It’s the third week of “Chatting One Book,” and this week we’re taking a look at the section, “Whites.” It’s a long section that details the women’s experiences encountering and working alongside white Americans in their neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and more. One of the more poignant things I took from this chapter was the utter despair and depression that many of the women found themselves in. Between the fantasies of their new husbands and new lives not matching up with reality and the suspicion and at times outright cruelty they encountered from their white neighbors and employers, the women faced many uphill battles, many challenges to their individual drive and character. I also found it poignant that despite the hostility and disappointment they faced, the women still desired to work hard, to make good lives for themselves—to achieve that elusive American Dream.

What did you take away from “Whites”? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Tags: One Book 2013, One Book One Philadelphia

Welcome to the second week of our blog series, “Chatting One Book”! Have you made it to any of our great One Book programs yet? Events are taking place throughout the city, so click here to find one for you!

In the second section of the novel, “First Night,” Julie Otsuka describes the first nights that the newly arrived Japanese women spent with their new husbands. It’s a short and powerful chapter that captures the excitement, bewilderment, and at-times disillusionment that these women had upon meeting the men to whom they were betrothed. Throughout the book, the author uses italics to differentiate an individual’s thoughts or speech from the group voice, and I thought the way she employed this technique in “First Night” was particularly impactful, as it underscored the unique and wildly diverse experiences that these women had with their new husbands—some more in love than ever, some eager to escape.

What did you take away from “First Night”? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Tags: One Book 2013, One Book One Philadelphia

Throughout these eight inspired weeks of One Book, One Philadelphia, I’ll be blogging about each chapter of Julie Otsuka’s masterful featured selection, The Buddha in the Attic. I hope you’ll join me in conversation in the comments!

In the first section of the novel, “Come, Japanese!”, I was immediately struck by the unique voice that Otsuka uses to tell this story—the first person plural. She alternates paragraphs of prose beginning with “Most of us” and “Some of us,” but never does she go into the perspective of one single woman’s thoughts—it’s always told from the perspective of the group of women. The first person plural voice both indicates to me that these women were having a common, shared experience but also that they weren’t necessarily seen as individuals or that they had lost their unique identity (or uniqueness wasn’t a valued characteristic). What does the use of first person voice do for you as a reader?

What else did you take away from “Come, Japanese!”? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Tags: One Book 2013, One Book One Philadelphia