Customer Reviews

Picking Bones from Ash: A Novel

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This author has a real talent in story telling and what a great first novel. The author offers her characters as teachers in telling us a wonderful story of life past and present, transporting us over 50 years of the beautiful traditions of Japan; and regardless of our geographic location, our ancestrial past continues to have an imprint on our lives. The story was more a mystery within a mystery, which the author did a brilliant job in keeping the reader focused and intensely intrigued with each turn of the page; but remained faithful to fold back the mist and allowing us see for ourselves that life is complicated and that we have choices in how we choose to live, but above all Love prevails. Told from many people's perspective, which added bounce, depth and intrigue to each of the key characters. I loved the novel for the mystery and then the reveal. If you loved the Joy Luck Club then you will love this book. This novel is made for a movie!

An unnaccountably strange and beautiful novel from a debut novelist. The coming of age tales of a mother and daughter are intertwined as East meets West in a thriller about a ghost and a family secret. The two stories collide in a comic sprawl populated with a host of characters who each have either a spiritual challenge or at least some kind take on spirituality. In their twin quests for mastery and truth, Satomi and Rumi meet free spirits, tormented artists, cunning forgers, phony gurus, and trapped priests, and most memorably a ghost who hints at an ancestral secret, kind of a transgression hidden within a misdemeanor.

The storytelling is fresh and delivered in a lucid, completely original style that showcases Mockett's gift for dialogue and description, and a delightful wit that pokes fun at human frailty without cynicism. The author uses scenes of magic realism in a way that evokes the Mizayaki's flights of imagination, creating some genuinely eerie ghost scenes and a wild and unforgettable ride through the snowy mountains of Japan pursued by demons. Though not everyone will like the post-modern narrative structure, I found the ending (or series of them) a tremendously satisfying piece of storytelling as the plot comes full circle. Entertaining, surprisingly challenging work from a real stylist. Go get it!

I wonder how much of her lifetime Ms. Mockett spent in Japan. Her knowledge of Japanese culture, customs, and even botany-how far bamboo can grow-is clearly demonstrated in her novel Picking Bones From Ash. Each word is carefully chosen so phrases and sentences run like good music. As soon as you start reading this novel, I felt as though I was entering the world of novel and I could see what was going on in my mind as if I were watching its movie. I could hardly put down this book when I once started reading it. Must be included for Christmas shopping lists!

Reading Picking Bones from Ash made me remember what it can be like to be thoroughly lost in a book and its made-up world. I read it in one evening, forgetting about such mundanities as deadlines or dinner. Its characters will stay with me for a long while. Marie Mockett is a conjuror; this book is a wonder.

This rich and delicate story of three generations of mothers and daughters arcs from Japan to California and back, masterfully approaching the idea that a woman's best route to survival is to be truly extraordinary. The novel connects the stories of Satomi, a wickedly talented Japanese pianist, and her estranged American daugter, Rumi, whose preternatural skill at identifying antiques seems nearly supernatural. A smooth, deftly rendered, and wonderfully bicultural novel.

Satomi is a female character that is difficult to like. Self absorbed and stubborn she suffered her mother's demands with grace. Things in the story are not what they seem to be. Are the antiques real or fake? Are they legal or stolen? The tale is like the masks that the Japanese people wear, some wear real and freightening masks for festivals and some just facial expressions that hide thoughts and emotions. Satomi and Rumi each put forth great effort to please their one single parent. Both struggle with their identities, seeking to know who their parents are and who they themselves wish to be. Each has to escape from the parent to learn their true identity. Each struggles in her relationship with men; each does not know who to trust and maybe she should trust none of them. The second half of the book seems greatly removed from the first. The first half seems grounded in tedious reality while the second incorporates the supernatural and fantasy.

I have traveled in Japan several times. It is a fascinating and beautiful place. The people are interesting although you don't get to know them easily. In spite of it's modern face, much of Japan still is rooted in mystic tradition. Picking Bones from Ashes shows both sides of Japan's culture beautifully.

Separating Bone from Ash tells the stories of three women and their different ways of exploring family mysteries while discovering and separating their talents, value true gifts from the dross. A certain small amount of magic mostly in the form of visions propels significant action. I have mixed feelings about this book One the one hand it is beautifully written often lovely and breathtaking, on the other hand I'm not sure I actually like any of the main characters. I want the women to succeed and find their happiness but both Satomi and Rumi are rather broken birds. They each take far longer to find their gumption Than any real Japanese or Japanese American woman I've ever known would have taken. They seem to let themselves be tools of manipulative men far longer than seems normal too. Yet like the hot baths that occur throughout the book the story is at first dauntingly hot and strange and then comforting.

