Eight Million Gods and Demons

Rating:
Summary: Powerful and Poignant
Review:
This book started a little inauspiciously for me. A young and insecure Emi discovers that her powerful politician husband Taku Imura has become so smitten by the stunningly beautiful geisha, Hana, that he purchases her freedom and starts a second family with her. Interesting but unremarkable. But as the storyline developed I became much more deeply involved with the characters - especially that of Emi's son, Jun, and Hana's daughter, Yumi. We see a Japan emerging from a feudal society into the 20th century where customs and ideals clash as Japan and the Japanese people try to find their global identity. Interesting how Taku and the conniving Hana ultimately become sympathetic figures as they represent the traditional Japan that is so rapidly vanishing.

The advent of World War II and the aftermath of the A-bomb is an exceptionally powerful section of the book. Author Hiroko Sherwin poignantly shows the shattering impact upon the three generations of the Imura family who lose their ideals, their lives and their way of life to these tragic events. Great finish to a wonderful book.


Rating:
Summary: Demeter & Persephone
Review: Much has been written through the ages of the cherished notion and often powerful mystery of the mother/daughter relationship. Back into the ages of pre-history we believe the world was populated by peoples who recognized the magical powers of Gaia and secret wisdoms that were passed from mother to daughter. More recently, through creation myth such as Demeter & Persephone society has recognized the creative relationship that exists in this pair and used it to explain the mysteries of earth, the growth and renewal of life. Through the blessing of literature this feminine linkage is being preserved, illuminated and repeated in literally thousands of stories or biography's available at every book seller in the world.

Horoko Sherwin, who lives near the green hills of Bath, England has just published her first English language novel, Eight million gods and demons . It is a wonderfully readable, almost biographical family novel about three generations of women in the society of Japan between 1900 and end of World War 2. Written in the voice of women and from personal remembrances passed from mother to daughter, an oral family history, the reader will be caught up in the personal drama and tragedies of both men and woman reacting to implacable social changes on a feudal society. This story treads across the boundries of history, culture, and political norms of modern Japanese history

I recommend this authors to your readers. Hiroko's daughter, Mako Yoshikawa, is an author also and I hope you have an opportunity to review for yourself the sum total of their efforts.

Rating:
Summary: A painful indictment of war
Review: Sherwin has written a passionate novel of a Japanese family at a time when the entire country is awakening, flexing its muscle, preparing to be a world power. A Japanese businessman and politician, Taku Imura, deeply loves his younger wife, Emi, who suffers intermittently from epilepsy. Taku travels frequently for business, leaving Emi alone for extended periods of time. He nurtures great hopes for Korea's autonomy, but when Japan colonizes Korea, Taku rages, making powerful enemies with his views; as a result of his opinions, Taku is imprisoned for months.

After a number of unsuccessful pregnancies, the couple finally conceives a healthy son and both parents hover anxiously over their only child. Yet Taku is frequently absent from their home, falling victim to the charms of a geisha. He buys Hana's contract and a house for her as well, fathering four healthy children with his geisha. When Emi succumbs to her disease, Taku combines the two households, his children together under one roof. Meanwhile Japan builds its military strength, factories turned over to the production of munitions, eyes trained on China as the next acquisition.

Hana's and Emi's children become adults and marry, starting their own families. At this point, the story integrates their personal lives with the changing face of a Japan on the move towards world domination. One of Taku's daughters marries an idealistic young soldier in the Imperial army. Following the rape of Nanking, the soldier is completely changed by what he has witnessed, as well as his own performance in the military. The author attempts to put a more human face on this atrocity, at least in the case of the young soldier.

Pearl Harbor changes everything. Taku's children endure almost daily bombings by the Allies, their sons inducted into the war as the entire nation is galvanized. Industrial and military might have turned the country into abject poverty, kamikaze pilots dying for the honor of the Emperor. Beauty and poetry disappear, trampled by jackboots and military necessity.

Sherwin's prose is as elegant and formal as the rituals of feudal Japan, yet she is unflinching in her description of the brutality of war and its destruction. She speaks kindly, as if in the telling, lessons may be learned, but all of the Eight Million Gods and Demons cannot save Japan from the fate it has called upon itself. War, in all its manifestations, has become too familiar, victory hollow when ideals and innocence are betrayed. Sherwin writes a stunning indictment of war, her heart filled with love for the survivors. Luan Gaines/2004.

Rating:
Summary: Intense!
Review: This book is incredibly heartwrenching and intensely emotional. I can't believe this book isn't more well-known because the story is amazing and the characters are so realistic that I felt like I was reading letters from friends. This story also gave me an entirely new perspective on Japan during World War II.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: What a masterpiece!
I read a quarter of the way through, and knew I was on to a sure thing. Hiroko Sherwin, please write more books for us!!!
I won't tell you the plot, or give you the full story, you can find it in other reviews. I love learning about Japanese culture, and reading Japanese authors. This is by far and away the best book I've ever read.