A Large Group of People Becomes a Single "Character"
The Buddha in the AtticThis book deals with the practice of Japanese workers in the US in the period before WW2, "buying" brides from Japan. It follows their stories. I did not find this book particularly engaging even though it was occasionally poignant and very likely historically accurate. I do take my hat off to the author. Trying to turn a group of people into a single "character" is no easy task. Up to a point, she succeeded - at least enough for me to read and finish the book. Technically, it's a masterpiece, affectively, it occasionally tugs at the heartstrings, and historically it covers events that few people know about. I'm not sorry I read it, but I'd class it as being hard work for the reader.