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Taka Jak Ty (2014)

by Maureen Lindley(Favorite Author)

3.62 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

8378396800 (ISBN13: 9788378396802)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Prószyński i S-ka

review 1: A Girl Like You follows Satomi Baker daughter of a Japanese mother and American father living America. A ' half - half' Satomi has always felt different to her peers although American at heart. Her relationship with her father is difficult but tempered by her gentle mother Tamura. As war with Japan threatens life starts to become difficult for Satomi and her family. They hope that their allegiance to America will be recognized when her father Aaron enlists in the Navy. Ironically when he is killed during the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour his sacrifice for his country goes unrecognized and Tamura and Satomi are left alone to deal with the rising prejudices both in their hometown and across the country. Their lives will never be the same.Maureen Lindley has crafted a sto... morery which is both at times devastating, yet heartwarming and hopeful. She addresses what it can mean to be culturally different in a patriotic country, to be feared although you are in fact powerless, what it means to be a victim of war. There are many different victims of war and this story speaks to the senseless betrayal of that group of approximately 110,000 of Americas own Japanese citizens who were incarcerated in ten camps such as Manzanar IN AMERICA during WWII.I feel neglectful that I knew nothing of this part of history and am grateful for this book for being a catalyst in my learning something new. Ms Lindley really captured both the despair and the comradeship of the camp and I have to admit to shedding a tear at her descriptions of 'Sewer Alley' and shaking my head in contempt that even orphan children were sent to the camps as if they were somehow a threat to national security.Despite the grim scenes of time spent in the camp this book continues to follow Satomi as she integrates back into post war American society and as such is also about hope, justice, reunion and reconciliation. All in all I really enjoyed this book and happily recommend it.
review 2: The concept was intriguing: the daughter of a Japanese mother and an American father, coming of age during World War II.Tamura and Aaron were happy in their marriage; they were content with the life they had built, on a smallholding, on the outskirts of a small town near the coast of California; and they were so very proud of their thirteen year-old daughter Satomi.Satomi wasn't so sure that she belonged - she felt that she was neither Japanese or American - but she was bright, she was popular, and she had caught the eye of the most eligible boy in the school. She was happy.But war was looming. Aaron felt that he had to do his duty, he wanted to demonstrate that he and his family were loyal American subjects, and because he never wanted to be too far away from the sea he joined the navy. He was sent to Pearl Harbour, and he died there when the Japanese attacked. When the news broke neighbours who had known the family for years turned on Tamura and Satomi. And their government turned on them too, forcing them to leave their home, everything they owned, everything they had worked for and live in terrible conditions in an internment camp set high in the mountains of Colorado.Maureen Lindley tells Tamura and Satomi's story simply and clearly, and in a style that is beautifully understated. The real history speaks for itself, and beautifully drawn characters and well chose details bring the story to life.Satomi wants to rebel, to speak out, but she knows that she must protect her mother, who is lost in grief for her beloved husband and bewildered by the actions of her birth.Maureeen Lindley's account of life in the internment camp is both thoughtful and moving. Conditions are difficult, but a supportive community grows. Satomi comes to appreciate that community, her Japanese heritage, and most of all her mother, whose instinct is always to, quietly and thoughtfully, support others, to be a mother, a sister, a friend to whoever might need her.When the war ends, when the internment camp closes, Satomi must face the future alone. She still faces prejudice and hostility, but she has learnt from her mother, she gains support from the relationships forged in the camp, and she prevails.This part of the story is less successful than what came before. To some degree this was inevitable, because after the war could never be as dramatic as during the war, but there were elements of the story that seemed far fetched, and more suited to a straightforward romantic novel. I couldn't help feeling that there was a more interesting story that might have been told. But Satomi's character, her emotions, her reactions, rang true. Her journey was right, it was just the details that were wrong.Her story spoke of love, loss, and survival. it spoke of changing, learning, adapting, and growing. It shows easily humanity is lost in the face of ignorance, jealousy, and most of all fear; and it shows that there are people, who will stand up to try to do the right thing, to try to do good in the face of all of that. It taught me an aspect of history I knew little about, though a moving, engaging, and very human story.For all of those reasons, I am very glad that I read A Girl Like You. less

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