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What Members Thought
This quick read of a novel was nominated for the National Book Award in 2011. The book follows the tale of Japanese mail-order brides as they journey from Japan to America via boat, their lives with their husbands, their times working fields and other low level jobs in the USA, and up through the times when Japanese-Americans were sent to internment camps during World War II. The book was told in the 1st person plural from the perspective of a group of Japanese women. The last section of the boo
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Very hard to describe. The whole book is written in first person plural: "We came... some of us were.... one of us, named so-and-so, was...." It makes for a dreamlike book, the voices ringing out from a larger Greek chorus. There isn't one story line; there are threads that make up a larger picture of what it might have been like to be a mail-order bride/wife/mother in the early 20th century, adapting and adapting again. It's so full of pain, and longing, and acceptance of disappointment. It mad
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I finished this slim book in one sitting. I'm not sure what to say here. On the one hand, I don't like the rarely used first-person plural narrative. It feels like I'm reading about these intense experiences from 10,000 feet. I like to be on the ground and in the mind of a novel's characters. For me, a book hinges on whether or not there was at least one character I can relate to or at least root for. There isn't a single character in this book! Yes, people are named but you don't get to know or
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Most notable feature: written in the 1st person plural (until the very end -- to great effect!). Read it in a few hours while traveling - not very substantial, but elegant prose and I enjoy the formal innovation.
The way this book was written got in the way of my "seeing" these stories. I wanted to dig deeper, but it felt surface level, because there were just too many voices, too many stories.
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I listened to the audio version of this book, which I think suits the narrative style well. It's told in first-person plural which both highlights that this is a collective story and also makes sense for an oral recollection. I can honestly say I'm not sure how that would hold up on paper.
So yeah I super dug the use of first-person plural because of the collective nature but I also liked that often the author would show differentiation in the women's stories by giving singular experiences. Supe ...more
So yeah I super dug the use of first-person plural because of the collective nature but I also liked that often the author would show differentiation in the women's stories by giving singular experiences. Supe ...more
Initially I liked the style of this book that encapsulated so many different individuals' stories in one fell swoop to compare and contrast the varying backgrounds and fates in CA each woman had. But the style got to me, as I wanted to know more about each individual and it wasn't enough to get these blips. I will give her first book a read since it sounds like what I'm looking for knowing Otsuka is a talented writer.
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I think this is a book that you'll either love or hate, because the writing style is pretty unique. I really enjoyed it though and it was a very quick read.
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Dec 02, 2011
Jess
marked it as to-read
Dec 19, 2011
Anne
marked it as to-read
Mar 26, 2012
Maggie Downs
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Jun 24, 2012
Julianne Dunn
marked it as to-read
Dec 15, 2013
Becca
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Jun 19, 2014
Camille
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Jun 29, 2014
Arianna
marked it as to-read
Dec 20, 2014
Maria
marked it as to-read
Jan 01, 2015
Christine
marked it as to-read
Jul 27, 2016
Kate
marked it as to-read
Apr 19, 2017
Colleen
marked it as to-read
Mar 10, 2018
Caitlin H
rated it
really liked it
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Sep 11, 2018
Jody Rowan
marked it as to-read
