I feel like I'd heard about this book from a number of different places, and meant to get around to reading it but never did. I happened to see it at the library in CA before we left for Mexico, so I brought it with me. I basically had no idea what the book was going to be about, when I first read it, so it was a pleasant surprise to find out that it was about this aspect of history that I haven't thought too much about--the internment of Japanese people in America, specifically from Seattle, and the relations between Chinese and Japanese people in America at that time. The novel is told from the perspective of Henry, a young Chinese boy, who falls in love with a Keiko, a Japanese girl, at a time when the Chinese and Japanese do not get along (and basically when nobody is getting along with the Japanese in America). It was really fascinating to learn about that time period in that place. Sometimes when I think about WWII (or any time period) I think of only the fighting in Normandy and that's it--and I forget all of the other places in the world that were affected by the war and how that played out in other places, even in Seattle. So this book was a very interesting read for that purpose. I also really liked how the author interspersed the old story about Henry and Keiko with Henry's later life, while he's trying to find out about what happened to Keiko decades later.
I didn't absolutely love the writing style in all places. There wasn't anything specific that annoyed me, but it felt a little cheesy in places, especially with the young kid romance stuff. I also felt like the relationship between Henry and his parents seemed so formulaic--Asian kid who disappoints his hard-driving father, you know. I never really felt like I bought the dad and how he treated Henry. But overall, it was a great story and a really interesting read about a fascinating time period.
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