Beauty</I> would seem to be pretty standard fare: three generations of Japanese women struggle to understand and love one another. Sounds like generic women's fiction, but in Minatoya's hands, it becomes something quietly distinctive. Minatoya has a taste for the in-between. In this, her first novel, mothers are not mothers, Americans are Japanese, and warriors are pacifists. <p> Etsuko and her sister Naomi move with their respective husbands from Kobe to Seattle in the 1920s. When Naomi dies in childbirth, the widowed Etsuko becomes the baby's surrogate mother. The two return to Japan, where the girl, Hanae, can receive the education in subtleties that is her heritage as a member of a samurai family. The young American girl finds the chores and trials of samurai life enraging. "Take sweeping the garden path with a light bamboo broom: the point isn't just to clear off debris. Designed to develop dedication and spiritual depth, the <I>real</I> task is in repeating the activity--morning and dusk, over and over, for <I>decades</I>--until she learns to leave light, flowing impressions on the soft surface earth."<p> Just as patiently, Etsuko and Hanae must learn the secrets of their family. There's quite a bit of familial breast-beating, sure, but it's leavened by the perspective of Etsuko, a bumbling, sweet-tempered antiheroine of a narrator. The book comes alive as the two women, trapped in the liminal state of exile, neither American nor Japanese, learn to wrest the best from both worlds. As Japan teeters on the brink of war, Etsuko and Hanae apply their samurai-warrior sense of honor to fighting for peace. Minatoya (author of the acclaimed memoir <I>Talking to High Monks in the Snow</I>) never settles for black or white. She always strives for that more difficult place: the gray area. <I>--Claire Dederer</I> 232225 1 2001 The Strangeness of Beauty total:113|5:30|4:47|3:24|2:11|1:1| 113 433 182 22 5 1 false false Sun Apr 20 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Apr 04 21:37:12 -0700 2008 Fri Apr 04 21:37:38 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Mar 11 08:29:31 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 11 08:30:03 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 22 07:57:30 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 22 08:04:54 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Apr 02 10:31:57 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 02 16:48:23 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Mar 16 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Feb 22 10:25:22 -0800 2008 Sun Mar 16 18:23:44 -0700 2008
Hanae and Etsuko go to the House of F...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Nov 02 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 04 19:02:17 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 04 19:14:24 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat May 02 16:05:26 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 18 09:52:41 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Dec 16 15:47:15 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 16 15:47:15 -0800 2008 4 0 true false Fri Aug 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 31 18:40:24 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 31 18:43:34 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Wed Dec 19 07:54:44 -0800 2007 Thu Jan 10 13:45:39 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue May 06 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Feb 29 08:53:30 -0800 2008 Tue May 06 13:41:23 -0700 2008 I thought this book was be...more...]]> 2 0 false false Wed Jul 23 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 27 09:18:48 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 24 07:14:13 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 true false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 11 21:26:44 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 11 21:33:29 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jun 23 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 19 10:46:06 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 23 08:30:14 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Apr 30 21:23:46 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 30 21:27:24 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Mon Apr 07 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Apr 28 16:38:19 -0700 2008 Mon Apr 28 16:40:18 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jan 30 18:30:22 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 24 16:57:56 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Fri Dec 14 19:46:42 -0800 2007 Fri Dec 14 19:47:57 -0800 2007 2 0 true false Fri Nov 23 21:23:15 -0800 2007 Fri Nov 23 21:25:57 -0800 2007 2 0 false false Fri Sep 05 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 05 11:55:28 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 05 11:58:36 -0700 2008