Book Review: Gone, Gone, Gone

Gone, Gone, Gone
Author: Hannah Moskowitz
Published: 2012, Simon Pulse
Genre: Young Adult, 251 pages
Rating: 4.5/5

Sometimes I buy a book on recommendation from my friend, Kimberly, who\ always seems to know which books are on the market. Since I thoroughly enjoy reading both young adult novels and yaoi mangas she pointed out the novel Gone, Gone, Gone at our last trip to the bookstore. Impulse buy? Yes, indeed.

Craig is broken without his broken ex-boyfriend. He find comfort in his pets and avoids most people with the exception of Lio. Lio feels alive when he is with Craig. He survived cancer while his twin brother did not. As sniper shootings begin in the DC area where they live the two teenagers struggle to make sense of life and love shooting victims die. What is the pain and joy of living?

What I enjoyed most about Moskowitz writing was her style of narration. She allows her readers into the minds of her adolescent male characters as they process the world around them. The individual characterization of each boy influenced the sentences she wrote and readers will find themselves submerged in Lio's and Craig's minds. The darkness and light the reader shares with each boy is indeed a privilege.

(#10 of the 100 Book Challenge)

Book Review: When the Emperor was Divine

When the Emperor was Divine
Author: Julie Otsuka
Published: 2002 (2003 by First Anchor Book Editions)
Genre: Historical Fiction, 144 pages
Rating: 5/5

Sometimes a person likes to forget their own history. Sometimes a whole country likes to forget what their nation did in the past.

Concentration camps. This noun is often associated with the horrendous holocaust of Europe during World War II. But has the USA and the world forgotten about the concentration camps for Japanese Americans? Told in five points of view Julie Otsuka brings to life the painful mistreatment of Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in her novel When the Emperor was Divine. If you had Japanese blood you were a terrorist, a spy, an enemy.

This novel is so emotionally revealing I felt ashamed. Ashamed for what the USA had done and the fact I had forgotten. World War II is an old wound between the country I am from and the other country I am fascinated with. I prefer not to reopen it too deeply but Julie Otsuka's novel has bled the wound with just the right words. Not enough to cause a gush of blame but simply enough to remind the reader of our country's own mistakes in history.

(#9 of the 100 Book Challenge)

Book Review: Confessions of a Mask

Confessions of a Mask

Author: Yukio Mishima

Published: 1958, New Directions

Genre: Literature, Coming of Age (Japanese)

Rating: 4/5

Last summer my MFA mentor, Mitch Wieland, suggested I read the works of Yukio Mishima as I wanted to read Japanese literature. I purchased a couple of novels which were put into the pile of to read books. As I have confessed, I buy books faster than I can read them so Mishima's novels got buried. After reading Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood I knew it was time to give Mishima a chance.

Confessions of a Mask is the story of a young man who learns that he is unlike most of his adolescent  companions. Preoccupied with death and the brilliance of the male body Mishima's unnamed protagonist learns to live behind a mask. The complex social system of Japan bleeds from the pages as the MC struggles to become one with society both in his public and private life. 

The most gripping aspect of Mishima's writing was the interior monologue of the MC. I often felt myself becoming lost with the character's thoughts and emotions as he grows from child to young adult. Detached and unable to understand parts his world readers will find themselves feeling just as lost through the MC's thought process. The effect is successful as I began to question the sense of my own reality as I finished the last page.

(#8 of the 100 Book Challenge)

Are you a Book Whore?

When I was a child I was called a bookworm by my classmates. In first grade I was one of the "smart kids" in the advanced reading group. Every year through elementary school I looked forward to the Scholastic Book Fair which occurred conveniently in the fall after my birthday. There was also a program my school was part of where a couple times of year publishers donated books so each child could select one book for free. I have a distinct memory of several times when the librarian made sure she selected at least one novel that was horse related for me. In this way I acquired several books from the popular "Saddle Club" series.

At recess in middle school I spent my time reading. Through a combination of shyness social akwardness I found myself reading novels at lunch. During sixth grade I was nominated as "most avid reader" in the spring and that year I had spent our class Christmas party reading "Anne of Green Gables". The angst ridden air of teenagers did nothing to encourage my social awkwardness and I spent seventh and eighth grade going to the library and educating myself on Tudor England. Fantasy books became my refuge.

In high school I made some friends but I still preferred books to humans. During these years I discovered my love for historical fiction and began to read the works of Margaret George and Jean Plaidy. My interests in Japan also began to increasingly grow and I liked to read articles, essays, and informational books about this country.

College came and I found myself enjoying "Gilgamesh" and "Beowulf". I also started to read Japanese mangas like they were my drug. Trips to the bookstores with two of my friends became a weekly occurrence. I fell in love with yaoi genre in manga and became known as the "yaoi whore" to one of my friends. I bought books because I could and I wanted them. I blew school loan refund money on novels instead of sending it back to the loan lender. My books were consuming the floor of my room because I had run out of book shelf space.

