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Title: Obasan by Joy Kogawa ISBN: 0-385-46886-5 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 01 January, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.71 (45 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Obasan, a must-read book
Comment: When I first purchased Obasan, I was unsure of how much I would enjoy the book. Fortunately, it turned out to be one of the best books I have ever read. In the novel, Joy Kogawa deals with the Canadian Japanese internment camps during World War II. She does a masterful job of using flashbacks to tell the story through the eyes of a young girl who is forced to move with her family to different camps and farms to survive during the war. Kogawa uses many autobiographical elements in the novel to help tell this magnificent story. Her descriptive language is beautiful and allows the story to flow along at an easy pace. She also utilizes many similes and metaphors to help the reader see what she sees a little better. Although there are not many symbols in the novel, the ones that Kogawa uses are utterly important to the story. Kogawa mainly focuses on themes of prejudice and silence, in which all the characters embody one or the other. The change in setting, both place and time, can be confusing at first, but once the reader catches on, they will become engrossed in the deep plotline. And although the story is written about Japanese Canadians and their struggle to make it during World War II, Obasan is definitely aimed at the general American audience, so that hopefully they will be able to see the light that Joy Kogawa shines on the entire situation. After reading the novel, I can definitely say that I recommend it to any and everyone out there that is interested in the history of the Japanese internment camps and World War II. And even if you aren't it is still a very well put together book that will pull you into its plot and not let you go. This novel is a definite must read for everyone.
Rating: 5
Summary: Kogawa's Obasan
Comment: Obasan is a fictional account of what actions the Canadian government took to control Japanese-Canadians during WWII. Kogawa tells an undeniably historical story about the internment of Japanese-Canadians and its effect on families. She chronicles the journey of a young Japanese-Canadian as she confronts and accepts her past. Kogawa uses a unique point of view, extended metaphors, and official as well as personal documents and letters to tell her story.
Obasan is told through the eyes of Naomi Nakane, a Canadian-born Japanese woman. The story is often hard to understand because it is told from 36-year old Naomi through flashbacks. Throughout her life Naomi has tried hard to forget about her painful past, but her strong-willed Aunt Emily helps her remember. Thus Kogawa starts her use of flashbacks, skipping around the years of Naomi's life often making it hard to piece her life together. Kogawa tells much of Naomi's story from the eyes of a young child, which helps the reader see the internment of Japanese-Canadians more truthfully.
Kogawa also uses extended metaphors throughout her novel. One example is her continual comparison of Japanese-Canadians to birds. The birds in the book are always weak, helpless, and at the mercy of others. By her use of this metaphor, Kogawa is saying that the Japanese-Canadians are controlled by and at the hands of white Canadians. Another more horrific metaphor she uses to portray the same belief is in comparing the treatment of the Japanese in Canada to young Naomi being raped as a child. The rape and molestation of Naomi when she was four-years old permeates the entire book. It illuminates Kogawa's belief that the Japanese-Canadians were being horribly taken advantage of by their own government during and after WWII.
Finally, Kogawa uses official and personal documents to give validity to Obasan. She first uses newspaper clippings and government documents given to Naomi from Aunt Emily. These clippings helped Naomi to leave behind her indifferent attitude to embrace an interested and involved attitude toward the wartime treatment of Japanese-Canadians. However, the most influential factor that changed Naomi's attitude was a letter from her grandmother, who went with Naomi's mother before the war to Japan. Naomi has always been obsessed about finding out what has happened to her mother because she has not had any corrospondance with her for years. However, the letter reveals everything, and it is disclosed that her mother was a victim of the atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima, Japan.
Obasan is a beautifully written book that tells the story of a woman coming to terms with a painful and degrading past. It also informs readers of an event that few know happened, but nearly parallels the Holocaust of the Jews in Europe. This book is great for anyone interested in history, the Japanese culture, and the trends that human nature follows in treating other people.
Rating: 1
Summary: Lulled me to sleep
Comment: We read this book in a senior lit class and I have to say that it lulled me to sleep. The entire book centers around a young woman trying to find out her past. A lovely story, the only problem is that within 300 pages.. nothing to really inticing to the reader happens. Almost every page tells you to fall asleep and give up as the book has no real point until the end. I don't know why someone said it is heart-felt. Maybe I wouldread this book again if I was trying to fall asleep at 2 in the morning and an antihistimine hadn't put me to sleep well enough.
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Title: No-No Boy by John Okada ISBN: 0295955252 Publisher: University of Washington Press Pub. Date: 01 February, 1978 List Price(USD): $12.89 |
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Title:Joy Kogawa's "Obasan": A Study Guide from Gale's "Novels for Students" ASIN: B00006G3IK Publisher: The Gale Group Pub. Date: 23 July, 2002 List Price(USD): $3.95 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $3.95 |
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Title: Dogeaters (Contemporary American Fiction) by Jessica Hagedorn ISBN: 014014904X Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 1991 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Bone by Fae Myenne Ng ISBN: 006097592X Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 January, 1994 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Itsuka by Joy Kogawa ISBN: 0385468857 Publisher: Anchor Books/Doubleday Pub. Date: 01 January, 1994 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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