This little book makes a big impression

There are thousands of outstanding books to read at the library; I haven’t gotten close to reading them all, but I’m constantly checking them off the perpetual list one by one. My personal favorites are memoirs and biographies, but I dabble in light fiction, travel journals, literature and almost any title that a friend suggests to me. The human experience of life, love, culture, compassion, freedom, and everything that it means to be alive, appeals to me. I enjoy reading even more than watching TV, but they usually provide the same thing: entertainment to pass the time. Rarely does a book grab me and not let go, but it happened with this one. I’ve been urging friends and neighbors to pick it up and rediscover the thrill of reading such a compelling book. While looking for the next On the Same Page in Shawnee County selection, a skinny little novella called When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka was one of many I snagged from a list of hundreds to look at more in-depth. It’s a book of fiction, but a vast amount of historical research makes the story incredibly tangible, and I believe part of the story is based on Julie’s parents and grandparents. When the Emperor was Divine began as just a name on a list, but after experiencing Otsuka’s clear and elegant, almost poetic, glimpse into the life of this family I was moved to know more about the reality of War Relocation Authority camps and the experiences of the Japanese Americans during World War II.

In the months following the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, many Issei men (first generation Japanese immigrants) were alleged to be spies, arrested by the FBI in the night, but never accused of any crimes. And soon Executive Order 9066 was signed by President Roosevelt which authorized the removal of more than 110,000 Japanese Americans, men, women and children, from the west coast and moved them into assembly centers and eventually into 10 War Relocation Centers. These WRA or internment camps were barren and isolated, surrounded by barbed wire and fear in the western desert. Two-thirds of the Japanese Americans in the Internment camps were American citizens because they were Nisei, U.S. born Japanese American children. At the end of the war, after waiting more than three years, the gates were opened and the internees were told to leave, to go back to lives which for some no longer existed.

Julie Otsuka has approached an emotional and incredible story with a matter-of-fact voice, letting us reminisce in their memories, relive their fears, and comprehend the reality of the internment camps. When the Emperor was Divine is an amazing book which I honestly recommend and I hope you can find an afternoon to read and ponder this period of American history. Incidentally, When the Emperor was Divine has become our book selection for On the Same Page in Shawnee County in February. The Library will have film and discussion opportunities, and hopefully, you will find yourself discussing it with your co-workers, mother, neighbor, or the person in line at the café because we want everyone to read it. That way we are all On the Same Page! And if ever there is another book that grabs me like When the Emperor was Divine, I’ll be sure to let you know.

Author
Carrie Sutton works in the Interlibrary Loan Department and also presents a variety of films throughout the year at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library (www.tscpl.org).

Advance praise for WHEN THE EMPEROR WAS DIVINE (September `02 Knopf):-

• A San Francisco Chronicle bestseller.

• B&N Fall Discover Great New Writers choice.

• B&N 10 th Annual Discover Great New Writers Book of the Year selection.

• A “Hot or What?” pick by The Times (UK).

• Longlisted for the Orange Prize 2003.

• Sunday Times “Best Summer Books” 2003

• Longlisted for the Impac Prize 2004.

Francine Prose, O Magazine : [A] strong and spare first novel … The novel’s voice is hushed as a whisper as it lets its story unfold through the successive points of view of its central characters… And finally when …Father is allowed to speak in the book’s final chapter, his outburst of righteous anger provides a simultaneously welcome and wrenching release after the restraint and tension that have built steadily through the novel.

Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times: “[A] crystalline debut novel …. it is Ms. Otsuka's precise but poetic evocation of the ordinary that lends this slender novel its mesmerizing power…. lyric gifts and narrative poise, her heat-seeking eye for detail, her effortless ability to empathize with her characters….Otsuka not only conjures up a stark but musical picture of this desert exile — defined in repeated images of dust and thirst — but she also creates a deeply felt portrait of a lonely child, inexplicably plucked out of his former life and now bereft of friends and his father….The hardships Japanese-Americans were subjected to during these years emerge obliquely in these chapters….these are all the more powerful for being understated, for being delineated as simple day-to-day realities in one family's story…...[a] resonant and beautifully nuanced achievement.”

