Several years ago I read Otsuka's When the Emporer was Divine at my dad's recommendation. That was a novel about a Japanese-American family taken to an internment camp during WWII. It was short, economical, well-written, and kind of a special book.
Buddha in the Attic has all of those characteristics too. It's about a group of women who come over from Japan to be married to men they haven't met. Some of their lives go as expected, others are disappointed, but all of them need to find ways to adjust to life in America. What was most unique about this book was the voice - it was told in first-person plural, where the women (never completely enumerated and named) tell about different parts of their experiences in different chapters. It made me wonder if Otsuka had created a set of individuals and then grouped their stories, or if she conceived the narrative this way.
Otsuka's books are like perfect tiny diamond stud earrings. You can never have enough but they are quite beautiful.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Blame by Michele Huneven
This book came off the Chicago Tribune's booklist a few years back. It was good - a reasonably complex set of themes hiding in an easy-to-read novel reminiscient of Jodi Picoult.
Most of the story is about Patsy, an alcoholic who kills two people in an accident while driving drunk. The story follows her as she goes to prison, joins AA, and once released, rebuilds her life with an unlikely set of family and friends. Most notably, she becomes friends with the husband and father of her victims, and also marries the unlikeliest of partners. When additional details about the accident come out decades later, Patsy is confronted with the realities of what her life was like, and of what is has since become.
You could consider this a beach read or airport read - it is fast-paced and well-plotted. However, that would probably underestimate the quality of the book and the profundity of its message.
Recommended.
Most of the story is about Patsy, an alcoholic who kills two people in an accident while driving drunk. The story follows her as she goes to prison, joins AA, and once released, rebuilds her life with an unlikely set of family and friends. Most notably, she becomes friends with the husband and father of her victims, and also marries the unlikeliest of partners. When additional details about the accident come out decades later, Patsy is confronted with the realities of what her life was like, and of what is has since become.
You could consider this a beach read or airport read - it is fast-paced and well-plotted. However, that would probably underestimate the quality of the book and the profundity of its message.
Recommended.
The Disappeared by Kim Echlin
This book was on last year's Globe and Mail annual book list and it has languished on mine since then. Glad it finally bubbled up to the top.
The story is about a young woman who falls in love with a man who left Cambodia before the genocide in the late 1970's. When the country is stable again, he is haunted by having left and returns. She loses touch with him - for many years - then goes to Cambodia to find him. It's a love story but also a tribute to the sad history of Cambodia.
Perhaps the best thing about this book was the style in which this was written. It was like reading a novel-length poem - not one superfluous word, but nothing under-described either. Both the passion of the love between the two main characters and the terrors endured by the Cambodian people were depicted crisply. Some specifics of place and time were minimized in favor of creating a mood throughout the book.
Perhaps it was the war-torn Asian setting that reminded me a bit of The Lotus Eaters. The writing in that book was much more straightforward, but the question of whether to love in the face of terror is futile was similar.
Recommended.
The story is about a young woman who falls in love with a man who left Cambodia before the genocide in the late 1970's. When the country is stable again, he is haunted by having left and returns. She loses touch with him - for many years - then goes to Cambodia to find him. It's a love story but also a tribute to the sad history of Cambodia.
Perhaps the best thing about this book was the style in which this was written. It was like reading a novel-length poem - not one superfluous word, but nothing under-described either. Both the passion of the love between the two main characters and the terrors endured by the Cambodian people were depicted crisply. Some specifics of place and time were minimized in favor of creating a mood throughout the book.
Perhaps it was the war-torn Asian setting that reminded me a bit of The Lotus Eaters. The writing in that book was much more straightforward, but the question of whether to love in the face of terror is futile was similar.
Recommended.
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