- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Canada (APB) (Aug 19 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0143014994
- ISBN-13: 978-0143014997
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 272 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#195,821 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #63 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Canadian > Asian Canadian
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Product Details |
Product Description
Amazon.ca
Joy Kogawa's Obasan is a novel of memory, exploring the Canadian government's deplorable treatment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War, which included the suspension of all rights, forced internment and labour, and the fracturing of families. Worst of all, though, in the eyes of narrator Naomi Nakane as she recalls the events of her childhood, was the repeated exile. In a powerful blend of historical fact and rich symbolism, Naomi finds herself pushed aside from Canadian society and forced to live in ghost towns and abandoned mining camps, places already forsaken by Canadians of European descent who were patriotically and dutifully at war with Germany and Japan. As an adult looking back, she finds her ties to these places seemingly unbreakable.
Obasan opens in 1972 with Naomi, a second-generation schoolteacher, still dealing with the emotional and psychological aftermath of her childhood experience. She recalls the historical events so coldly chronicled in official documents. Letters and journals kept by her aunt, Emily Kato, help colour these recollections, as does her reunion with surviving family members upon her uncle's death. Her uncle's widow, Obasan, the once strong and graceful woman who raised Naomi, is now blind and crippled by age and time. The contrast between her current condition and the memory of her enduring strength becomes the painful but intimately compelling centre of the novel. Obasan is autobiographical; Naomi's experiences mirror Kogawa's own. This fact contributes to the power of Kogawa's prose, but her remarkably poetic writing and eye for image and symbolism are what elevate this deeply moving novel to the status of Canadian classic. --Jonathan Dewar --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.
The Globe and Mail
"Obasan's power comes from the beauty of the writing, the stark imagery and vivid symbolism, and from the calm recitation of events that destroyed families, a culture, and a way of life."
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
I remember enjoying this book,
By
This review is from: Obasan (Mass Market Paperback)
I remember reading this book in the mid-90s while in university. It's powerful at times, tender at others. Worth reading.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Well written, yet somewhat disappointing...,
By Adina Warren (Anderson, Indiana) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Obasan (Paperback)
Obasan, written by Joy Kogawa, is a deeply detailed book that sends the reader on a journey through actual events, dream sequences, and a twisted maze of a Japanese family's struggle in Canada during the 1940's-1970's. Although the book is obviously written with deeply emotional images and events, I found myself completely let down with the ending. With more than 250 pages of build up to what I expected to be a somewhat shocking ending, I was disappointed to discover that I wasn't emotional attached enough to the characters to appreciate their struggles. Although I enjoyed the book to an extent, I can not deny that it took me awhile to get into it, and then slipped in a heart wrenching account of events at the end that just didn't evoke emotions in me. Expect a well written novel with detailed images and poetic flow, yet also expect a slow beginning and an ending that seems to leave the reader hanging.
3.0 out of 5 stars
obasan,
By
This review is from: Obasan (Mass Market Paperback)
This book arrived on time, and in good condition.
I personally found it a slow read and would have tossed it aside if I didn't need it for my English class.
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