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Obasan
Books: Computers: Mac Write: Item 8
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Obasanby Joy Kogawa
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful: The silence that DOES speak, February 17, 2003 Reviewer:Charles E. Stevens - When I finished Obasan, I felt blown away. This is not just a great piece of Japanese Canadian literature, this is a great book, period. The Internment of Japanese American/Canadian citizens during World War II is a subject that is widely unknown, and a topic that few novelists have been able to capture with as much skill as Kogawa. "Obasan" weaves a seamless tale that stretches between generations and spans continents and decades with an almost dreamlike quality. As other reviewers have commented (lamented?) about, there are many dream sequences, all of which have significance as the story is unveiled. The dreams, the "silence that cannot speak," the love that is voiceless and yet vivid, the grief that cries out loudly and yet unheard ... the power of Kogawa's writing lies in being able to interpret and experience this imagery, and feel the pain of the internment as if doing so first hand. I was surprised to see the number of negative reviews this book has received here ... I feel compelled to include my voice with those who thoroughly recommend this book. "Obasan" is the best novel on the internment I have yet to come across, and certainly among the most powerful books I have read. Although Kogawa writes of a silence that does not speak, she breaks the silence beautifully with "Obasan," revealing a history that many do not know, and many do not talk about. This is a story that must be remembered and retold ... so history does not repeat itself.
From 500 Great books by Women; Review by Erica Bauermeister
When Naomi was a young child living in Vancouver, British Columbia, her mother left to visit relatives in Japan. Soon after, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Naomi's mother was not allowed to return and Naomi's family was "relocated" by the Canadian government. When Obasan begins, Naomi is thirty-five, a woman determined to ignore her past. But the death of the man who helped raise her and her aunt's who refusal to forgive the Canadian government force Naomi to remember. Naomi's initial memories are of a big house with a backyard and a father who loved music, of handcrafted boats and communal baths with her great-aunt. Then the memories shift and she remembers families divided, chicken coops assigned as "houses," parents dying away from their children, and a government that took away rights based on ethnic heritage, not actions. Obasan uses a combination of personal narrative, lyrical outpourings, official letters, and dreams to protest the treatment of Japanese-Canadians during World War II. Differing in style and emotional intensity, the voices clash and mesh, building upon each other until they reach the ending, which both stuns and forces us to reconsider all that has gone before. -- For great Reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great books for Readers 2-14.
Product Review
"This quiet novel burns in your hand." --Washington Post.
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