This review will contain spoilers!

“From time to time one of their men would ask us to have a work with us in his study while his wife was out… and when he led us upstairs to the bedroom and laid us across the bed-the very same bed we had made up that morning- we wept because it had been so long since we’d been held”

3.6/5

I feel like this book is so unique in the lack of individuality it provides. The first person plural narrator, lack of names and personal identity of the narrator(s). One of the women stops becoming a narrator as soon as they leave the group (either by disgracing themselves and being sent back home, death, running away, etc.)

It’s really difficult to understand everything that’s going on with all the characters, but so easy at the same time. Especially towards the end, when all the Japanese have been sent to the concentration camps. Who is the narrator now? Who is the “we” and “us” who is still living in the towns? Maybe I read over it too fast and missed that part, and I’ll probably give it a more in-depth read. I’ll continue thinking about this book just like how the people (somewhat) kept thinking about their Japanese neighbors have left them, for better or for worse.

What I liked:
~The unique narrator(s)
~The historical accounting and recognition of the women who left their homes to live in America, and detailing of them writing back home to their mothers (and sometimes getting disowned LOL)

What I disliked:
~The ending (but I understand its point and purpose)
~The lack of character depth and huge narrative distance that results from how many characters are in the book (I know the characters have depth. I just can’t get it in me to become personalized with them, and that’s a vital thing to me when I read. And you can’t really do a deep dive with a specific character)

I like this book overall though. I think I was however a little upset that this book didn’t move me as much as “When the Emperor was Divine”.

The Buddha in the Attic - Likewise Book Reviews

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