BOOKS MEDIA ENTERTAINMENT BESTSELLERS AUTHORS BOOK PUBLISHING Michael Giltz Freelance writer GET UPDATES FROM MICHAEL GILTZ Follow Japan , World War II , Books , History , Immigrants , Writers , Books News 1 6 0 0React Inspiring Funny Typical Important Outrageous Amazing Innovative BeautifulBooks: Julie Otsuka's "The Buddha In The Attic" Is A Gem THE BUDDHA IN THE ATTIC **** out of **** FOLLOW US September 15, 2011 PHOTOS: Newspapers CommemoratePHOTOS: Cooper Strips Down, Reveals A Whole...</p><p> EXCLUSIVE: New Revelations From PostSecretAnderson Cooper's Big Day Arrives EDITION: U.S.</p><p> Like 43 Posted: 9/14/11 05:40 PM ET SHARE THIS STORY Submit this story Get Books Alerts Sign UpPHOTO GALLERIES CONNECT FRONT PAGE POLITICS BUSINESS ENTERTAINMENT TECH MEDIA LIFE & STYLE CULTURE COMEDY HEALTHY LIVING WOMEN LOCAL MORE Like 6KeReaders NYR BlackBerry 101 More Log inBy Julie Otsuka $22; Knopf I read this book in one gulp on a plane flight from London back to New York City.</p><p> Then I went out and bought author Julie Otsuka's debut novel When The Emperor Was Divine.</p><p> Then when the final hardcover edition of The Buddha In The Attic appeared in my mail, I read it again.</p><p> It comes in a trim, smaller format that's perfect for this precise, focused work of just 129 penetrating pages.</p><p> The jacket design by Gabriele Wilson is clever and eye-catching, the prose almost forces you to use words like "gem" and "pearl" and it has that feel of a book destined to become a bestseller.</p><p> See it and you'll want to pick it up.</p><p> Start reading it and you won't want to put it down.</p><p> But this suggests a modest endeavor when Otsuka's novel is anything but.</p><p> It's a boldly imagined work that takes a stylistic risk more daring and exciting than many brawnier books five times its size.</p><p> Even the subject matter is daring, for Otsuka's acclaimed debut told a story about the internment camps where Americans of Japanese descent were forced to relocate, uprooting and destroying their lives while Americans with German or Italian descent were essentially left alone.</p><p> That book became a bestseller and quickly worked its way onto high school reading lists, which is a testament to the book's accessible prose.</p><p> The subject matter surprised me, for Otsuka's new book leads up to that same, shameful event inAmerican history.</p><p> That's where the similarities end.</p><p> Emperor gathers strength by focusing on one family: a husband who is dragged away in the middle of the night; the wife he left behind and their two children, the three of whom are sent together to a camp.</p><p> In contrast, The Buddha In The Attic takes place in the decades between the wars.</p><p> Instead of one family, it focuses on a community of Japanese picture brides who travel to San Francisco to be married off to husbands they've never met before.</p><p> The distant, reserved voice of the narrator mirrors the reserve of many of these women overwhelmed by a new world, a new culture and of course married life itself.</p><p> Itbegins on the ship taking these bewildered, excited, nervous, brave and scared women on the longestjourney of their lives.</p><p> On the boat we were mostly virgins.</p><p> We had long black hair and flat wide feet and we were not verytall.</p><p> Some of us had eaten nothing but rice gruel as young girls and had slightly bowed legs, and someof us were only fourteen years old and were still young girls ourselves.</p><p> Some of us came from the cityand wore stylish city clothes, but many more of us came from the country and on the boat we worethe same old kimonos we'd been wearing for years -- faded hand-me-downs from our sisters that hadbeen patched and redyed many times.</p><p> Some of us came from the mountains, and had never beforeseen the sea, except for in pictures, and some of us were the daughters of fishermen who had beenaround the sea all our lives.</p><p> Perhaps we had lost a brother or father to the sea, or a fiance, or perhapssomeone we loved had jumped into the water one unhappy morning and simply swum away, and nowit was time for us, too, to move on.</p><p> This mesmerizing opening paragraph shows Otsuka's approach at its best: specific, clear, multitudinousin its grasp and subtly emotional.</p><p> She maintains this level throughout.</p><p> Some of the girls flirt with sailorson the boat, some get seasick, some feel fine right away, some are worried that their husbands will realizethey're not "fresh" and all of their thoughts and desires and fears are captured in prose.</p><p> The book followsthem off the boat and slowly, almost to your shock, you realize that Otsuka is not going to focus on one ortwo women or even five or ten.