Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Obasan by Joy Kogawa

4 reviews

jadziaaudrey's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Grief, Death of parent, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

juliebruzon's review

emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Racial slurs, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

rzh's review

4.0

read this for a canadian literature course at university: very moving, lovely prose, and a valuable insight to the japanese-canadian experience towards the end of the second world war. can definitely understand why it forms a key part in most canadian literature courses in university. perhaps quite difficult at times to tell whether the narrator is in the past or the future, but i’d say that’s definitely intentional and forms an interesting comment on different characters’ approaches to family and cultural history. 4 stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Genocide, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault

perenian's review

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Kogawa’s writing is poetic, beautiful as always, and utterly compelling. I loved how practically everything in the book was connected. I felt Naomi (the main character)’s grief through each word—it is a grief that hangs on, tugs at your heart for days afterwards.

“Itsuka, itsuka…” Naomi’s Oba-san says, over and over. “Someday, someday.”

Those are the words I’d use to describe Kogawa’s story. Oba-san’s words are a kind of foreshadowing, almost: it is a promise of things yet to come, things both painful and healing. It is not a word of certainty, either, and it is its wavering nature that solidifies the fears Naomi (as well as the others) has. Oba-san is a novel about journeys––those that are unfinished, those that are of self-discovery, and those that are pushed through with anxiety and a fear of the unknown.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Racism, and Sexual assault

Again, not a light read.