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| Julie Otsuka |
The
2011 National Book Award is announced this week and two Random House titles--
The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht and
The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka--are nominated for the prestigious fiction prize. I (Liz) had read
The Tiger's Wife back in March, and it is generally considered the odds favorite. I'd overlooked reading Julie Otsuka's work, though, and this weekend decided that I should catch up with one of the books last year's winner, Jaimy Gordon, predicted might be an upset winner. Being the crazy book fiend I am though (see: Operation Chuck), I read both
The Buddha in the Attic and Otsuka's earlier book,
When the Emperor Was Divine.
How to read two books in just over 24 hours? It helps when both books are under 150 pages in length. I'm not a speed reader--really, I'm not. I just don't sleep. I started with
When the Emperor Was Divine, Otsuka's earlier book.
Emperor has become a classroom favorite along the lines of
Lord of the Flies and
To Kill a Mockingbird, and it's not difficult to see why. This is the story of a family of Japanese Americans who are evacuated to internment camps in World War II. These characters--a mother, son, daughter, and absent husband who was taken to an enemy combatant camp--are relatively anonymous, archetypal. The experiences they face are characteristic of those endured during one of the greatest civil rights atrocities in US history, and the absence of character names makes these stories feel universal and profound in their ordinariness. I was also struck by Julie Otsuka's ability to write beautiful sentences with relatively simple vocabulary. I'm not a language lover like the wannabe poets out there; my book love usually is character-related. Still, I noted the vocabulary of this book and the beauty of her sentences. This is a book that a high school student can read and appreciate, a book that challenges and educates and moves.
After finishing
When the Emperor Was Divine, I picked up Otsuka's NBA-nominated, new novel,
The Buddha in the Attic. In one sense,
Buddha is a prequel to
Emperor, in that the time frame involved begins in 1919 and moves up to the Japanese internment in World War II. However, while
Emperor used a family to relate a more universal experience for Japanese Americans,
Buddha uses a different tact. This is a novel without specifics--it's the story of a whole group of Japanese women who come to the United States as mail order brides. They are city girls, country girls, educated girls, innocent children, old maids, younger sisters too plain to become geishas. They come to the US to meet husbands who were allegedly bankers, lawyers, business owners...but who are farm hands, day laborers. These are women learning to survive in a foreign land. In 120+ pages, Julie Otsuka manages to capture 25 years of struggle and strength for an entire subset of the population, and again she's captured beauty. This little book is great. If it manages to win the National Book Award, I won't be protesting, but even if it doesn't,
The Buddha in the Attic is worth reading.
49. To the End of the Land by David Grossman, originally published in 2010. To the End of the Land is another example of Knopf seeking out and publishing novels from overseas, this time Israel. Addressing the threat of violence in that country that's combined with compulsory military service Grossman's story is one of grief, fear, and love. Ora is thrown into a tailspin when her son decides to reenlist in the army just as anti-Israeli tensions are flaring up again. Convinced that the worst is going to occur, she sets off on a pilgrimage, walking across the country. Joining her on the journey is an old friend and former lover, Avram, the man who as a soldier was captured and held as a POW years earlier during the Yom Kippur War. Avram is damaged by the experience. Walking together, they try to work through the fears in their heads and the horrors of the past. This is a great read, so if you own a copy and know Gianna, you might want to hid your book. Her recent posts suggest that thievery is her favorite pastime.
50. When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka, originally published in 2002. Julie Otsuka is one of those holy shit writers that doesn't waste a word but still manages to knock you out with a 160 page novel. Emperor was her first book and can/should be read in one sitting, then followed by another book, The Buddha in the Attic (equally short, equally incredible). When the Emperor was Divine describes the story of a Japanese-American woman living in Berkeley when she sees fliers giving instructions for people of Japanese descent to report to internment camps. Her husband is suspected of spying for Japan and she and her children are relocated to the rarely discussed US concentration camps set up during World War II. Otsuka's writing about the camps is impeccable.
52. The Sibley Guide to Birds of North America by David Allen Sibley, originally published in 2000. It's not often that a revolutionary field guide comes along. Sibley is the Audubon of our lives, though, and his birding field guide has become the gold standard for birdwatchers. At the time of its publication I'd just started dating an avid birdwatcher, and I quickly became familiar with the beautifully painted birds in its pages. I also became too familiar with its heft as I served as field guide pack mule on our many jaunts to birding locations. Romance at the waste water treatment facility--l'amore!