The New York Times Book Review: “When the Emperor Was Divine traces, in terse but eloquent fashion, the fortunes of a Japanese American family in the spring of 1942 …Otsuka’s portrait of the mother may be the book’s greatest triumph. Almost everything in it is below the surface….Otsuka's research seems to have been thorough, but the novel wears it lightly…With her gift for compression and her feel for a child’s-eye view of disrupted family life, Otsuka neatly sidesteps any checklist predictability as she covers her ground…While you’re reading this accomplished novel, what impresses you most is how much Otsuka is able to convey – in a line, in a paragraph – about her characters’ surroundings, about their states of mind and about the mood of our country at a time of crisis that did not, on this particular front, bring out the best in its character.”

The Los Angeles Times Book Review : “This gentle, understated novel … has more power than any other I have read about this time.”

Star-Tribune: “As with Alexander Solzhenitsyn's prison masterpiece, "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," Otsuka's novel grabs you with its first sentence and doesn't release its grip until the last page…. Otsuka deftly portrays how the camp experience unsettles them in different ways…As the story continues, Otsuka's tone remains aloof, almost like a documentary. Her sentences are clean and crisp, flatly stating what happens. There is no sentimentalizing, no effort to direct the reader's feelings. Maintaining this tone throughout requires an impressive amount of poise, one rarely demonstrated by a first-time writer. As a result, Otsuka's writing cuts like jagged glass when she lets her characters' fear and confusion slip through. Speaking through one of the children, she captures the bitterness of their homecoming in haunting fashion.”

San Francisco Chronicle : “With quiet, careful irony, she portrays the unnamed family of protagonists as archetypally American… Otsuka's writing is subtle, and the realization that the family is Japanese -- and that the mother has seen an evacuation order -- unfolds through hints…Otsuka's short novel is a rich study in alienation .. The tense surface tranquility of the narrative, the apparent calm with which this family accepts its miserable fate, at last gives way in the final short chapter, a confessional in which the pent-up rage of internment is finally let loose. The contrast makes the ending all the more powerful, Notwithstanding the closing burst of justifiable anger, "When the Emperor Was Divine" is a beautiful little book. Not only are the jacket, typeface and design unusually appealing, but Otsuka's writing is accomplished, absorbing and tight. Her spare prose is complemented by precise details, vivid characterization and a refusal to either flinch at or sentimentalize the Japanese American experience during World War II.”

USA Today : “ Crime novelist Elmore Leonard once said, with no humor intended, that if you want to write a good book you should leave out all the parts that people skip. Julie Otsuka must have been listening, because there is nothing in her debut novel, When the Emperor Was Divine, that doesn't belong. There's no scene or sentence that does not do exactly what her story needs it to do. Slender and visually elegant … this book is made powerful by its author’s deliberate restraint. You can read it in one sitting, but it’s unlikely you’ll forget it anytime soon….. Otsuka offers [the] details in prose so cool and precise that it’s impossible not to believe what she tells us or to see clearly what she wants us to see. Only in a brief, final chapter does anger finally appear… a gem of a book and one of the most vivid history lessons you’ll ever learn.”

Chicago Tribune: “ An exceptional short novel ... Drawing from her family's experience, she transcends the personal to create a story that is elegiac and representative…. When the Emperor Was Divine carves out its own special place in style and substance. The book is shaped like a parable: Short, unadorned sentences say less while signifying more….[she] sticks to an eye-level perspective and describes things with admirable historical precision….[and] gets her point across with stunning economy…. an exceptional piece of fiction. It depicts important truths, both real and emotional.”

Boston Globe: “spare, incisive.”

Publishers Weekly (starred review) : “[A] heartbreaking, bracingly unsentimental debut describes in poetic detail the travails of a Japanese family living in an internment camp during World War II …The novel never strays into melodrama - Otsuka describes the family's everyday life in Berkeley and the pitiful objects that define their world in the camp with admirable restraint and modesty….The novel's honesty and matter-of-fact tone in the face of inconceivable injustice are the source of its power. Anger only comes to the fore during the last segment, when the father is allowed to tell his story - but even here, Otsuka keeps rage neatly bound up, luminous beneath the dazzling surface of her novel.”

