The Japanese Lover in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Feb 12, 2018 Sarah rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction

At the heart of this is a love story. It has all the elements of a well wrought romance, but when the emotional punch is pulled, it felt like a little too late. I think that part of my problem is I never got a hold of any of the characters.
Alma as the main character, is described as unconventional, bold and bright. But when it comes down to her reacting to HUGE life and world events, I didn't get any sense of the impact on her personally. How does she cope in the long run as a Holocaust orphan? ...more

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Dec 10, 2018 Booktart rated it liked it

Shelves: contemporary-fiction

A good story but I think Allende tried to include too many issues in here -- Japanese internment, the Holocaust, sex trafficking, and AIDS/ attitudes toward the LGBT community. All of these are very important issues to explore, it just seemed like too much for one book. Still a very good read though and there aren't many novels about Japanese internment out there. ...more

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Sep 28, 2015 Jeff Scott rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, california, female

We often cannot imagine ourselves growing old. In our mind, we are still young and virile. Effortlessly leaping through life, until the day we realize we cannot. Time ages us traps us in the norms of the day. Love, however, is timeless. In Isabel Allende's new book, she takes us on a journey through time and shows us that love is immortal.

A combination of Bay Area stories that include World War II experiences both in Europe and the United States. Her characters need to escape from war both abroa We often cannot imagine ourselves growing old. In our mind, we are still young and virile. Effortlessly leaping through life, until the day we realize we cannot. Time ages us traps us in the norms of the day. Love, however, is timeless. In Isabel Allende's new book, she takes us on a journey through time and shows us that love is immortal.

A combination of Bay Area stories that include World War II experiences both in Europe and the United States. Her characters need to escape from war both abroad and demestic (including the Japanese Internment). They all come together at a nursing home called Lark House.

Irina is one of the new aides who is popular at Lark House. Her tragic backstory matches so many of the residents. (She sees each of them as her hardworking grandparents.) Irina and Seth, who is the grandson of one of the residents, Alma, attempt to unearth Alma's backstory. A descendant of the wealthy Belasco family, her wealth should have sustained without moving into Lark House. She has very clandestine meetings that contribute to her mysterious history. She was a Polish immigrant sent away just as Germany invades Poland. What she has not filled in is her relationship with the son of a Japanese gardener. His family was sent away to internment camps. It would be a lifelong connection that would define her.

What I liked about this story was the historical background of all the characters and how they were all pulled together. The set-up sounds a little like Water for Elephants (starts in a nursing home, then we get the backstory.) Allende is going for the same theme here juxtaposing the trouble with getting old while looking back at the prime of one's life. It is the emphasis of the youthful relationship and how that grows and strengthens with age. It reads like the Robert Browning poem Rabbi ben Ezra where he writes, "Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be..."

How this story is told, however, is very disjointed. There seems to be a great deal of research that was put into making the story, but not enough time putting it all together. What is most irritating is that she combines every single cliche and issue of the 20th century. It seems very lazy and a disservice to the reader. There are parts that are absolutely brilliant, but she doesn't stick with it. If she just focused on Ichi and Alma's story (even if it was just a novella) it would have been so much better.

Favorite passages:

“Yesterday, Alma, when at last we could meet to celebrate our birthdays, I could see you were in a bad mood. You said that all of a sudden, without us realizing it, we have turned seventy. You are afraid our bodies will fail us, and of what you call the ugliness of age, even though you are more beautiful now than you were at twenty-three. We’re not old because we are seventy. We start to grow old as soon as we are born, we change every day, life is a continuous state of flux. We evolve. The only difference is that now we are a little closer to death. What’s so bad about that? Love and friendship do not age.” P 155

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Aug 13, 2017 Shrop rated it liked it

Love Allende, and this didn't disappoint. It's a quick read I didn't want to put down. The story line was interesting and the characters likable but somehow it didn't have the depth or mystery I remembered from her previous novels I'd read. ...more

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