Customer Reviews

The Yokota Officers Club

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a military brat who grew up on a number of air force bases all over the United States and abroad I found this book to be a non-stop, cover to cover read.

Although I knew this book was a fictional work, the characters became absolutely real to me. The brothers and sisters in this book were my brothers and sisters and my friends in the military base Capehart housing down the street. One of the book's locales, Kadena AFB on Okinawa, "the rock" was much the same as one of the bases I grew up on, Ramey AFB in Puerto Rico, "the rock" on the other side of the world. The pilot father as a maniac behind the wheel, racing a large family packed into a car almost non-stop to his next duty station was my B-52 crewman father doing the same thing with my family.

The forever concerns I had while growing up of getting into trouble and ruining my father's career, walked up behind me and once again breathed heavily down my neck as I read this book.

More importantly, I was reminded of friends who were removed from military bases and my life the very day after their fathers didn't come back from "training and weather missions." At age 46 this book finally brought home to me the fact that I was not allowed, as a friend, to share their grief and offer support over the loss of their fathers. A tragedy for all concerned, but shared and shouldered by very few.

Sarah Bird's first person fictional narrative of the personal one on one relationship between the the main character, Bernie, and the family maid Fumiko and the family secrets surrounding her; speaks volumes on the impact we, in a smaller sense as military children growing up overseas and we, in a larger sense as a country, had on people in the countries occupied by America's military after World War II.

It has been a long, dry, almost desolate 25 years since the last fictional book about growing up in a military family, Pat Conroy's "Great Santini" was released by a major publisher. With Knopf's publication of "The Yokota Officers Club," we are finally, given, not not only a glass of cool water to drink from, to quench our thirst with; but we are also given the spring the water flows from.

If you pride yourself on being a military brat...don't miss this book. You'll find a bit of all of us within this book, our triumphs, failings, and also our humanity as military brats....

Just when you think you've had enough of novels about disintegrating families, there comes a book as appealing as "The Yokota Officers' Club." Author Sarah Bird whisks you away to the military world of Okinawa in 1968, where Peter, Paul & Mary's "I Dig Rock and Roll Music" passes for real rock 'n roll; where military families fear breaking an unspoken code of behavior and being RIFed, and where Vietnam is still a flicker in the background.

After her first year of college, Bernie Root comes home to Okinawa, the place her family happens to be that summer. Her dad's in the Air Force, and they move around a lot. But things have changed shockingly in her year away from the family. Her parents' marriage has turned ugly, and her off-beat tribe of brothers and sisters are almost too quirky to fit in anywhere. Being back in Asia reminds Bernie of the four happy years in Tokyo, a time made special by the family's closeness and the presence of their Japanese maid Fumiko, whom Bernie and her mother loved very much. Fumiko's name is never spoken now, and Bernie wonders why.

She gets the chance to find out when she wins a dance contest to tour air bases in Japan with Far East Funnyman Bobby Moses, a comic whose creaking act provides pained yucks for entertainment-starved officers clubs. His sidekick doesn't add much. Not with Bernie squeezed into tiny go-go boots halfheartedly jiving to whatever piece of cornball music a local band can come up with. She soldiers on for the chance to find Fumiko.

Her discovery is surprising and disconcerting, and even more so is the role Bernie finds she played in it. Sarah Bird's portrait of Americans in 1950s and 60s Japan makes for excellent reading. Intelligent and funny, "The Yokota Officers' Club" will not disappoint readers who set high standards for their summer reading.

Having lived at Yokota AFB from 1957-59 seeing this book really took me by surprise so I ran out and read it immediately. I couldn't put it down. It is hard to find a book that reminds us brats of our childhood, but reading "Yokota" did it for me! It brought back so many fond memories of Japan, the Teen Club, the Father and Daughter Brownie Banquet and especially of our maid Iseko. This book left me in a very reflective mood. I wish my Dad were still around to talk to him adult to adult about our military life. All those long forgotten memories and feelings... thanks to Sarah Bird for bringing them to the surface again. Thanks too for trying to explain the complex chemistry of the military life, its people, and burdens that the government expects from all of them. I'm proud to be an American, I'm proud to be an USAF brat and I'm glad I read The Yokota Officers Club.

I just finished reading "The Yokota Officers Club." It reminded me of my lost military brat past. I'm feeling strangely out of place at this moment in time as I look around my civilian world, which though I've known it for half my life now, suddenly seems foreign all over again. I suddenly have an urge to go down to a military base and surround myself with the familiar.

