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A review by jaymoran
The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka
3.0
On the boat we could not have known that when we first saw our husbands we would have no idea who they were. That the crowd of men in knit caps and shabby black coats waiting for us down below on the dock would bear no resemblance to the handsome young men in the photographs. That the photographers we had been sent were twenty years old. That the letters we had been written by people other than our husbands, professional people with beautiful handwriting whose job it was to tell lies and win hearts. That when we first heard our names being called out across the water one of us would cover her eyes and turn away - I want to go home - but the rest of us would lower our heads and smooth down the skirts of our kimonos and walk down the gangplank and step out into the still warm day. This is America, we would say to ourselves, there is no need to worry. And we would be wrong.
3.5
Written in the collective we, The Buddha in the Attic is about Japanese women who immigrate to America to live with their new husbands - when we first meet them, they are fizzing with nerves, hopes, and expectations of the lives that await them - and the reality that they find themselves in the moment they step foot on the gangplank.
This is a powerful, effective book that often overwhelms the reader with the large, lived experiences of women who came to start a new life in the West. Inspired by archives as well as written and verbal accounts, Otsuka takes on the enormous task of telling these stories and handing them over to the reader in one piece. I think the book could only have been written in one way, which is the way that Otsuka opted for, using the collective we, as choosing one or even a handful of characters to focus on would not have been able to capture the breadth of these experiences.
I would say that, for me personally, The Buddha in the Attic wasn't a book that I enjoyed reading. Enjoy is the wrong word to use when referring to a book like this but I did not like the time I spent reading this book - I intensely appreciated it and I think it's a vitally important piece of literature but I don't think I want to read it again. I think Otsuka was successful in everything she set out to do with this book and I praise her immensely for that but I can't see myself picking this up for a reread - it is one I would recommend though.
3.5
Written in the collective we, The Buddha in the Attic is about Japanese women who immigrate to America to live with their new husbands - when we first meet them, they are fizzing with nerves, hopes, and expectations of the lives that await them - and the reality that they find themselves in the moment they step foot on the gangplank.
This is a powerful, effective book that often overwhelms the reader with the large, lived experiences of women who came to start a new life in the West. Inspired by archives as well as written and verbal accounts, Otsuka takes on the enormous task of telling these stories and handing them over to the reader in one piece. I think the book could only have been written in one way, which is the way that Otsuka opted for, using the collective we, as choosing one or even a handful of characters to focus on would not have been able to capture the breadth of these experiences.
I would say that, for me personally, The Buddha in the Attic wasn't a book that I enjoyed reading. Enjoy is the wrong word to use when referring to a book like this but I did not like the time I spent reading this book - I intensely appreciated it and I think it's a vitally important piece of literature but I don't think I want to read it again. I think Otsuka was successful in everything she set out to do with this book and I praise her immensely for that but I can't see myself picking this up for a reread - it is one I would recommend though.