The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

Otsuka has done succeeded where many have failed: to create a multi-vocal novel with a single first person plural narrator. Through the experiences of this community of “we”, the reader takes the journey across the Pacific with a group of Japanese mail-order brides, who find that the men who bought them and the America of their dreams fall short of their expectations. From the crossing to the back-breaking work in fields to having children and becoming almost a part of the California community, Otsuka’s spare and poetic prose ends with the slow march toward to interment camps and a world that at first misses their otherness until that too is forgotten. 

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: PS 3615 .T88 B83 2011 , 2nd Floor Humanities

Review submitted by Lugene Rosen, Reference Librarian, Leatherby Libraries

Rating: Highly Recommended