Customer Reviews

The Strangeness of Beauty

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

 

 

Absolutely beautiful novel about three generations of Japanese women. When Etsuko's sister Naomi dies during childbirth in Seattle, Etsuko takes on the role of mother to the baby, Hanae. After a few years of American life together, Hanae's father decides it's time to send both Hanae and Etsuko back to Japan, so Hanae can learn about her heritage and get to know her maternal grandmother, Chie. The three women, a Japanese woman from a prestigious samurai family (Chie), her ignored American-immigrant daughter (Etsuko), and her American-born granddaughter (Hanae), learn much about each other and the world during their turbulent years together. The setting is pre-World War II Japan, providing not only an incredible background, but the means for a fascinating history lesson as well. The characters are unique, intense, and real. And their interactions (both with each other and with their countries) are some of the most moving demonstrations of emotion I've encountered in a novel in some time. My fiance gave me this book for Valentine's Day, saying he thought it sounded like a book I might enjoy (and he knows how much a good book can impact me) -- I found it absolutely amazing that he was so right on. While a book might not sound like the most romantic of gifts, it sure says a lot about him that he knew me so well he was able to pick out a book I not only couldn't put down, but felt moved to copy passages out of as well. Highly, HIGHLY recommended! (And, boy, am I marrying well or what?)

An extraordinarily beautiful story, which is serene in it's simplicity of atmosphere, yet also contains intense emotion, and characters who are not always the way they seem. Written in a way that feels very real, with wonderful descriptions. Highly recomended!

This novel, which spans from 1922 to 1939 in both America (Seattle) and Japan, attempts to tell the I-story (Japanese for autobiography) of Etsuko Sone -- a woman who has seen much sadness by the time she is in her twenties. Through her I-story, we learn that she was given away at birth by her mother Chie who is in a serious state of depression after losing her first born son in infancy. Etsuko is brought up by a farming family and when she learns of her true heritage, in the House of Fuji, it is her decision to remain with the parents who have raised her and not to return to her biological mother. Love brings Etsuko to Seattle where she is subsequently followed by her sister Naomi who intends to marry the man she loves in Seattle. All is well until Naomi dies in childbirth and Etsuko is left to raise and love Naomi's daughter Hanae. All Etsuko has ever wanted in life is to be a good wife and a good mother. The following years will show Etsuko's desire to be the best mother for Hanae as well as trying to reconnect with the mother who gave her away at birth. Her mother, Chie, will eventually teach her to find her own purpose in life and not to depend on someone else for her happiness. Therein lies the "strangeness in beauty" -- turn your uncertainty into adventure and know that beauty can be found in what's common and small.

The Strangeness of Beauty is an intriguing book. At times, the prose is breathtaking, lightly skimming along the surface of three generations of women (and several men, in passing). At times, it reads like a sociology textbook -- a good one, but cold and impersonal. Characters are given to standing up and giving declarative speeches about things that have happened to them and their families.

Although the novel is ostensibly a first-person narrative by Etsuko, a woman of the middle generation, she frequently projects herself into the minds of others, sometimes in the first person. Other times, she gives third-person accounts of stories she could not possibly have witnessed. So what is real (in the fictional sense) and what is imagined by the narrator is never truly clear.

So why does the book work so well? Narrator Etsuko's almost compulsive drive to try to understand the rigid characters around her -- so driven that at one point, the narrator falls into a grinning, blank-eyed depression and stops trying to figure her world out altogether. Because she is puzzled, the reader is puzzled, and we are drawn into her search for understanding. As in life, we learn about these characters in little, wave-like spurts, without anyone's story being tied up into a neat bow.

The result is a book that cannot be summarized easily. This is one book that really must be experienced first-hand.

Although this book isn't so exciting that you'll stay up late finishing it, it has a nice flow and tug that just pulls you deeper and deeper into the story. It explains aspects of the Japanese culture that foreigners (particularly Americans) are completely cluess about. It also presents enough ideas that stimulate the brain so that you keep pondering some of the issues days, even weeks, after reading the last page.

The weakness of the book, however, is the character development. The main character, Etsuko, is an exception to this and towards the end of the book Chie develops more as well. But the character from the 3rd generation, Hanae, could be explored so much more than she is that the reader is left with some major questions about her motivations and dreams. The same is true of some other characters, more minor but still important to the story.

Despite this fault the book is a good read and I would recommend it.

Minatoya, with her amazinng vividness and force, helps readers explore the meaning of being "Japanese" and the rich heritage of the Japanese, Japanese-American and Western cultures. As readers blend Japanese and Western emotions, ideals and failings, they should begin to see the tip of what today has become the Japanese-American identity.

Overall this is a job well done!

When I borrowed this book I was unsure of how it would turn out, because many novels based in Japan use inaccurate information and tote it as fact. I had hoped this would be different, but unfortunately "The Strangeness of Beauty" is this sort of novel. One example of the lack of research that I found particularly glaring was that Minatoya claimed that "The Pillow Book" was written by a courtesan, and "was intended to savor with equal and ample attention 'the delights of literature and flesh'." (Minatoya 114). Even a basic wikipedia search would have told the author that the "The Pillow Book" was written by Sei Shonagon, a lady-in-waiting to Empress Teishi and is filled mostly with lists, her thoughts, poetry, and commentary on her contemporaries. Such examples of lackluster research abound in this novel. Furthermore, the style of writing does not make up for these failings. The style chosen, a diary format, is completely inconsistant with her constantly changing point of view. The narrator, Etsuko, writes in the point of view of her mother and niece about events Etsuko shouldn't know anything about, such as personal moments she doesn't witness. There are weak attempts to make up for this, such as the narrator claiming she is trying to see through her family's eyes, and a very odd section where the mother writes in the diary herself, but they don't make up for the fact that Etsuko writes down scenes that she shouldn't know in such detail. I think the author chose a diary format just so she could easily explain her (inaccurate) facts about Japanese culture for a Western audience, despite the fact that Etsuko was writing for herself and wouldn't need to explain anything. Even if the improbability of her format is taken away, the writing itself is bland, and the ending is very clichéd. Overall, it's just another poorly written novel among many that spreads inaccuracies about Japanese culture.

The Strangeness of Beauty is a novel which starts out introspective,then flies off for more challenging corners of the sky: how does the way we see others affect the way they act towards us? Etsuko is a woman caught between two fertile, seductive cultures:Japanese and American,and two great loves:freedom and responsibility. While she quickly adapts to rise beyond her own personal tragedies,she is far less flexible when it comes to her beloved'daughter'.Hanae is a child torn between her Japanese heritage and her American upbringing.And,within the historic arc of this tale, there are no easy,comforting answers.I found this an engaging,mesmerising book,full of lyric moments,great insight and bittersweet reflections on those tiny parts of life we take for granted. I recommend this book and already have had people who borrowed it passing it along once they finish with it. Brava.

Just like it was described, and got here quick. It will work just fine for my class. Cover is in good shape. Pages not too worn.

I recently visited the south of Japan. This book not only told a touching story, it helped explain so many questions I had after my visit. I loved this book, will read it over and over, and hope this author writes more.