</p><p> She keeps her eye on the entire community, never once letting anyone fallfrom her grasp.</p><p> This sounds like it should be frustrating.</p><p> Off the boat, some of the women are working the fields alongside their husbands, others are beaten cruelly and run away, some work in town as maids for whitewomen, others work as prostitutes, some are happy, some are sad, some are not sure how they feel.</p><p> Atevery step, the women make decisions (or those decisions are made for them) and that takes them offinto an entirely new world of possibilities.</p><p> And then it happens again and again, a constant branching outof lives and Otsuka limns them all.</p><p> This is remarkable on several levels.</p><p> On the level of pure craftsmanship, it's exciting to see a writer make such a bold move and succeed so brilliantly -- like watching a juggler who keeps adding ball after ball tothe stream of objects they keep in the air.</p><p> Each vignette, each story is so riveting, you want to stay withthat character.</p><p> But Otsuka moves on.</p><p> If at any moment the next story and character wasn't so enthralling,you would immediately resent this and want to return to the previous thread.</p><p> But that literally neverhappens, You're pulled inexorably forward by wave after wave of event.</p><p> MOST POPULAR ON HUFFPOST 1 of 2 'Web Cam 101 For Seniors' Turns Oregon Oldsters Into YouTube Celebrities Scarlett Johansson Nude Photos Prompt Investigation SHOCK VIDEO: Debate Audience Says Uninsured Patient Should Be Left To Die Celestrellas: Angola named Miss Universe 2011 - show recap (PHOTOS & VIDEOS) AOL TV: Jon Cryer, Ashton Kutcher & Angus T.</p><p> Jones Talk 'Two and a Half Men' Season 9 (VIDEO) Ten Signs Your Marriage is Headed for Divorce Mark Blankenship True Blood Sucker Punch: Season 4, Ep. 12 Engadget: Windows 8 for tablets hands-on preview (video) AOL Jobs: Spelling Errors Send Red Flags To Employers DON'T MISS HUFFPOST BLOGGERS 1 of 5 Kumi Naidoo Don’t Make a Wave: Greenpeace at 40 Candy Spelling iPads and Social Media in the Classroom? MOST DISCUSSED RIGHT NOW HOT ON FACEBOOK 1 of 3 Like 120K Like 104 Like 64K Like 2K Like 466 Like 3K Like 113 Like 3K Like 1K Author: The Subject Of My Book Wants Me Dead 6 Words You Should Never Write Bad Words: 6 Words You Should Never...</p><p> Rare J.D.</p><p> Salinger Note On Sale For...</p><p> Jacqueline Kennedy Book: Former First Lady's Grandchildren...</p><p> How to Write a Book About AnonymousOn another level, it's an exceptionally appropriate way to capture the lives of immigrants.</p><p> By refusing to focus on one or two or even a dozen "typical" people (a lesser writer would have three or four maincharacters, with one bride heading to the city, one to the country, one off on her own and one intoprostitution), by constantly unfolding the endless possibilities of life, Otsuka reminds us that theimmigrant story will always be immigrant stories .</p><p> They're as varied and wonderful and heartbreaking as anyone else's life and never follow a set pattern.</p><p> Looming over it all is World War II and the internment camps we know are coming.</p><p> This is quietly devastating because Otsuka has done such a masterful job of showing us how specific and varied and diverse all these people are.</p><p> So when they're suddenly and brutally treated as foreigners, lumped together no matter how dramatically different they may be from one another, the injustice of it is doubly striking.</p><p> Few writers this year will take the risks that Otsuka does in The Buddha In The Attic.</p><p> And I doubt any of them will do it in a novel so accessible and rich that it's sure to be a favorite for casual readers and critics alike.</p><p> Thanks for reading.</p><p> Michael Giltz is the co-host of Showbiz Sandbox , a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinion makers as guests.</p><p> It's available free on iTunes.</p><p> Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog.</p><p> Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.</p><p> Link to him on Netflix and gain access to thousands of ratings and reviews .</p><p> NOTE: Michael Giltz is provided with free copies of books to consider for review.</p><p> He typically does notguarantee coverage and invariably receives far more books than he can cover.</p><p> Follow Michael Giltz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/michaelgiltz Buy a link here Sponsored Links 57 Year Old Mom Looks 27 Huffington Post Readers: Mom Reveals $5 Wrinkle Trick Angering Doctors Daily-Lifestyles.com Penny Stock Jumping 3000% Join our 100% Free Newsletter & get Penny Stock Picks that jump high! www.AwesomePennyStocks.com RN Degree Programs Attend Class Anytime Day or Night! 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