A story of a Japanese family in 1942 who are taken to an internment camp in the Utah desert. The tale is told from five different perspectives -- each of the family members participates in evoking the shame, fear, loneliness, isolation, and quiet heroism of this time.

i'm a mess
returning from a 3 week vacationa nd m dad drank me unde rhte table- thanks for senidngng this nsdf i thogught i 'd make a quick journal entry befor ei read and move dup north againb
fun

CAUGHT IN PETERBOPROUGH ONTSRIO CANADA

refound this inbetween old place and new one up north
Thanks for sending it (and the CD too!)
They will make excellent treats to have in the new place (on HudsonsBay) til June...will release this one up there...maybe at the store(the population is 535 and most homes have running water and electricity but not sure how many have internet...but I hear ours does)
:)

This was sent to me as a RABCK which was really a very nice gesture. Thanks funsour I will read and pass on in the UK or beyond!!

RELEASE NOTES:

Releasing into Redhouses bookbox for a new year.

Taken out of Redhouse's BookBox BCID 841-3533911. Looks like an interesting read.

I am currently reading this and am starting a ring/ray as soon as I am done.

The list so far:-

wubbaducky UK/Europe
Rossella05 UK/pref UK (int ok)
aylaeh US/pref US
Cinnamon-girl US/pref US (int ok)

This is a good little book which gives a perspective of how life was for Japanese people in the US during the second world war. The writing style is unusual and works well. The story makes you realise the difficulties which must have been faced by many families and the prejudices they faced even after the war ended. I am glad I have had the opportunity to read this and will shortly be sending it out as a ring / ray. Haven't decided which yet.

I will be posing tomorrow to wubbaducky all being well. Happy travels little book!

Arrived safe and sound in the mail today - I just have to read a couple of other rings first but they shouldn't take me long at all! Thanks for this - I've just read Geisha and Underground, so it seems as if I'm revolving around the Japanese theme at the moment :) I'm looking forward to reading this!

A very short book - it's easy to sit down with it and a few moments later, realise you've finished it. I think one of the blurb comments was 'terse' and I have to agree. There's an uneasiness about it that haunts you and you feel deeply for the characters involved. Sometimes it's easy to forget people on the fringes like this and it's a very uneasy feeling to read about the sort of things that happened to people of the wrong race. The book's shifting points of view were very effective and the last chapter made me wonder at the number of victims of war.

I will post on as soon as I get rosella05's address. Thank you so much for sharing this book!

Posting out today - thanks for sharing again!

Arrived this morning, I have another bookring to finish before I can start this one but it shouldn't take me long. Thanks.

Just arrived in the mail today. I will start to read int eh next few days. (Thanks for the postcard Rosella!)

Wow. This book was very interesting. I think that it is facinating the way that the character's names are never used. I can't even begin to imagine how hard that internment life was back then. I can't say that I enjoyed reading this book but I thought it a quite good book.

Received in today's mail - I have a couple books in front of this one but should be finished with it within a couple weeks. Thanks!

Once I got used to the writing style, I found this to be a quick, compelling read, offering insight into a period of time that is not often discussed. You can read more of my comments here (caution: minor spoilers).

Thanks very much for including me in this ray, jaycee1972, as I imagine I would not have heard of this book or read it otherwise. Since I'm last on the list, I've offered this book up as a RABCK to someone and am waiting to hear back. If they don't respond or aren't interested, I'll likely put it on the relay site for someone else to discover.

Mailing today to 'yourotherleft' as surprise RABCK.

This came in the mail today. Thanks Cinnamon-Girl! I was reading about this in your blog after you e-mailed me about the RABCK and thinking how much I'd like to read it. Love your blog, by the way...added even more books to my wish list after reading it (because my wish list really needs to be longer....LOL). Thanks again for making my wish come true! =)

This was a really well-written account of a time of nearly unimaginable persecution of Japanese Americans. Throughout reading this book (which I did all in one day), I had to keep reminding myself that it took place in the U.S. What a dark time in our history! The very spare writing style really suits the story. It's amazing how quickly people turned against a formerly accepted race and how Otsuka manages to depict it seemingly objectively, leaving us to make our own judgement. The family comes off as perfectly "American," but they are still suspect...which adds to the gravity of the story. I especially appreciated reading the boy's recollections of life in the camp and his imaginings of what his father, who was taken away before the rest of the family, is doing and what it will be like when he returns. The tie in when the father actually does return is perfect. The descriptions of the effect camp life has on the mother are understated but perfectly executed. The images really stick in your head. This is definitely a profound and important book to read about a little talked about dark spot in American history. Thanks again for sending this to me, Cinnamon-Girl. I will pass it on to another reader soon. =)

RELEASE NOTES:

This book is continuing on its journey. It's off to karinalyssa who acquired it by way of the historical fiction swap on bookrelay.com Happy reading!

It was in my mailbox when I woke up ! Thanks YourOtherLeft for sharing it through the Historical Fiction Swap, it looked so interesting, I can't wait to read it and pass it to someone else, this is a small well travelled book !

What an amazing small book ! I was transported into that era that as a Canadian, I heard of, but couldn't imagine what it was truly and I was horrified, but happy at the same time to see how those Japanese-Americans coped with this horror. Julie Otuska has a pen full of finesse that make me ask for more.

thank you for sharing YOL !