When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka

 

What is your favorite banned book?

A Japanese family that is living in Berkely California is evacuated to a Japanese internment camp in Utah.  Their father was arrested on December 7^th and shipped somewhere separately.  Each family member is impacted in a different way.  As they return after the war, it is hard to adjust back to life amongst neighbors who labeled them the enemy.

My thoughts on this novel:

·       This was a short, but powerful book.  It was very thought provoking.

·       Sparse prose describes the story of one family of Japanese heritage that was taken to an internment camp by the U.S. Government during WWII and how it impacted their lives.

·       The book is written in five chapters, each with a different perspective (mother, daughter, son, family, father).

·       The family remained unnamed through the novel and could have been anyone.

·       This book was banned in Muskego, Wisconsin, by the school board in 2022 for the advanced English class as it did not have a “balanced” viewpoint as it only showed the Japanese internment camp survivor’s perspective.  What a ridiculous reason to ban a book.  I thought this book would be a perfect book to read and discuss in a literature or history class.

·       This was a great read for Asian American Pacific Islander month.

Overall, When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka is a powerful book about one family’s experience in the Japanese Internment campus during WWII.  I’m still thinking about this book a week after finishing it.

Book Source:  Purchased from Amazon.com

 

Six Days in Bombay by Alka Joshi

 

Title: Six Days in Bombay

Author:  Alka Joshi

Narrated by:  Sneha Mathan

Publisher: Harlequin Audio

Length: Approximately 12 hours and 24 minutes

Source: Audiobook from NetGalley.  Thank-you!

What is your favorite coming of age story?

Sonia is a young nurse in Bombay.  She has grown up ostracized as the daughter of Englishman and an Indian mother.  Her father left the young family when she was three years old.  Her brother died shortly after, and her mother worked hard to raise her.  Now at twenty-three, she takes pride in her work as a nurse.  Over the course of six days, she spends time with a new patient, Mira Novak.  Mira helps her to see life in a new way and to help her to leave her sheltered world and take a new look at life.  Will Sonia find love, closure on what happened to her father, and what she wants to do with her life moving forward?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       This was a great coming of age novel and I liked seeing Sonia’s growth through the novel. 

·       I previously read and enjoyed The Henna Artist by this author, and I enjoyed reading this work by her as well.

·       This novel was set in the spring of 1937, mostly in Bombay, but there is also travel to Europe.  I thought it was a fascinating time period as Ghandi was mentioned and the relationship between Indians and the English is tense.  There is also signs of the lead up to WWII.

·       Sonia has unresolved issues with her father Owen Falstaff.  Owen swept her mother off her feet and lived with her as a husband until he suddenly announced one day that he was leaving for England and that he already had a family back there.  He sent money for Sonia’s birthday every year, but she never heard from him again after he left when she was three.  It made me wonder how many children were born like this and abandoned? Why did some men abandon their Indian wife and children while others brought them back to England?

·       Sonia is called blackie by English people and white by Indian people.  She doesn’t feel comfortable in either world and is constantly trying to prove herself.

·       Mira Novak was a fascinating character.  I was interested to learn at the end that she was based on real artist.  She challenged Sonia’s feeling on what life could be.  Mira is also half white and half Indian, but she has become a successful artist and does not live by modern conventions.  Sonia is half scandalized by her tales and half fascinated.

·       Women’s health was a big issue in this book.  It disturbed the characters that in 1937, a woman could die from a miscarriage.  It’s unfortunate that is can still happen today.  An Indian doctor realized things were going wrong, but his superior, a white doctor, did not take him seriously.

·       I enjoyed the narrator of this audiobook.  It was a great story.  It moved a little slow at first, but once the story was set, I couldn’t stop listening to it.

·       There was some romance in this story, but really it was Mira and Sonia’s story. There were also a few slight mysterious events that were resolved by the end of the story that kept me hooked.

·       This was a perfect book to read for Asian American Pacific Islander Month

Overall, Six Days in Bombay by Alka Joshi was a fascinating historical fiction novel with great characters and setting.