last night i was up past midnight finishing "snow falling on cedars." i just couldn't put it down when i was so close to finding out what happened! was kabuo actually guilty of murder? would ishamael turn in the evidence he found in the lighthouse? what really happened to carl on that boat?
yikes, it sounds so cheesy when i put it that way, but i was truly hooked on this book. it's a murder mystery and a love story all wrapped up into one, neither of which genre i terribly enjoy, but it was written so well that i couldn't help but love it.
and although i enjoyed the love story and the mystery, i was also wrapped up in the history. the story takes place in 1952, about 10 years after WWII. many of the residents of this island are of japanese descent, and during the war they were forced to evacuate their homes and were placed in internment camps. i remember talking briefly about these camps in my high school history classes, but we didn't spend nearly as much time on these as we did on other parts of the war. my hunch is that we are ashamed as a country to admit that we could commit such an abominable act, ripping people from their homes and families simply because of their heritage.
but then again, hasn't this always been an unspoken part of our history? manifest destiny: old, white, protestant men believe that it is god's will for them to take over and rule the rest of the world.
oh america, land of the rich, and the home of the bourgeois. will we ever learn to accept one another as humans, not as colors?
1 comments:
Snow Falling on Cedars is one of my favorite books! I was forced to read it in high school, but really liked it and then read it again a couple of years later and liked it even more.
I have this vague recollection that I heard the movie didn't do a good job, bu I also have another vague recollection that I liked it. So take that for what you will.
Post a Comment