Asako Serizawa
Auteur de Inheritors
Œuvres de Asako Serizawa
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Nationalité
- Japan
Membres
Critiques
La Historia ha dejado una impronta indeleble en la familia que protagoniza esta saga: sus vidas accidentadas recorren más de cien años de la historia de Japón, desde la época colonial hasta la actualidad, pasando por la emigración a Estados Unidos y, sobre todo, la Segunda Guerra Mundial en el frente del Pacífico. Así, mientras un médico retirado debe afrontar las consecuencias morales de sus terribles actos en tiempos de guerra, una mujer revela en una entrevista un asesinato durante la dura Ocupación norteamericana, o un hombre en la edad adulta se entera de que no nació de sus padres japoneses, sino de un recluta coreano esclavizado para construir el búnker de guerra para el emperador nipón. Todos, en mayor o menor medida, se enfrentan a un legado de pérdidas, imperialismo y guerras.… (plus d'informations)
A series of linked stories about the Japanese experience of WWII and its aftermath, and really a knockout. The stories range from 1913 to 15 years from now, exploring the reverberations of the war on one family, and wow—really ambitious, and Serizawa does a great job with it. She humanizes the horrors of war effectively, and some of the stories are just wrenching, but very much worth reading. A few bits that were a little rough around the edges—one that interrogated a Borges story as a big plot component that bogged down a bit in its thought-exercise-ness, but still fascinating overall, and I'm glad she aimed high with this one. It's 100% different from anything else I read this year.… (plus d'informations)
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lisapeet | 3 autres critiques | Oct 24, 2020 |
lisapeet | 3 autres critiques | Oct 24, 2020 | Why do I keep choosing to read such hard books, books that wring my heart, cause my eyes to burn, and challenge my comfort with things I wish I did not know?
In this case, my husband heard of the book on the radio and recommended I look into it. It was publication day, but I was granted my request for the galley.
I really had little idea of the Japanese people's WWII experiences other than America's internment camps and the effect of the Atom bomb. The war divided families, soldiers endured horrors and then were pariahs, women sold their bodies to put food on the table, doctors were forced to perform horrible experiments for the war effort.
Extraordinary and profound, Inheritors encapsulates a family's history over generations. You won't be the same after reading it.
I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.… (plus d'informations)
In this case, my husband heard of the book on the radio and recommended I look into it. It was publication day, but I was granted my request for the galley.
I really had little idea of the Japanese people's WWII experiences other than America's internment camps and the effect of the Atom bomb. The war divided families, soldiers endured horrors and then were pariahs, women sold their bodies to put food on the table, doctors were forced to perform horrible experiments for the war effort.
Extraordinary and profound, Inheritors encapsulates a family's history over generations. You won't be the same after reading it.
I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.… (plus d'informations)
Listes
Prix et récompenses
Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 2
- Membres
- 114
- Popularité
- #171,985
- Évaluation
- 3.8
- Critiques
- 5
- ISBN
- 9
- Langues
- 1
When Serizawa focuses on characters, the writing is strong. Ayumi, for instance, is perceptively drawn in the first story slipping into dementia as an older woman while recalling staying behind in California as a teenager when her father left to return to Japan in 1913, staying with the slightly older son of a white landowner, a family friend and love interest. When America shut its borders in 1924 to Asians amidst rising anti-Japanese hostility, "she'd ceased to be Robert's romantic commitment and become instead his permanent liability."
Ayumi's brothers remain in Japan and feature in two of the most compelling stories. Sadao, a doctor, agreed to work in Japan's biological weapons and testing program during WWII, justifying it to himself as saving more Japanese lives than it would cost of enemy lives. After the war, he wrestles with how much guilt he should bear, versus those in authority who put him in that place. Annual reunions with a couple of fellow doctors don't help:
Guilt and choices made feature strongly again in Ayumi's youngest brother Masaharu's and his wife's story. Set in the post-surrender occupation of Japan, a subway ride leads to a fascinating conversation among strangers.
By the ninth story however, Serizawa shifts to focus more heavily on abstract philosophical questions about belonging, time, choices, and fate, which can seem like they would have been better as essays than fashioned into short stories. One leans heavily on an analysis of a Borges story, which is quite a shift from her earlier character-driven stories. The final two stories are set in an increasingly dystopian future and really have nothing to do with the specific Japanese perspective context of the previous stories, though they could be considered connected in philosophical theme. Unfortunately though I didn't find them greatly interesting.
The first 2/3 of the book is really excellent then, the last third I could have skipped.… (plus d'informations)