When the Emperor Was Divine

Rating:
Summary: Lovely, Lyrical, Haunting
Review: I plucked this book off the shelf at the library yesterday, flipped it open to see if I liked the writing style and almost forgot to pick the kids up at school half an hour later because I had completely fallen into the world of this novella and lost track of time.

When the Emperor was Divine is the literary equivallent of ikebana -- elegant in its spareness and revealing great beauty beneath the simple balance of form and substance. Author Julie Otsuka doesn't miss a step in this compelling, disturbing story of a Japanese American family torn apart, interred in separate camps; mother, daughter and son in one, father in another.

Confused, helpless, longing for each other, yearning for the comforts of home, hearth, and happier days, the family spends three and a half years waiting. Waiting for release, waiting to be reunited, waiting for a tulip to grow in an old tin can. Ms. Otsuka doesn't give us the details -- she walks us right into the bodies, hearts and minds of each of her characters and makes us live with them. And in the end of the endless waiting we return with them to the scattered remains of a life that is less than what is normal, necessary or desirable. My heart broke a hundred times in the few short hours it took to read this slim book.

It is particularly compelling to think of the men interred in Cuba right now and wonder if a future generation will tell their story as poignantly. I recommend this book for the quality of the writing and the timliness of the story.

Rating:
Summary: Stunning In Its Simplicity
Review: When people--any people--cease to be seen as individuals, they become "them"--the faceless, nameless "enemy." In this exquisite short novel, a shameful episode of American history is re-examined--the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. It was a time when everyone of Japanese descent was somehow "them"--the enemy. And in becoming "the enemy" they lose much of what it means to be human.
The tiny family--mother, son, daughter--is devastated when their father is suddenly taken away in his robe and slippers, suspected of who knows what. A few months later they are forced to give up everything and move to a dusty prison camp somewhere in Utah.
After more than three years they return home, changed and traumatized. Eventually they are reunited with the father, but he too is changed, a broken shadow of himself.
The story is told in eloquent, simple, spare prose, in small but telling details, in the fragmented but powerful insights of the two children and their mother. It is never over-stated, never sentimental, yet it will bring you to tears.
The book concludes with a short but powerful epilogue, a fierce and powerful essay on what it means for anyone to be "them," to be "the enemy."
This is a painful book, but it is important for you to read it. I cannot recommend it too strongly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.

Rating:
Summary: A short but revealing novel
Review: When the Emperor Was Divine was one of the required readings in a college English Lit. class I took last semester. It's well-written, touching, and revealing: each chapter gives us a view of the repercussions the internment had on the members of the Japanese-American family we follow throughout the short novel.

I would like to point out to "a reader" from Appleton, Wisconsin (2/22/04) that the author, Julie Otsuka, is narrating what happened to her own mother, who was the inspiration for the girl's character, and her family in the years between Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII. In that sense Otsuka becomes the voice of a first-person witness of the events.

This book sparked very lively discussions and a lot of research on the subject among the students; most of us, while understanding the war-time heightened need for security, agreed on the injustice of depriving thousands of people of their liberty without just cause: most internees had no contacts with the enemy, had never set foot in Japan, and were loyal Americans. For many of us this book represented a different view on a seldom talked-about period of our history.

Rating:
Summary: A Divine First Novel
Review: When the Emperor Was Divine will definitely be one of my top ten reads for the year 2002. The book written by Julie Otsuka engaged me from the first page and left me wishing for more when the book ended.

The book is divided into five chapters, each one told by a different Japanese - American family member at the beginning of America's entry into WWII. Each of these voices, from the youngest family member to the oldest, resonates with the sounds of isolation and despair. From the earliest days of the posters summoning Japanese - Americans to the return of this family to their homes, readers are held captive by this book. All too soon we learn how dramatically life changed for these United States citizens who in most cases were interned for no other reason than they were Japanese and therefore thought to be the enemy. While the woman's husband and her children's father is detained under suspicion in a prison, she relates the first story of coming upon the notice of the camps and then packing up her house for departure. The daughter relates the train trip to an unknown destination while the son tells us what their lives were like when they lived among others in the camp. Then the mother's voice is heard once again as the war ends and they are allowed to return home. But they return home to find that life as they once knew it may never be the same. Their house has been looted and when the husband and father returns home he is a changed man. It is this last chapter, the voice of the father, which is so haunting and remains with me still. As I read the words more than once, I couldn't help but see Edward Munch's painting, Scream, before my eyes or think about the emotional intensity in Alan Ginsberg's poem, Howl.

In this rather short title, Ms. Otsuka presents us with a magnificent debut novel. We come to feel for her characters fate as the book begins rather quietly and then reaches a resounding crescendo by the end. This is a wonderful reading experience by an author who I will surely read in the future.