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A review by pattydsf
Facing the Wave: A Journey in the Wake of the Tsunami by Gretel Ehrlich
3.0
”From under a thin futon on tatami that no longer smells like grass, I hear the rattle of shoji screens until a seismic wave carries the house forward and upward in a hard jolt – a slice of contained chaos – and drops it again, down the face of a geologic wave to Earth’s uncertain crust.”
A decade ago I read The Future of Ice: A Journey into Cold. At the time, I regretted that time had gone by since I had last read a book by Ehrlich. In my optimist way, I said that I would look for the books I had missed that Ehrlich had written and I would read them. Fat chance. I may be an omnivore reader, but not matter how I try, I can’t read everything. Not even everything I want to read.
Thank goodness I am going to Japan and feel obligated to stop trying to read my TBR list and concentrate on books about Japan. None of which were on my radar, let alone my list. This way I get to run into Ehrlich’s writings again.
The earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in March 2011 broke the world apart for many people. Most of those affected were Japanese, but there are others for whom this disaster caused heartache and pain. As far as I can tell, Ehrlich is one of those people.
Ehrlich writes sparingly, in an episodic manner. It took me awhile to adjust to her style and I don’t think I appreciated this book as much during my reading as I do afterwards. The book seemed disjointed to me. Since I will be visiting Ishinomaki, I was looking for a cohesive narrative and that is not how this book is written. However, now that I have read other material about the tsunami, I have my straightforward story. I think I would understand Erhlich’s account better now.
A decade ago I read The Future of Ice: A Journey into Cold. At the time, I regretted that time had gone by since I had last read a book by Ehrlich. In my optimist way, I said that I would look for the books I had missed that Ehrlich had written and I would read them. Fat chance. I may be an omnivore reader, but not matter how I try, I can’t read everything. Not even everything I want to read.
Thank goodness I am going to Japan and feel obligated to stop trying to read my TBR list and concentrate on books about Japan. None of which were on my radar, let alone my list. This way I get to run into Ehrlich’s writings again.
The earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in March 2011 broke the world apart for many people. Most of those affected were Japanese, but there are others for whom this disaster caused heartache and pain. As far as I can tell, Ehrlich is one of those people.
Ehrlich writes sparingly, in an episodic manner. It took me awhile to adjust to her style and I don’t think I appreciated this book as much during my reading as I do afterwards. The book seemed disjointed to me. Since I will be visiting Ishinomaki, I was looking for a cohesive narrative and that is not how this book is written. However, now that I have read other material about the tsunami, I have my straightforward story. I think I would understand Erhlich’s account better now.