Publication Date: August 23, 2011 Genre: Literary Fiction Publisher: Knopf Publisher’s Synopsis: In language that has the force and the fury of poetry, Julie Otsuka has written a singularly spellbinding novel about the American dream.
Alida Becker, in The New York Times: Gold Star AND Demerit: Otsuka’s novel is filled with evocative descriptive sketches (farm women with their children sleeping “like puppies, on wooden boards covered with hay”) and hesitantly revelatory confessions (domestic servants who “felt, for once, like ourselves” when “the whole house was empty. Quiet. Ours.”), so it’s disappointing suddenly to lose that connection — to find, at the close, that the narrative “we” has shifted to the Americans, who remark on the wartime “disappearance” of Japanese neighbors and employees. Disingenuous (“the Japanese have left us willingly, we are told, and without rancor”), even platitudinous (“after a while we notice ourselves speaking of them more and more in the past tense”), this complacent voice is presumably meant to provide a stark contrast with the vigilant, uneasy perceptions that have preceded it. But Otsuka has succeeded too well in drawing us into the precarious lives of her Japanese wives and mothers. We have no patience with these smug, anonymous overlords. We want to follow the women whose names have been chanted out as they’re torn from their new lives Grade: A-
Ron Charles, in The Washington Post Gold Star: “…the book’s plural voice is particularly effective at capturing their long, giddy conversations on the ship as they wonder if American men really grow hair on their chests, put pianos in their front parlors and dance “cheek to cheek all night long” with their lucky wives.” Demerit: But no story in the conventional sense ever develops, and no individuals emerge for more than a paragraph. Grade: B-
Elizabeth Day, in The Guardian Gold Star: “This is a small jewel of a book, its planes cut precisely to catch the light so that the sentences shimmer in your mind long after turning the final page.” Demerit: None. Grade: A
Edward Nawotka, in The Dallas Morning News Gold Star: “…a novel as perfectly manicured and beautiful as a bonsai tree” Demerit: None. Grade: A
Jane Ciabattari, in The San Francisco Chronicle Gold Star “The Buddha in the Attic” is an understated masterpiece about our treatment of the “other,” the distillation of a national tragedy that unfolds with great emotional power.” Demerit None. Grade: A
Review GPA: 3.68 (A-/A)
