When the Emperor Was Divine- Julie Otsuka
When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
My god, this a powerful book. Heartbreaking and unflinching, it chronicles the story of one family sent to the Japanese Internment Camps during WWII. It took me a little while to get into the story, and for a while I felt disconnected from the characters. (I think that the fact that none of them are given names compounded that.) However, once this novel manged to grip me it never let me go.
The most painful parts of the book come after the family returns from the camp. Because nothing's over. They're still surrounded by bigotry and suspicion, they've still lost everything they've ever known. Watching them piece their lives back together is testament to both the fragility and strength of the human spirit in the face of despair.
Otsuka is unyielding in examining the complicity of so called friends and neighbors. Classmates who promised to write but never did, neighbors who now have furniture that looks suspiciously familiar, employers who weren't hire the mother because they don't want to make customers or other employees "uncomfortable." Otsuka rips apart the idea that one bad thing can happen but then it just gets better, or that only people at the top bear responsibility for injustice.
The last chapter takes on a different tone than the rest of the book, and it is absolutely brutal. (I mean emotionally. There isn't any graphic violence. Not the traditional kind.)
This is not a book to be taken on lightly, but it's so worth it.
My god, this a powerful book. Heartbreaking and unflinching, it chronicles the story of one family sent to the Japanese Internment Camps during WWII. It took me a little while to get into the story, and for a while I felt disconnected from the characters. (I think that the fact that none of them are given names compounded that.) However, once this novel manged to grip me it never let me go.
The most painful parts of the book come after the family returns from the camp. Because nothing's over. They're still surrounded by bigotry and suspicion, they've still lost everything they've ever known. Watching them piece their lives back together is testament to both the fragility and strength of the human spirit in the face of despair.
Otsuka is unyielding in examining the complicity of so called friends and neighbors. Classmates who promised to write but never did, neighbors who now have furniture that looks suspiciously familiar, employers who weren't hire the mother because they don't want to make customers or other employees "uncomfortable." Otsuka rips apart the idea that one bad thing can happen but then it just gets better, or that only people at the top bear responsibility for injustice.
The last chapter takes on a different tone than the rest of the book, and it is absolutely brutal. (I mean emotionally. There isn't any graphic violence. Not the traditional kind.)
This is not a book to be taken on lightly, but it's so worth it.