Booklist (boxed and starred review): “[Otsuka] demonstrates a breathtaking restraint and delicacy throughout this supple and devastating first novel….[an] exquisite psychological tale, inspired by her own family’s travails… Otsuka universalizes their experiences of prejudice and disenfranchisement, creating a veritable poetics of stoicism.”

The Sunday Telegraph ( UK): “[A] remarkable first novel…Julie Ostuka has transformed both history and personal tragedy into art. Her short, beautifully written book is also an indictment of collective hysteria. Otsuka is resolutely unsentimental and undramatic; she is also fair… This book is not only outstandingly accomplished and moving, but also important and well-timed.”

The Telegraph ( UK): “Julie Otsuka’s prose is measured and calm, but her anger is obvious… [her] outrage is, however, never oppressive and is balanced perfectly by perfect, luminous descriptions.”

The Times ( UK) – Book of the Week: “the novel’s powerful combination of immediacy and mystery is instantly apparent… [the] refusal to blink at disaster is what makes this novel compelling and keeps it true. Fate is only questioned obliquely; this is a powerful portrait of a terrible endurance. … this is a terrific first novel, and — when an American President could, however mistakenly, speak of a “crusade” — a timely one, too.

The Times Literary Supplement ( UK): “When the Emperor Was Divine is a scathing rejoinder to this tragic (and sadly topical) example of war hysteria…. Otsuka wastes no words. Through translucent, minimalist prose, she creates a sardonic tonal contrast between the novel’s outrageous events and a narrative voice hovering in cool watchful detachment…. A blistering first novel, When the Emperor Was Divine, vindicates the suffering of the Japanese in America.”

The Sunday Times ( UK) : “Otsuka tells this story .. in staccato, factual prose, which is deceptively empty of emotion. Yet as quotidian details accumulate, emotion seeps through the prose …. Historical novels may (as the academic Valentine Cunningham has suggested) grapple with atonement for past actions. Otsuka’s impressive debut novel shows that such atonement cannot touch the bitterness, dry as the Utah dust, which accompanies the silence of survival.”

Elle Magazine ( UK):   “Honest and gloriously written, this debut novel will haunt you long after you've turned the final page.  Totally brilliant.”

The Independent ( UK) : “Otsuka tells her tale with economy and grace, leavening bitterness with humour. The conclusion, a bravura piece of satire on American paranoia, ends on a note of exemplary fairness.”

The News Tribune: “[A] shimmering novella …Otsuka perfectly describes the loneliness of separation and strangeness of odors and sounds in unfamiliar places…In a powerful coda, Otsuka compacts the entire broad experience into a deeply felt "Confession" that is unlike anything I've ever read, a passage that left me gasping in tears of admiration….This slim volume possesses a unique voice, truly the author's own. Every scene, every moment is carved with precision. This is an exquisite novel, in the sense that a tastefully small diamond, brilliantly faceted, is polished to a solid, sparkling essence …[A] lovely and wrenching novel.”

Time Out ( UK): “Otsuka tells her tale in a dispassionate and understated style. The protagonists’ emotions remain suppressed until the final chapter, ‘Confession’, which is bitter and deeply moving. Expertly crafted and shocking in its spare truthfulness, this is a deceptively powerful read.”

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Julie Otsuka’s debut novel is a slim and elegant marvel. [T]he book is surprisingly unsentimental and packed with haunting and gorgeous images.”

Ann Arbor News: “A sense of loneliness pervades the story at every deft turn. …[R]ich in subtle emotion, … it is almost as if Otsuka decided that to conscientiously delve into the intricacies of this shameful period in America’s history would be too difficult, perhaps impossible, for the type of story she wanted to write. So she created a parallel allegory of sorts hovering just above the surface of history, creating an effect that is especially eerie in such a brief story. … Otsuka’s meditative story is like a bad dream, one not easily shaken off. The details are sparse, but the loneliness that remains after the story has ended is plentiful.”

