Friday, February 26, 2010

Stubborn Twig by Lauren Kessler

I listened to Stubborn Twigs: Three Generations in the Life of a Japanese American Family, on the player while I rode the exercise bike. LOL 

I found this book to be irritating, challenging, illuminating and fascinating. The first couple of chapters bored me, but I quickly became hooked. I hadn't a CLUE that Hood River, OR used to have a major Japanese Immigrant community. Having family roots in OR this was interesting to me. Living in Japan NOW - this book really interested me.   Stubborn Twig follows the Yasui family as they leave Kobe to work on the railroad near Tacoma, WA. The original plan was to save up $ and come back to Japan. The older brother did just that. The younger two brothers move to Hood River, buy property, become major land holders and fruit producers...and eventually face internment during WW2.

This book is well worth the read/listen if you are interested in this time in history. I believe it helped me understand the Japanese culture and the Japanese experience in America better.  I think it would be a good book for high school students who are studying the WW2 era to read. This is not an America-bashing book, but it IS an honest portrayal of this family's experience in America.

In an amusing aside, our homework this week is to note items that are "yasui" or "takai," (inexpensive/expensive).  I was writing my sentence....and kept thinking yasui - that can't be right that's the name of the family in Stubborn Twigs...then I remembered.....ah HA they changed their name so they could advertise their business.....

This is part of my 2010 reading list.
Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

6 comments:

Kim said...

THAT's a book I want to read! I'll look for it when I get to the US!

Renee said...

adding this to my TBR list

Anonymous said...

I used to teach Multicultural Literature and one of the books we read was "Farewell to Manzanar" which is about the internment camp there. Thanks for this review. I think I will read it!

You blog is so interesting and I really appreciate a glimpse into the culture there. Thanks.

Wilma in WVl

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

I did not do this book justice....you will get a glimpse into those who came to work on the NW Railroad, the Hood River community of Nisai, the ww2 years - those who were interned, those who escaped (one in college at the UofO in Eugene)....Mine Yasui, a young lawyer when the war broke out, deliberately broke curfew to get arrested and test the law in courts...he spent the war in jail....truly an interesting book. We've read Farwell to Manzanar too - both very good...this one a bit more about the generations assimilating into American culture....I think.

Lois said...

My aunt by marriage, is Japanese American, and she wrote a book called "Looking Like the Enemy." about her experiences her family had in a Calif. internment camp. They grew strawberries to sell on one of the San Juan islands in WA. It was so interesting for me to read to learn more about her. It was certainly an aspect of WWII that I didn't know. You only read about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And Pearl Harbor.

April said...

I grew up in the little town across the Columbia River called White Salmon. I will have to get this book. I didn't even realize all of the history of the area until I left and then returned as an adult.