I actually really enjoyed the book and the story a lot until I got to the end. I have a hard time with endings where not everything is neatly tied up and you don't know what happens. I had that problem with Shanghai Girls too. When she went to go get her daughter from China and then the story ended I was kind of left like...umm okay. What happens now? What's the ending? If there was a deep moral or lesson I definitely missed it. Anyways back to this story, I would like to have known what happened with their relationship, if they got married, if she moved back to live with him or if he moved back with her. My favorite storyline was with the black jazz player(I can't remember his name)and the missing recording. I loved that.
I should have written my thoughts before reading Nat's, because now all I want to do is respond to hers! I also enjoyed the beginning of the book much more than the ending, however, my complaint about the ending was that it was too tied up. He had a lifetime of angst and all of a sudden his son just found Keiko and she sent the record...it was too neat and tidy for me to believe. I felt like they were trying to pin a fate or love will always win in the end moral on it, but I wasn't buying it. I am fascinated by internment camps and this shameful period of our history, but I thought this book was poorly written. The characters weren't believable to me - they felt one-dimensional and cliched. The scenes that rang the truest to me were of the kids bonding in the cafeteria, because that aspect of their life really matched the simplistic tone the author chose. I agree that the jazz story line was cool, it was an unexpected subplot that added a neat dimension. I would probably not recommend this book to a friend, but I would recommend shanghai girls - I thought it had a lot more going for it, although I also disliked the ending. Now back to ceecee!
I actually really enjoyed the book and the story a lot until I got to the end. I have a hard time with endings where not everything is neatly tied up and you don't know what happens. I had that problem with Shanghai Girls too. When she went to go get her daughter from China and then the story ended I was kind of left like...umm okay. What happens now? What's the ending? If there was a deep moral or lesson I definitely missed it.
ReplyDeleteAnyways back to this story, I would like to have known what happened with their relationship, if they got married, if she moved back to live with him or if he moved back with her. My favorite storyline was with the black jazz player(I can't remember his name)and the missing recording. I loved that.
I should have written my thoughts before reading Nat's, because now all I want to do is respond to hers! I also enjoyed the beginning of the book much more than the ending, however, my complaint about the ending was that it was too tied up. He had a lifetime of angst and all of a sudden his son just found Keiko and she sent the record...it was too neat and tidy for me to believe. I felt like they were trying to pin a fate or love will always win in the end moral on it, but I wasn't buying it. I am fascinated by internment camps and this shameful period of our history, but I thought this book was poorly written. The characters weren't believable to me - they felt one-dimensional and cliched. The scenes that rang the truest to me were of the kids bonding in the cafeteria, because that aspect of their life really matched the simplistic tone the author chose. I agree that the jazz story line was cool, it was an unexpected subplot that added a neat dimension. I would probably not recommend this book to a friend, but I would recommend shanghai girls - I thought it had a lot more going for it, although I also disliked the ending. Now back to ceecee!
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