Customer Reviews

Ash

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
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This is the best fiction novel I've read recently, with a very intresting and plausible storyline. The problems of living as part of both Japanese and Western culture are handled with great sensivity and very recognisable to anyone like myself who belongs to both cultures. An excellent read!

Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for Reader Views (2/07)

Caitlin Ober returns to Japan as an English teacher. Years prior, Caitlin and her family lived in Japan where she became close friends with Mie. The two were inseparable planning to marry brothers so that they could some day live in the same home together. The tragedy of Mie's death by accidental drowning has burdened Caitlin for all these years and affected both families. Caitlin's mother blamed her husband for Mie's death; he was in charge of the children that terrible day. The tragedy has harmed her, Caitlin's parent's marriage, her sister's mental health and Caitlin feels unworthy of love and cannot maintain a romantic relationship. She is an obsessive swimmer spending hours and hours swimming. Caitlin is hopes that by returning to Japan she can overcome the guilt that so encumbers her.

Caitlin's Japanese boyfriend, Hiroshi, is a windsurfer. Hiroshi questions Caitlin about her obsessions but she refuses to share her true torment with him.

Caitlin becomes involved with Naomi, an unhappy 15- year old. Naomi is half-Japanese and half-American struggling to come to terms with her dual identity. She doesn't want the responsibility but feels compelled to assist the young girl. Eventually the two visit Mie's family. Caitlin begins the journey to forgive herself for not being able to save her friend's life. Naomi begins to mature and looks outside herself and brings comfort to Caitlin.

"Ash" by Holly Thompson is a heart-wrenching story. The characters are well-developed and powerful. The characters linger in your mind long after finishing the book. The plot is hauntingly beautiful and well worth reading.

Received book free of charge

This haunting and complex debut novel by Holly Johnson is one of the best first books I have ever read. Far from the amateur efforts of many a new novelist, Ms. Johnson's prose is delicate and refreshing from the very start. She also eschews the traditional tendency of so much cotemporary fiction to overstate the plot: like the Japanese portrayed in the book, the story's design is found not in what is clearly stated but in the
undercurrents that lie just below the surface.

Ash is the story of an American English instructor living in the Japanese town of Kagoshima who comes back to Japan to confront the tragic accident that took her best friend when she was just a girl. It's a homecoming of sorts; though Caitlin is undoubtedly foreign in appearance and upbringing, her year in Japan as a young girl has become an unalienable part of her
makeup, and so her fascination with Japanese culture has only grown over the years of her seperation from it. Now she returns, to confront that part of her than has been lost, both culturally, and personally. It is a story of a woman confronting her past, and in doing so, freeing herself from it.

This is a beautiful novel and one well worth anyone's time: the writing is absolutely lovely and the character development intense. I could not put it down and eventually cried at its finish. Give it a try: I can guarantee you will get something good out of it.

ash is arguably the most moving book i've read. the characters, places and their stories are so well developed it's difficult to stop thinking of them long after you've finished. the insights into japanese culture are inspired. enough can't be said about this book and ms. thompson's talents as a storyteller.

I originally bought this book because I am also an American teaching English in Kagoshima and my interest was piqued when I heard about this novel. Reading the novel, I enjoyed being able to recognize the areas mentioned and most of the Japanese words scattered throughout the book. However, that same use of Japanese vocabulary was one of the major problems I had with this book. Sure, most people these days know what sushi and miso are, but does your average person who has never been to Japan or studied about it know the meaning/significance of Tanabata, or what a bonchi is? There seemed to be a lot of vocabulary words that were not adequately explained in the book later. More detailed information can be found on the Ash website; however, it seems to me that looking up unfamiliar terms on the Internet interrupts the flow of the book and a concise glossary of terms and places in the back might have been nice. Also, I thought that the pressures of Japanese society could have been described a little more so that people would have a greater understanding of why Naomi feels the way she does about choosing between being Japanese and American, since that was apparently one of the author's goals for this book. Basically, if you have an interest in Japan and/or a little background in Japanese culture, then this book seems to have been written with you in mind. However, I think that people with little or no prior knowledge of Japan might have some trouble making it all the way through this one.