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Editorial Reviews
Review
"[F]inely wrought debut novel...Schiffer immerses readers in the thick bayou air and community tensions."
--Publishers Weekly
"A compelling, vivid account of a shameful episode that should not be forgotten."
--Booklist starred review
--Publishers Weekly
"A compelling, vivid account of a shameful episode that should not be forgotten."
--Booklist starred review
From the Inside Flap
"Camp Nine beautifully captures a sense of time and place that resonates with authenticity. It shows an intimate familiarity with the internment camp at Rohwer-how the camp came to be situated in such a remote part of Arkansas, life within the camp, and the feelings of the Japanese Americans held captive there, as well as what life was like in the 1940s for the locals outside. It is a perspective that has never been presented. I love this book and recommend it as a must-read."
-Delphine Hirasuna, author of The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942 - 1946
"Through the prisms of place, family, race, class, power, and privilege, Vivienne Schiffer skillfully constructs a necessarily complicated portrait of the era into a meaningful mosaic and satisfying story."
-Grif Stockley, author of Ruled by Race: Black/White Relations in Arkansas from Slavery to the Present (University of Arkansas Press)
-Delphine Hirasuna, author of The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942 - 1946
"Through the prisms of place, family, race, class, power, and privilege, Vivienne Schiffer skillfully constructs a necessarily complicated portrait of the era into a meaningful mosaic and satisfying story."
-Grif Stockley, author of Ruled by Race: Black/White Relations in Arkansas from Slavery to the Present (University of Arkansas Press)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book tells a fictionalized account of the interned Japanese US citizens during WWII. A camp was set up in Arkansas and our government moved law abiding CITIZENS to a military base simply because they were Japanese. It was one of the worst offenses post-slavery that this country had sanctioned.
Chess Morton is just a child when the Camp is established on land that was hers; her grandfather is guardian of her estate and he sells it to the government. She is of the "landed gentry" in the area and very protected. Her mother was born of immigrant parents and not at all what was expected in a wife for a Morton. Chess's father died young leaving her with a mother trying to what was best for her child in a difficult time.
Into their protected world drops Camp Nine, the Japanese internment prison. The colonel in charge of the camp is an old friend of Chess's mother and she becomes involved with him and the people at the camp. She starts teaching art classes and becomes friendly with one family in particular, the Matsuis.
Chess tries to remain ignorant of the camp but her mother forces her to acknowledge it. She starts going to the camp and she befriends the young Matsui boys, David and Henry. She learns that there is a whole other world outside of her pampered, Southern upbringing.
In spite of learning some harsh facts about the world at large Chess still remains in the dark about much that goes on around her until the conclusion of the book when a final meeting lays bare a past she thought she understood and exposes truths as lies.
This was a beautifully written book covering a horrible topic. Despite this, Ms. Schiffer has crafted a novel that I found to be one that I will keep and read again. I don't do this often. Chess is the focus of the tale, not the Camp. It is her story; as she grows and learns and finally discovers her painful past. All of the adults in her life wanted to protect her from the worst of life and I am not sure they did her any favors.
I think this is book that will be even better on a second reading. The foreknowledge of the ending will allow the reader to better appreciate some of the characters' actions. In spite of the awful topics - internment, racial hostility, the Klan - the book is softly written. I will look forward to further writings from Ms. Schiffer.
Chess Morton is just a child when the Camp is established on land that was hers; her grandfather is guardian of her estate and he sells it to the government. She is of the "landed gentry" in the area and very protected. Her mother was born of immigrant parents and not at all what was expected in a wife for a Morton. Chess's father died young leaving her with a mother trying to what was best for her child in a difficult time.
Into their protected world drops Camp Nine, the Japanese internment prison. The colonel in charge of the camp is an old friend of Chess's mother and she becomes involved with him and the people at the camp. She starts teaching art classes and becomes friendly with one family in particular, the Matsuis.
Chess tries to remain ignorant of the camp but her mother forces her to acknowledge it. She starts going to the camp and she befriends the young Matsui boys, David and Henry. She learns that there is a whole other world outside of her pampered, Southern upbringing.
In spite of learning some harsh facts about the world at large Chess still remains in the dark about much that goes on around her until the conclusion of the book when a final meeting lays bare a past she thought she understood and exposes truths as lies.
This was a beautifully written book covering a horrible topic. Despite this, Ms. Schiffer has crafted a novel that I found to be one that I will keep and read again. I don't do this often. Chess is the focus of the tale, not the Camp. It is her story; as she grows and learns and finally discovers her painful past. All of the adults in her life wanted to protect her from the worst of life and I am not sure they did her any favors.
I think this is book that will be even better on a second reading. The foreknowledge of the ending will allow the reader to better appreciate some of the characters' actions. In spite of the awful topics - internment, racial hostility, the Klan - the book is softly written. I will look forward to further writings from Ms. Schiffer.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
For such a small book (151 pages), this one sure packs a punch.
I know very little about the camps created here in the states for the Japanese after Pearl Harbor. But over the last year, I've been reading more fiction about the horrible treatment not only received by the Japanese, but other immigrants during that time period (Also, see Lost in Shangri La by Mitchell Zuckoff).
