Rating: 
Summary: A small Southern town on the eve of Pearl Harbor.
Review: Sophie and the Rising Sun by Augusta Trobaugh is an excellent book which relates the effects of a strangers entrance into a Southern community. The year is 1939 when Mr. Oto, a Japanese man wanders into the town of Salty Creek Georgia. Arriving by bus, Mr. Oto is quite ill and is tended to by the local doctor. After he recovers Miss Anne, a kindly widow hires him as a gardener and offers him a place to live. As Mr. Oto he works hard and adjusts to his new life, he also tries to put behind him the shame and circumstances that led him to Salty Creek. One day while working, Mr. Oto sees a lovely woman walking by. In due time he learns that this is Miss Sophie, a Southern spinster lady who paints by the river. Following her one morning, Mr. Oto finds the courage to talk to her and these two unlikely people begin a relationship that will be severely tested and threatened when Pearl Harbor is attacked. Although most of the townspeople think Mr. Oto is Chinese, Miss Sophie knows the truth. As feelings of prejudice and tension towards anybody who looks foreign heats up in Salty Creek, Miss Sophie and Mr. Oto must made a decision that will forever change their lives. This book, which speaks volumes about isolation and ostracism, is somewhat reminiscent of When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka and Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson, both excellent novels. A well written, well presented novel, Miss Sophie and the Rising Sun will have reader finding themselves pausing to consider the plight of many who are born in this country but have ties to a foreign land. I do recommend this book and look forward to reading more by Augusta Trobuagh
Rating: 
Summary: Who is Sophie?
Review: The writing to this story is eloquent but I felt that I was missing something. It could have been so much more but wasn't for me. I would have liked to know more about Sophie. Sophie's family is overbearing and doesn't let her do anything really. She befriends Miss Anne's Japanese gardener, Mr. Otto. The two meet to paint on Sundays and the plot shifts when Pearl Harbor is attacked and the town becomes suspicious of Otto.
Rating:
Summary: What a sweet, nice read!
Review: This book was a pleasure to read. It was written quite well, almost as though an old friend were telling you the story. Sophie & The Rising Sun is perfect to read on a lazy day, and leaves you an ending with multiple possibilities. This love story is one like no other I've read before - both fascinating in the development of characters and plot - I recommend this book to all!
Rating:
Summary: Full of Southern charm
Review: This is a beautifully written book that takes an unusual twist from so many other tales about racial prejudice in the South. Set in the period just before the outbreak of the second world war, it tells the story of Sophie Willis, a middle-aged spinster living in the small town of Salty Creek, Georgia. Sophie becomes friends with the "Chinese" gardener employed by one of her oldest friends and they become romantically involved. Not too much notice is taken of them by the townspeople until it is discovered that Mr. Oto is not Chinese. Rather, he is an American citizen of Japanese descent, a fact that would remain of little consequence except for the events that transpire on December 7, 1941 when Pearl Harbor is bombed. Suddenly, whether he is Chinese or Japanese makes all the difference in the world to both he and Sophie as well as the residents of Salty Creek. A lovely story about fear and acceptance and taking risks. Ms. Trobaugh does a wonderful job of capturing the flavor of a small Southern town. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Rating:
Summary: Good book
Review: This novel is ok - worth the read but only for entertainment. It is about a women from the South and her love for a Japanese-American and what they endure during WWII.
Rating:
Summary: Good book
Review: This novel is ok - worth the read but only for entertainment. It is about a women from the South and her love for a Japanese-American and what they endure during WWII.
