Rating: 
Summary: Lulled me to sleep
Review: We read this book in a senior lit class and I have to say that it lulled me to sleep. The entire book centers around a young woman trying to find out her past. A lovely story, the only problem is that within 300 pages.. nothing to really inticing to the reader happens. Almost every page tells you to fall asleep and give up as the book has no real point until the end. I don't know why someone said it is heart-felt. Maybe I wouldread this book again if I was trying to fall asleep at 2 in the morning and an antihistimine hadn't put me to sleep well enough.
Rating: 
Summary: The silence that DOES speak
Review: When I finished Obasan, I felt blown away. This is not just a great piece of Japanese Canadian literature, this is a great book, period. The Internment of Japanese American/Canadian citizens during World War II is a subject that is widely unknown, and a topic that few novelists have been able to capture with as much skill as Kogawa."Obasan" weaves a seamless tale that stretches between generations and spans continents and decades with an almost dreamlike quality. As other reviewers have commented (lamented?) about, there are many dream sequences, all of which have significance as the story is unveiled. The dreams, the "silence that cannot speak," the love that is voiceless and yet vivid, the grief that cries out loudly and yet unheard ... the power of Kogawa's writing lies in being able to interpret and experience this imagery, and feel the pain of the internment as if doing so first hand. I was surprised to see the number of negative reviews this book has received here ... I feel compelled to include my voice with those who thoroughly recommend this book. "Obasan" is the best novel on the internment I have yet to come across, and certainly among the most powerful books I have read. Although Kogawa writes of a silence that does not speak, she breaks the silence beautifully with "Obasan," revealing a history that many do not know, and many do not talk about. This is a story that must be remembered and retold ... so history does not repeat itself.
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