This book tells a fictional story of "Camp Nine", based on a camp that was located in the authors hometown (name changed), and based on real life characters. It's heart-breaking, inspiring, and eye-opening - three things that make up a powerful book. However, it's such a quiet story that the full impact didn't even hit me until I'd set it down and thought about it for a while, a fact that makes me shake my head in wonder. I do love it when a story creeps up on you like that.
While I enjoyed reading about Chess and her mother, David and Henry Matsui and some of the other interesting characters in the book, my attention was very much captured by Cottonmouth Willie. Schiffer does a beautiful job building up this quiet, background character and giving him a voice that sings as beautifully as his music appears to. When describing his style of blues, I could hear it in my head - and as a musician, something like that is invaluable to me.
This would be a fantastic book to give any history buffs in your life. It's unusual, very unique, and enlightening, to be sure.
I know very little about the camps created here in the states for the Japanese after Pearl Harbor. But over the last year, I've been reading more fiction about the horrible treatment not only received by the Japanese, but other immigrants during that time period (Also, see Lost in Shangri La by Mitchell Zuckoff).
This book tells a fictional story of "Camp Nine", based on a camp that was located in the authors hometown (name changed), and based on real life characters. It's heart-breaking, inspiring, and eye-opening - three things that make up a powerful book. However, it's such a quiet story that the full impact didn't even hit me until I'd set it down and thought about it for a while, a fact that makes me shake my head in wonder. I do love it when a story creeps up on you like that.
While I enjoyed reading about Chess and her mother, David and Henry Matsui and some of the other interesting characters in the book, my attention was very much captured by Cottonmouth Willie. Schiffer does a beautiful job building up this quiet, background character and giving him a voice that sings as beautifully as his music appears to. When describing his style of blues, I could hear it in my head - and as a musician, something like that is invaluable to me.
This would be a fantastic book to give any history buffs in your life. It's unusual, very unique, and enlightening, to be sure.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Camp Nine is a coming of age novel set in World War II. The story is seen through the eyes of thirteen year old Chess Morton. Chess is the granddaughter of the local wealthy landowner, Walter Morton, who owns most of the land there in the Delta of Arkansas and influences everything. Far from being raised as a wealthy Southern lady, though, Chess lives in genteel poverty with her mother, Carolina Morton, known as Carrie. Carrie was raised as the only daughter of Italian immigrants, and considered just this side of unacceptable when Walter's son, Walt, fell in love with and married her. Walt, Chess' dad, died early, and Walter and Carrie settled into a pitched battle that would last their lives about their differing world views and their views on how to raise Chess.
It is the mid 1940's and something strange has happened in the Delta. Walter has sold a huge parcel of land to the government and the government has quickly constructed a city there, a city of worn boards and communal kitchens and dining halls. Who will live in this place? The answer arrives with the first trainload of Japanese families. These are the Japanese-American families who lived in California and were rounded up and interned during the war.
Sentiment in the town was quickly divided. Most of the residents, already living in a defined social structure between black and white inhabitants, are against the new residents of the Delta. Of course, these residents are not roaming the town; they are restricted to the land within the barbed wire fences guarded by American soldiers. Carrie, however, is thrilled to see and meet the families there. It reminds her of her time in California, when she attended college there and planned a life as an artist. She quickly volunteers her time as an art teacher and soon has established herself as part of the camp life. Chess accompanies her, and the two become close to many families, especially the Matsui family.
This book is recommended for historical fiction readers. It outlines the life led by the Japanese who were interned during World War I. It also covers the history of the Klan, the social structure of the South, the heroism of the Japanese-American soldiers who fought for their country even as their country treated their families as traitors and suspicious inhabitants. The is Schiffer's first novel, and readers will be ready to read her next one after finishing Camp Nine; ready for more of her deft touch recreating past events.
It is the mid 1940's and something strange has happened in the Delta. Walter has sold a huge parcel of land to the government and the government has quickly constructed a city there, a city of worn boards and communal kitchens and dining halls. Who will live in this place? The answer arrives with the first trainload of Japanese families. These are the Japanese-American families who lived in California and were rounded up and interned during the war.
Sentiment in the town was quickly divided. Most of the residents, already living in a defined social structure between black and white inhabitants, are against the new residents of the Delta. Of course, these residents are not roaming the town; they are restricted to the land within the barbed wire fences guarded by American soldiers. Carrie, however, is thrilled to see and meet the families there. It reminds her of her time in California, when she attended college there and planned a life as an artist. She quickly volunteers her time as an art teacher and soon has established herself as part of the camp life. Chess accompanies her, and the two become close to many families, especially the Matsui family.
This book is recommended for historical fiction readers. It outlines the life led by the Japanese who were interned during World War I. It also covers the history of the Klan, the social structure of the South, the heroism of the Japanese-American soldiers who fought for their country even as their country treated their families as traitors and suspicious inhabitants. The is Schiffer's first novel, and readers will be ready to read her next one after finishing Camp Nine; ready for more of her deft touch recreating past events.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
A powerful story of WWII
I very much enjoyed reading Vivienne Schiffer's Camp Nine. It is a "coming of age" story of a girl in the delta farm country of southeast Arkansas who is affected by the... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Charles
Lovely writing, memorable narration
Vivienne Schiffer's CAMP NINE is a quiet, moving coming-of-age story detailing life at fictionalized Camp Nine, a place teeming with life and culture in the 1940s. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Megan Snider
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