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| Julie Otsuka |
Have been so busy writing a column and book reviews, have hardly had time to post, but want to keep you up to date on great reading...
National Book Award nominee Julie
Otsuka has published a second novel that, like her first, “When the Emperor was
Divine” is a slim volume that packs a huge punch. “The Buddha in the Attic” is
further example of how powerful a story can be told with few words, and in this
case, more like a prose poem.
Told in a first person plural
voice, no mean feat of storytelling, the narration represents the many women
imported from Japan to San Francisco as what were called “picture brides” at
the turn of the 20th century. Although told as if one, we come to
understand each individual experience, some horrific, all fascinating. The
women of this novel arrived to provide companionship to countryman who had come
to build bridges and railroads or mine the land. They were completely misled
about what to expect, from the aged photos of men no longer young to lifestyles
in America. The learned quickly to expect the unexpected.
“We gave birth under oak trees, in
summer, in 113-degree heat. We gave birth beside woodstoves in one-room shacks
on the coldest nights of the year. We gave birth on windy islands in the Delta,
six months after we arrived, and the babies were tiny, and translucent, and
after three days they died.”
This little novel tells a tale
repeatedly told over centuries of immigration to America, a tale perhaps still
being told. From the farthest locales, they come to improve their lot in life,
to make a better life for their children, to build memories of which they can
be proud. However,
from their first long painful journey on a trans-Pacific
boat with few amenities, these women bond and share their hopes and
expectations, most of which are instantly dashed.
Their tales of hardship and woe are
told as if the pieces of quilt sewn together into one larger image. The
husbands they were promised are not at all as presented and their lives in America
nothing like they imagined and even harder work then they experienced in Japan.
“They admired us for our strong
backs and nimble hands. Our stamina. Our discipline. Our docile dispositions.
Our unusual ability to tolerate the heat… They said our short stature made us
ideally suited for work that required stooping low to the ground. Wherever they
put us they were pleased… We were the best breed of worker they had ever hired
in their lives.”
In the end, their families would be
interned during WWII as potentially dangerous to their American neighbors, and
as a final blow, their children reject their Asian heritage in favor of
American pop culture.
The truth of their lives is
disturbing and moving, the poetry of the language and the strength of the
protagonists’ spirits absolutely beautiful to read. Definitely worth your time
and also an excellent book group selection.