Bloomsbury Review : “[A] shockingly brilliant debut novel …Historically accurate, there are no surprises or plot twists in this slim volume, but it will make you gasp as it exposes the truth. It is undoubtedly one of the most effective, memorable books to deal with the internment crisis…The maturity of Otsuka's first prose is astonishing… Otsuka is a remarkable witness. Read her testimony and help ensure that the mistakes of our past are not repeated.”

The Contra Costa Times : “[A] crystalline debut … Otsuka’s precise but poetic evocation of the ordinary lends this novel its mesmerizing power .. [her] lyric gifts and narrative poise, her heat-seeking eye for detail, her effortless ability to empathize with her characters .. [a] resonant and beautifully nuanced achievement.”

Dallas Morning News: “Drawing from her family’s experiences, [Ostuka] transcends the personal to create a story that is elegiac and representative. …It depicts important truths, both real and emotional.”

The Day ( UK): “…terse but eloquent prose… Otsuka’s gift for compression is remarkable, as are her dry wit and neat sidestepping of predictability.”

Glamour ( UK): “…dazzlingly poised prose.”

Juice ( UK): “…[A]n intense jewel of a book…written with clarity and beauty…”

The Historical Novels Review: “[A]lthough small, this novel packs a powerful punch… The author has effectively and eloquently exposed another tragic example of man’s inhumanity to man. Highly recommended.”

The Houston Chronicle: “[A] stunning debut novel… Otsuka’s writing is understated and subtle, recalling the style of the early novels of Kazuo Ishiguro. With this striking debut novel, Otsuka…has made us aware not only of her talent but of a sad saga in American history.”

Hartford Courant : “this stunning novel announce[s] the debut of a fine new writer.”

Seattle Times : “Pictures and documentaries alone can only tell so much. It takes a novel like Julie Otsuka's astonishing debut, "When the Emperor Was Divine," to bring home the soul-crushing cruelty of this terrible period of American history. As with Alexander Solzhenitsyn's masterpiece, "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," Otsuka's slim novel (142 pages) grabs you by the collar with its first sentence and does not release its grip until the last page. Rotating between mother, son and daughter, Otsuka deftly portrays how the camp experience unsettles them in different ways. Maintaining this tone throughout the novel requires an impressive amount of poise, one rarely demonstrated by a first-time writer. As a result, the fear and confusion Otsuka occasionally lets slip through cut like shards of glass.”

The Lady ( UK): “[Otsuka’s] style is elegant and precise, avoiding both sentiment and melodrama, and the tale is succinctly told, all the more impressive for being her first novel. Short and intense, the book delivers a timely reminder of the nature of prejudice alienation and is well worth reading.”

Mostlyfiction.com: “…a portrait of the Japanese internment camps unlike any we have ever seen. With intensity and precision, Otsuka uses a single family to evoke the deracination—both physical and emotional—of a generation of Japanese Americans. In five chapters, each flawlessly executed from a different point of view…the author has created a small tour de force, a novel of unrelenting economy and suppressed emotion. Spare, intimate, arrestingly understated, it is a haunting evocation of a family in wartime and an unmistakably resonant lesson for our times.”

Nathan Englander, author FOR THE RELIEF OF UNBEARABLE URGES: "With a matter-of-fact brilliance, and a poise as prominent in the protagonist as it is in the writing, Julie Otsuka's WHEN THE EMPEROR WAS DIVINE is a novel about loyalty, about identity, and about being other in America during uncertain times."

Colson Whitehead, author of JOHN HENRY DAYS: "As Otsuka chronicles one family's banishment from the American dream and their days of exile in the grim badlands of American reality, her voice never falters, equally adept at capturing horrific necessity and accidental beauty. Her unsung prisoners of war contend with multiple frontlines, and enemies who wear the faces of neighbors and friends. It only takes a few pages to join their cause, but by the time you finish this exceptional debut, you will recognize that their struggle has always been yours."

Interview by Andrew Duncan of BookSense.com

http://www.booksense.com/people/archive/o/otsukajulie.jsp