Just a year ago my mother walked into my bedroom and proclaimed: 'You are such a book whore. How many books do you need?'

As many as I want and choose to keep. I buy books and manga faster than I can read them. I am a self confessed book whore. Who wants to go to bookstore with me?

Book Review: Castle in the Air

Castle in the Air
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Published: 1990, (2001 Harper Trophy)
Genre: Middle-Grade Fantasy
Rating: 5/5

I picked up this enchanting and whimsical novel one Saturday night at Barnes & Noble around three weeks ago. Castle in the Air is the sequel to Jones's Howl's Moving Castle but is novel that can stand alone from its predecessor. Indeed, this novel is equally charming as Howl's Moving Castle.

Abdullah is a young carpet dealer who loves to daydream. One day, he discovers his daydreams become reality after he purchases a magic carpet. He falls in love with princess and they plan to marry right before she snatched away by a wicked creature called a djinn. Abdullah embarks on a journey to rescue his princess and discovers his fate and desires is are intertwined with the desires, prophecies, and magic of others. Is fate and something preordained for him or does he have the power to control the outcome of such foretelling?

I enjoyed this novel and was reminded why I was attracted to the fantasy genre as a child. If anything this novel produced nostalgia in my heart as I fondly recalled other novels I read in my childhood. While Jones may no longer be alive her stories will continue to give joy to new and old readers of her work.

(Book #7 of the 100 Book Challenge)

Book Review: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Author: Lisa See

Published: 2005, Random House

Genre: Historical Fiction

Rating: 4/5

I pride myself on reading the book before seeing the movie. There have been a few exceptions in my life where I saw the movie first, either intentionally or accidentally. This was one of the accident moments where I rented a movie from the Red Box to watch. I became fascinated with the Chinese bonding ceremony of laotong (old same) and decided to research the topic. This is when I discovered the movie was based on a book. 

At the age of seven, Lily, is matched up with Snow Flower in ceremonial binding match of laotong in 19th century China. Based on their astrological signs they are kindred spirits and  must value each other before all other bonds. They suffer the agony of footbinding in an attempt to make their feet "perfect" to improve marriage prospects. They learn from a young age the female sex will suffer. They are the unwelcome sex when they are born. A father is to view his daughters as a burden by tradition even if he cherishes them. As adults they are valued in their ability to bear sons. Using the secret women writing, nu shu, Snow Flower and Lily share their joys and suffering as their fortunes in life reverse. They will suffer even in their love for each other. 

Lisa See has created a tangible and visible story using her strong sense of description in the senses. Readers will cringe in horror at the process of footbinding that would forever cripple Lily and Snow Flower from being able to walk properly. The sorrow the characters feel will seep from the pages into the cracks of their hearts where we all hide our own sufferings. Readers will recall that in life we all suffer but we persevere because we are loved. Or perhaps, we suffer even because we are loved. 

(#6 of the 100 Book Challenge)

Book Review: Norwegian Wood

Norwegian Wood
Author: Haruki Murakami
Translated by: Jay Rubin
Published: 1987 (Japan), 2000 (USA) Vintage Press
Genre: Coming of Age, Young Adult
Rating: 5/5

When Haruki Murakami's latest collection of short stories "1Q84" came out this past fall I  did not even give it a second glance after skimming reviews. As a matter of fact, I didn't even bother to look up any other works by this Japanese author. Little did I know he was bestselling author worldwide. My Japanese pen pal and I share a common love: books. When I asked her what her favorite novel was the reply was "Norwegian Wood" by Haruki Murakami. My interest became piqued because I knew the author's name and went and looked it up. Finding the premises of the novel very interesting I purchased it on my kindle.

"Norwegian Wood" takes place in late 1960's Tokyo, Japan after a tragedy breaks up a trio of friends. Unable to form bonds outside their small group Toru Watanabe and his dead friend's girlfriend, Naoko, cling to each other. Unable to cope Naoko finds herself becoming mentally unhinged and seeks help in a small country sanitarium. Toru promises to wait for her but in the outside world he starts to form new bonds. He struggles to find himself in a world that before had been so heavily rooted in the companionship of one individual. Toru discovers the metamorphosis of life as he learns one can never be the same they were.

Murakami's writing is filled with such concrete, vivid, descriptions that every reader will be able to imagine the crowded subway stations, the college campus, the swanky love hotels, and the variety of bars Toru visits. His psychologically complex characters are brought to  life with simple and poetic language. Murkami's simplistic and yet forceful plot makes the characters consider how delicate the balance between humans is. Readers will be left contemplating how delicate and yet powerfully connected their life is to the other people they allow in.

I have a paperback copy of this novel now. A movie adaption was released in Japan in 2010. In May 2012 it will be released with subtitles in the USA on DVD. I am looking forward to seeing the movie as much as I am about reading the novel again someday.

(#5 of the 100 Book Challenge)