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What Members Thought
This is a sweet, simple story about a Chinese American boy who falls in love with a Japanese American girl in WW2-era Seattle weeks before all of Japantown was sent to internment camps across the country. The scenes from the past are intertwined with Henry's life in 1980s six months after the death of his wife. Nothing earth-shattering or groundbreaking here in terms of the writing itself, but the history is fascinating, as is the look at Chinese American culture both in the 1940s and today. In
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While the story was charming I believe this could have been heavily edited. One friend said 'It was like every chapter the author took a month long break and then felt like he had to describe it all again.' I heartily agree and the redundancy drove me bonkers!
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Good book! But it took me awhile to realize that this was going to take a different direction than other California WWII stories. I ended up enjoying it and loving the jazz element, but at the beginning I didn't think it was that different from other books I've read on the subject. Stick with it for the results.
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Enjoyable though stopped midway ... knew the end and wasn't invested in reading the remainder of the in-between ...
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Jun 22, 2010
Alison
marked it as to-read
Nov 14, 2011
Sophie
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Dec 03, 2011
mandy
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Jan 06, 2012
Gwennie
marked it as to-read
May 07, 2014
Caroline Donahue
marked it as to-read
Sep 03, 2014
Lorena
marked it as to-read
Apr 07, 2016
Kate
marked it as to-read
Nov 07, 2016
Julie
marked it as to-read
Feb 26, 2017
Erin
marked it as to-read