The author is Japanese American and seems to have a thorough knowledge of japan its Culture and the ability to make it live and be clear to us. This book manages to be fast paced and languid at the same time. The language is evocative of Japan, beautifully descriptive of cultural, geographic and personal details yet somehow spare. Satomis' Mother is a woman who has the gift of using men, mostly in order to be able to get Satomi The training to be a great Musician. Satomi and her daughter Rumi are used by men because they have the gift of identifying real antiques of great value from false.

"Being Japanese" means more than simply being born and raised in the country. It means you are (even posthumously) part of and embrace the traditions of a family or clan. The country has a wonderful culture, however nonconformist relationships and broken families were scrutinized with barbaric prejudice. Picking Bones from Ash is an imaginative adventure that reunites a tragically unconventional Japanese family in a uniquely Japanese fashion. Under the eloquent, captivating scenes, Ms. Mockett weaves in cultural themes at turmoil that propel the heroine, Satomi.

In Part 2, the storytelling changes in both pace and tone. This is an ingenious technique of understanding the co-heroine, Rumi, a Californian who's life, in comparison to Satomi, is sheltered and unencumbered with the pressures of cultural expectations. The change of pace is cleverly reminiscent of a Japanese Noh Play, alluding to Rumi's connection to her Japanese roots and to the musical theme from Part 1 - the tone and pace is Rumi's "accent."

The story is laden with music references. In one instance, rather than using the Norse spelling of "Brynhildr" to describe the valkyrie, (homage to Kingston?) Ms. Mockett opts for Wagner's "Brünnhilde", from Der Ring Des Nibelungen. At first this seemed out of place, but it cleverly foreshadows the epic adventure that would ensue as the story takes you on a ride with the gosenzo spirit, seeking ancient artifacts, encounters with demons and Transformers, and up the slopes of Osorezan, Japan's version of Mount Doom!

Brava, Marie!

Picking Bones from Ash is a wonderful story, containing mysteries and ghosts, ancient Buddhas and modern Japan, antiques and backpacking travellers. The story begins with Satomi, a spunky girl with a talent for music. Raised by her single mother, she isn't easily accepted in small town Japan. When her mother remarries, she feels abandoned. Not long after, she sets off to Paris to study music. There, she meets an intriguing westerner - Timothy Snowden. She becomes wrapped up in his life and eventually finds herself more at home in the West than the East. Later the story continues with her daughter, Rumi, who has a talent for reading objects - specifically Asian antiques - and makes a living in San Francisco as an antique dealer. One day she travels to Japan to seek her mother. The two womens' stories entwine and reflect one another.

The description of this book doesn't do it justice. I left this for last of all my reviews, and it turned out much more interesting than I expected. The sharp contrast between Part One and Part Two really took me by surprise and bothered me at the time - it felt so abrupt. But it was necessary to create a mystery. The author tied it all together by the end.

I can give this book no higher praise than saying that I gave up sleep to read it. You see, I have been reading while I feed my son during the night. Usually we are up three times a night. Reasonably, I should only read while he eats and then go back to bed. Instead, I would find myself continuing to read this book, while my son dreams away on my chest.

This novel tells the story of three women, mothers and daughters, and what those ties mean to each of them. The book begins with Satomi in Japan 1954 living with her single mother. Satomi does not know who her father is and neither do the townspeople. Satomi is a very talented pianist which keeps the townspeople respecting her mother and her, until her mother borrows money from the men at the bar she runs to take Satomi on a piano competition in another location. After the townspeople turn on Satomi and her mother, her mother makes the decision to marry and they both move into her husband's home in the North of Japan to live with him and his two daughters. Satomi cannot get used to this new world or her new step-sisters. Satomi is subsequently shipped off to boarding school where she still tries her best to please her mother. The first half of the book follows Satomi's life.

Then the second half of the book picks up with Rumi, Satomi's daughter, who is half-Japanese and half-American and grows up in San Francisco with her father. Rumi believes her mother to be dead and makes no effort to find out anything about Satomi until an old friend of her father's and mother's comes into her life and prompts her to find out what happened to Satomi. This begins Rumi's adventure.

This is a sweet and sometimes sad novel but it will keep you guessing until the very end. I could not stop reading this book in order to find out what happens. I highly recommend it.