ancillary_reader's review against another edition
2.0
I really disliked this book. Even accounting for the fact that it's a bit dated (estimating the author was in Japan in the 60s/70s), it's mainly the author talking about everything she hates about Japan, which is colored through the lens of her fairly miserable childhood, and making very broad generalizations about Japanese culture/language and Midwestern culture/language that often seemed inaccurate to me.
sandyd's review
4.0
This is an autobiography I stole from someone else's list, because I find Japanese culture fascinating. Mori describes some really eye opening cultural differences - health care (and whether you're told the 'whole' truth about your condition!), banking (just trust your relatives and don't ask questions), and the 'polite lies' of the title come to mind right off the bat.
I really liked her comparison of houses and marriages in Japan to small town (Green Bay) Wisconsin, too. She had some interesting insights on midwestern attitudes - kind of Prairie Home Companion-ish.
Sometimes the interesting cultural examinations didn't mesh well with her life story - which was sad in many ways, especially when it came to her relationship with her mother. I thought it dragged a bit in the second half, but not so much it didn't make me want to finish reading it. And there was a quite beautifully lyric final chapter that made up for the previous occasional slow passages.
I really liked her comparison of houses and marriages in Japan to small town (Green Bay) Wisconsin, too. She had some interesting insights on midwestern attitudes - kind of Prairie Home Companion-ish.
Sometimes the interesting cultural examinations didn't mesh well with her life story - which was sad in many ways, especially when it came to her relationship with her mother. I thought it dragged a bit in the second half, but not so much it didn't make me want to finish reading it. And there was a quite beautifully lyric final chapter that made up for the previous occasional slow passages.
hollowspine's review
4.0
This is a very interesting book, it brings up some interesting views on both Japanese and Midwestern culture. Coming from the Midwest I found her points on the culture spot on, she seems to see into the heart and mind of the Midwesterner! I was also glad to find her debunking the myths of the superiority of the Japanese school system (in comparison to Western, mainly American systems) and revealing the reason behind the American attraction to Eastern Philosophy (such as Buddhism or Zen). Though she doesn't go into the fact that it's completely contradictory that American's should want to follow a philosophy that tries to distance itself from the tangible world and embrace the next. For a culture that values self-importance and material possessions so much it seems strange. I also greatly enjoyed her insights on the many difficulties women who want to maintain strength and independence face in both cultures.
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