It is this effect I find most powerful about Sarah's story. She includes lots of the details of life on Okinawa, something else with which I identify. Around that she weaves all the stuff that is familiar to anyone who has grown up in or married into the military. The social circles and wearing of the husband's rank, the frequent moves into all too familiar housing, and the fear that maybe dad wouldn't come home this time are all in the book.

The story has a bit of a bittersweet ending. This is entirely appropriate though. That's what the military life is like.

Sarah Bird's "Yokota Officer's Club" brought back many bittersweet memories for me -- the frequency with which I was amid strangers, the irony of the familiar places without the familiar faces, the rigid rules by which all military dependents had to live, the patriotism forced on military brats at childhood which continue to permeate our adult lives...only another military brat could have captured these with such poignancy.

But beyond capturing the spirit of the military brat's life, I thought that Yokota was a heartrending, coming-of-age story. I've often said that children of military personnel who relocate every few years either become extreme introverts or extreme extroverts -- nothing in between. Bird gives us two children in the same household who represent these two extremes.

All of the characters in this book were complex people, surviving amid a world that will seem foreign to the civilian but will be achingly familiar to the military dependent. Each has his/her own bittersweet story which Bird tells empathetically without resorting to emotional manipulation. It is an honest portrayal of very real characters; I know because I've met and know many of them.

I highly recommend the book to any former or current military dependent. For the former, Yokota will be cathartic; for the latter, the book will shed light and understanding of a way of life that is particularly timely during the current war and conflict.

I also recommend it to anyone who's ever had a friend or family member in the military. Yokota will shed light on the idiosyncracies and fears of these people. Yokota makes it possible to imagine the life of military personnel and their families.

I loved this book! What a great read. Sarah Bird hooked me from page one and I couldn't put this one down. A fierce, funny and touching story about families, this is one for the ages. The cast of characters are lovingly drawn, yet Bird's wicked satirical voice cuts through any treacle to make this a laugh out loud while you cry, pleasure to read. By setting the story in a military base in Okinawa, Bird also drew me into a world I knew nothing about - family life on a military base, the South China sea, it's splendor and smells, (Bird paints incredibly vivid pictures with her words that transported me to this place and time) and she milks it for all it's worth; twisted family ties, the secret rules that govern the social hierarchy on base, and the complex and conflicting emotions that wrenched our country during the Viet Nam conflict. Bird's genius is to knit together all the forces feeding in to the ties that bind and choke us. A funny, twisted and heart felt Valentine to family life, military families and all the dark secrets and heartbreaking surprises along the way.

My brother gave me this book for Christmas but it took me a long time - until Presidents' Day - to finish it. The storyline had me hooked - you end up rooting for Bernie Root and her mother, Moe, the one gaijin who was respectful to the Okinawans and the Japanese. Tt took me so long to digest this book because the characters and details were so vivid I cringed when I recognized the parts of my own life I had as an Army junior. I went to Kubasaki back in the days it was the only DoD high school on island. My dad was in the Army and we moved around like a band of gypsies. Sarah Bird got it right. It all came flooding back. Koza City and four corners, the embroidery shops, the shock of seeing one's teacher partying in public, even the squid on the stick! The bitchy officers' wives who wear their husbands' ranks on their shoulders were way too real. Even the part where families would be here one day and gone the next for something one of the kids did hit close to home (not me, mind you, but some friends at K-9 suddenly weren't there the following week). I laughed, I cried, I wondered how did she know about the caves? I plan to take this book with me to the next KHS reunion.

Just finished the wonderful book "Yokota Officer's Club" - WOW!  As a 50 year old Air Force brat this is the first book I have ever read about "us!" It brought back so many memories - both bad and good.  I can remember my dad (an Air Force pilot) reminding me over and over that if I had even an overdue library book it would go on his record!!!  YIKES!  I have always maintained that the US Government should provide lifetime psychiatric care for all military brats!

Sarah Bird has written a funny and poignant book. There wasn't a false moment in the book for me - it all rang so true - you know she was really there! An excellent, well told, story - it made me glad I know how to read!

All of Ms. Bird's books are smart, and funny. She shows complex characters, living complicated lives, with passion and humor. And, as with every good book, I can glimpse into worlds I would have no other way to learn about. I can't think of anything more I would want from a book.

I just finished reading The Yokota Officers Club. I could not put it down. My Dad was a career Army officer, and was a military brat as well. This book reminded me not only of my own Army Brat life, but also of how my Dad's must have been. There were so many little things in this book that rang true. Why aren't there more books/ novels about military brats??? Bottom line... I really enjoyed this book, and found myself wishing that I could chat with Sarah Bird about her real life Military Brat life.