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Rating: 
Summary: Not Just for Brats
Review: Bernie Root's dad, former fighter jock, is currently riding a desk at Kadena AFB, Okinawa. Bernie, the dependant daughter comes home for the summer from college to find a family in decline. Sarah Bird takes us on a journey to find out why.Sarah Bird has done more with this story than just reflecting the Military Brat experience. She's captured the poignancy of the moment when a child sheds rose colored glasses and really sees his or her family, warts and all. The understanding that Bernie gains after completing the journey that Bird has created for her is painful but real. She may not like her family, but she can love them. Bird reflects the essence of a family forged in that bizarre environment of military service during one of this country's most painful moments. This is a really well crafted novel that will appeal to a broad audience, but anyone who has ever woken up half way across the world because of yet another move mandated by Uncle Sam will read this book and see themselves and their life reflected on every other page. Bird has written a winner.
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Summary: Another great recommendation from amazon
Review: Even though I haunt bookstores, I have never seen this book either on the tables or while browsing the stacks. Somehow it ended up on my recommendation list -- and this is one of the reasons I love "surfing" at amazon. I won't bother to repeat the plot talking points that are rehashed in the other reviews, but will add that this book has the ring of truth to it. Due to its subject matter, it could be said that it is reminiscent of Pat Conroy's "The Great Santini," except that Bernie's father is a much shadowy figure, and the mother is a much stronger influence. (Bird gives an acknowledgement to Conroy in the endnotes.) I intend to look up her other books -- she really is a great find. Thanks, amazon.
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Summary: The Air Force Brat Experience
Review: I found Ms. Bird's book through an article in Texas Monthly, where she stated that all Air Force families have a shared culture, especially those who lived overseas. She listed things that such families probably have in their house, including: swords from Spain, Philippine wood carvings, Japanese dolls, copper and brass from Turkey. I did a mental inventory of the contents of my parents home and found the same items. This book is so poignant and beautifully written. "Bernie" comments that going back to her Air Force "home" is like a Jew going back to Krakow: the buildings are still there, but there's no one there who ever knew you. I've felt the same thing several times, wanting to go back to the overseas base where I grew up, watched movies, went to school, etc.; that base is now closed, and I'll never be able to show my old house, my old school, to my husband and daughter. This is a beautiful, bittersweet book, and it will live with me for a long time. I eagerly await Ms. Bird's next book.
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Summary: been there...
Review: I have read every one of Sarah Bird's novels, and I treasure them all. Yokota Officer's Club is truly a masterpiece! I found the story to be brilliantly funny and beautifully poignant at the same time. I was completely drawn in from the very first page and didn't put the book down until I had read from cover to cover. The author portrays relationships between family members as they truly are - delicately flawed and fragile, yet also powerfully loyal. Thank you Sarah for yet another work of art!
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Summary: Why did it have to end?
Review: I think this book replaced The Mommy Club as my favorite by Sarah Bird. It's a definite two-time read, but I'm saving it for later so I can savor it. Bernie, like most of the author's heroines, isn't quite mainstream. The only place in the world where she fits in is within her nuclear family, which travels around the world because their father is in the military. Her sister, Kit, is beautiful, popular, and walks into any group of people expecting to be adored - and is. Bernie watches this her whole life, not knowing what Kit is talking about when she says "Making friends is the easiest thing in the world." Bernie, on the other hand, has never had a friend except for their family's servant, Fumiko, years ago in Japan. There's a mystery surrounding her, and it affects her family because it was at the time Fumiko was sent away that Bernie's parents began speaking to each other through the children: "Tell your mother-", "Tell your father-" Nobody mentions Fumiko's name again. Given a second chance to find Fumiko, Bernie travels back to Japan as the partner of a bad comedian, who makes her bleach her hair blond, wear tons of makeup, go by the name Zelda, and dance to Peter, Paul and Mary in go-go boots that are two sizes too small. Bernie hates Peter, Paul and Mary. The story, like most of Sarah Bird's stories, is hilarious and poignant all at once. And in this case, it has to be her best yet.
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Summary: The Yokota Officers Club
Review: Prior to this book, I had never come across a Sarah Bird novel. Now that I have read this book, I am eager to read her other titles.
Yokota is a great read from cover to cover. Lively coming of age story that follows the eldest child through her life as an Air Force dependent and then the revelations of outside life only a year away from home at college. Bird has a way of depicting the relationships in this book so vividly. Sibling interaction is dead on and the observation of a child to the adult relationships around them is very intuitive. The dynamic of Bernie, Moe and Fumiko is a very powerful triumverate of women that grabs your attention from the early stages and finally reveals itself in a strong ending. I was upset to see that turning the page, there was no more story.
A particular feature of the book I read was a readers guide set up by Bird. There is an interview transcript of the author and her mother and sisters that is a great conversation of the book. The author discusses how she came up with ideas and how her family life was a huge inspiration for the novel, almost to the point of being a memoir. There are also study questions in the back for a book club or classroom discussion.
This was a great story and compelling to the end. I truly enjoyed it and am anxious to read more by this author.
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Summary: Like a small Mil-Brat reunion
Review: Thank you Sarah Bird, thank you Bernie-
Yokota Officers' Club brought back sights, smells and feelings of life overseas for this VietNam era, Cold War Air Force Brat -we were at Tachikawa AFB from '60 through the '64 Tokyo Olympics, very near Bernie's Yokota.
Bernie, her family travels and issues, base regulations, class politics of rank and squadron stature and living in a small American town built around a military airstrip in a foreign country far, far away- it's good to remember. Sweet, and bittersweet.
Not just for Brats, though:
I've given this book to several friends to fill in the 'mystique' of all the Brats they knew but whose past they couldn't really connect with. (some cousins, too) ---They enjoyed the book, and see us (Brats) more completely as the shade of a discrete sub-culture most of us feel like, something we connected with when Pat Conroy wrote Santini. ---Mary Edwards Wertsch's book fills in a lot of understanding and insight, too. So, thanks, Sarah Bird. For us Brats to remember, and for 'normal' people just to enjoy.
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Summary: Never been a military brat, but
Review: You sure feel like you know that world in the assured hands of Sarah Bird. Wonderful characters, vivid settings, a sense of the times--I loved this book. It's funny, it's sad, it's just so real. You'll want to spend your time at this Club.
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