Rating: 
Summary: Very good
Review: Understated, elegant and poetic, Augusta Trobaugh's "Sophie and the Rising Sun" traces the evolution of forbidden love between a white woman and a Japanese-American man immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Other novelists have used the backdrop of racism and wartime hysteria as a means of exploring the consequences of debilitating prejudice and the restorative hopes generated by love; Trobaugh, however, gives the theme a compelling wrinkle. The setting is not the west coast, but a small, isolated Georgia community near the Atlantic Ocean. The two protagonists are also far from typical. Sophie, middle-aged and resigned to a loveless existence, has lived an emotionally-stunted life, accented by a repressive home and town whose adherence to racism symbolizes not only ignorance, but spiritual dysfunction. Mr. Oto, an adult Nisei, bears his own shame and disgrace; disguising himself as a "Chinese gardener," his only hope of human attachment revolves around a myth of a crane-wife. "The Rising Sun" is at once slow-paced and emotionally compelling. Trobaugh's command of language is impressive, and her evocative use of metaphor transforms both place and person. Sophie's voice, for instance, "was soft and melodic, like the faint lapping of ripples at the edge of a beautiful marsh deep inside him." Decent people, struggling for a sense of authenticity during a period of racist hysteria, discover themselves in a well-intentioned but potentially disastrous lattice of lies. Sophie's only friend in town, Miss Anne (whose voice assists in providing a subjective view of Sophie's experiences), quietly rebels against the prevalent, quiet evil of Salty Creek. Yet her resistance and friendship comes with costs; even Miss Anne must confront conscience against friendship, love against safety, pride against pragmatism. As Sophie and Mr. Oto initiate a relationship which slowly, quietly and surely develops its own definition and dimension, they must wrestle not only with their own needs and hopes, but how those aspirations and desires enmesh their beloved in physical and emotional danger. Trobaugh is nothing less than exceptional in her deft handling of quiet terror and spiritual isolation. It is that central tension between love (and its attendant optimistic hope) and betrayal (of decency, of honor, of interdependence) that gives this slender novel its enormous power. "Sophie and the Rising Sun" is that kind of unassuming, subtle novel that reminds readers how and why the ability to love may be our most noble human achievement. When it occurs amidst ignorance and prejudice, love is even a more impressive achievement. Augusta Trobaugh, as surely as the symbolic crane which reappears mystically throghout her writing, interprets this terrain beautifully. This novel is cause for celebration.
Rating:
Summary: elegant, poignant tale of secret love amidst wartime racism
Review: Understated, elegant and poetic, Augusta Trobaugh's "Sophie and the Rising Sun" traces the evolution of forbidden love between a white woman and a Japanese-American man immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Other novelists have used the backdrop of racism and wartime hysteria as a means of exploring the consequences of debilitating prejudice and the restorative hopes generated by love; Trobaugh, however, gives the theme a compelling wrinkle. The setting is not the west coast, but a small, isolated Georgia community near the Atlantic Ocean. The two protagonists are also far from typical. Sophie, middle-aged and resigned to a loveless existence, has lived an emotionally-stunted life, accented by a repressive home and town whose adherence to racism symbolizes not only ignorance, but spiritual dysfunction. Mr. Oto, an adult Nisei, bears his own shame and disgrace; disguising himself as a "Chinese gardener," his only hope of human attachment revolves around a myth of a crane-wife. "The Rising Sun" is at once slow-paced and emotionally compelling. Trobaugh's command of language is impressive, and her evocative use of metaphor transforms both place and person. Sophie's voice, for instance, "was soft and melodic, like the faint lapping of ripples at the edge of a beautiful marsh deep inside him." Decent people, struggling for a sense of authenticity during a period of racist hysteria, discover themselves in a well-intentioned but potentially disastrous lattice of lies. Sophie's only friend in town, Miss Anne (whose voice assists in providing a subjective view of Sophie's experiences), quietly rebels against the prevalent, quiet evil of Salty Creek. Yet her resistance and friendship comes with costs; even Miss Anne must confront conscience against friendship, love against safety, pride against pragmatism. As Sophie and Mr. Oto initiate a relationship which slowly, quietly and surely develops its own definition and dimension, they must wrestle not only with their own needs and hopes, but how those aspirations and desires enmesh their beloved in physical and emotional danger. Trobaugh is nothing less than exceptional in her deft handling of quiet terror and spiritual isolation. It is that central tension between love (and its attendant optimistic hope) and betrayal (of decency, of honor, of interdependence) that gives this slender novel its enormous power. "Sophie and the Rising Sun" is that kind of unassuming, subtle novel that reminds readers how and why the ability to love may be our most noble human achievement. When it occurs amidst ignorance and prejudice, love is even a more impressive achievement. Augusta Trobaugh, as surely as the symbolic crane which reappears mystically throghout her writing, interprets this terrain beautifully. This novel is cause for celebration.
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