Kogawa, Joy

Average customer rating:

Too Bad Young Reviewers were assigned this book!
don't read this book
Obasan
deeply moving and elegantly written
Obasan: About 250 Pages Too Long

Obasan
Joy Kogawa
Manufacturer: Anchor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Native Speaker
Joy Kogawa's "Obasan": A Study Guide from Gale's "Novels for Students" (Volume 03, Chapter 10)
No-No Boy
Lay that Trumpet in Our Hands
Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories. Revised and Updated with four new stories.

ASIN: 0385468865
Release Date: 1993-12-27

Book Description

Based on the author's own experiences, this award-winning novel was the first to tell the story of the evacuation, relocation, and dispersal of Canadian citizens of Japanese ancestry during the Second World War.

Customer Reviews:

Too Bad Young Reviewers were assigned this book!.......2007-01-22

I think this is a great book. There are many reviews describing why I feel this way. My comment is about the youth reviewers that are so very negative and don't understand this book and hated trying to read it as a school assignment. WHY on earth would a teacher assign this book as required reading to any student in a lower grade than maybe the 12th? It is obvious by the reviews of the younger youth, they don't understand the way the book is written, they don't understand the impact of the subject of this book, they haven't grown up enough to see the "big picture". I think teachers should "stretch" students reading agendas but this is a stretch that for the majority of students will do nothing but turn them off from reading! This book is certainly appropriate as a college assignment.

don't read this book.......2006-10-09

This is without a doubt, the single worst book I have ever read. There is no plot or character development, far too much description of scenery and the way the story switches from the past to the present and back again makes the book impossible to understand. There are also parts of the book that are uneccessarily disgusting. This is a horrible book and it is an insult to its subject, the internment of Japanese-Canadians after the bombing of Pearl Harbour.

Obasan.......2006-09-30

After reading the reviews there's so much mixed feelings and opinions... I chose to read this book as a school project but maybe I made a wrong choice? I see it's for older, mature audiences. I'm in grade [.....]grade.

Yes... I'll write a review after I read it. I think I'm gonna believe the people who says it's good, I've read MUCH MUCH worse things, you kids should be happy you got this XP ha

No need to rate this comment, I'm just saying...

deeply moving and elegantly written.......2006-03-31

I picked "Obasan" from the shelf with new books in the library, motivated by the title and author's name, driven by my fascination with everything Japanese. And, as it came out, I this is exactly what is criticized in the book. Joy Kogawa is Canadian, of the family living in Canada for generations. She is a poet, which has a beautiful influence on her prose, which is very precise whenever she wants it to be, and, on the other hand, full of unique similes and metaphors. The language changes depending on the perspective - the narrator is Naomi Nakane, a 35 year old teacher, who, confronted with the past, goes back to her childhood memories, reads letters from family and officials, and at present takes care of her Uncle's funeral arrangements. The book is not very big, yet it is good to take time to read it, to take it in.

Whereas the language is a very strong asset of this novel, the story was extremely moving for me too. Maybe it is only European ignorance- I knew nothing about persecutions and internalization of Canadian citizens of Japanese origin during World War II. I was, shortly speaking, shocked, because I regarded Canada as one of the most liberal countries, caring for the inhabitants. It seems that no nation has an unstained past...

It is great that books like "Obasan" are written, because the general unawareness of this problem, especially when Holocaust and Gulags are widely recognized (and there were times when nobody believed in concentration camps in Poland or work camps in Siberia), is absolutely unacceptable.

The suffering of one Japanese family, deprived of their belongings, fighting for humane treatment and trying to keep some dignity while treated with disrespect and separated, seen mostly by innocent child's eyes, is a powerful evocation. The issues of racism, different perception of people because of their appearance and roots, children's cruelty, are also discussed.

A great and successful effort. I am going to read the second part,"Itsuka", as soon as I can lay my hands on it.

Obasan: About 250 Pages Too Long.......2005-09-22

While having a good plotline, this book took 300 pages to tell what could've been written in 50. Good historical book, lets people know about events in the past, but just not a good novel.

Average customer rating:

Itsuka
Joy Kogawa
Manufacturer: Anchor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Obasan
Mother to Mother (Bluestreak)
The God of Small Things

ASIN: 0385468857
Release Date: 1993-12-01

Average customer rating:

Naomi's Road

Naomi's Road
Joy Kogawa
Manufacturer: Fitzhenry and Whiteside
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Obasan

ASIN: 1550051156
Release Date: 2005-04-26

Book Description

First published to critical acclaim in 1986, Naomi_s Road is the story of a girl whose Japanese-Canadian family is uprooted during the Second World War. Separated from their parents, Naomi and her brother Stephen are sent to an internment camp in the interior of British Columbia. For the young girl growing up, war only means that she can no longer return to her home in Vancouver, or see her parents. Told from a child_s point of view and without a trace of anger or malice, Naomi_s Road has been praised as a powerful indictment of the injustice of war and the government_s treatment of Japanese-Canadian citizens, both during and well after World War II. This new edition is based on an expanded version of the story published in Japan. In it, Kogawa brings in more of the extended family and answers the question so often asked by fans of the original book: What happened to Naomi_s mother? With a historical note and a new ending, cover, and interior drawings by popular children_s illustrator Ruth Ohi, this book will be an absolute must for owners of the original as well as a whole new generation of young readers.

Customer Reviews:

Naomi's Road.......2005-04-29

Naomi's Road
Author:Joy Kogawa.
This book takes place in 1940's. Canada is at war with Japan. Naomi and her brother, Stephen go from Vancouver to an internment camp in the interior of British Columbia and then to a farm in Alberta. Join Naomi on her quest to seek hope and understanding of the world around her.
Review by:Frances

Stone Voices: Wartime Writings of Japanese Canadian Issei

Average customer rating:

Stone Voices: Wartime Writings of Japanese Canadian Issei
Keibo Oiwa
Manufacturer: Vehicule Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Japanese | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Canadian | Historical | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Japan | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Winner, 1992 Canada-Japan Book Award

Authors:

Authors

Authors