Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus More


Jun 11

7

The Beautiful One Has Come by Suzanne Kamata

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on June 7, 2011
Posted in Short Story Read in 2011  | 3 Comments

This collection of short stories focuses on Japanese culture and life.  Last month I reviewed the first story in this collection, Havana by Suzanne Kamata. I said, “ The writing is bright and poetic and the character development was excellent for such a short story.  I can tell already, that Suzanne Kamata is a true artist of the short story.”

Let me tell you, I did not judge too soon!  It is rare to have a even 4 star collection of shorts. I give this collection a solid 4!

Most of the stories took place in Japan but had American Expats in them.  Many of them women, married to Japanese men.  This made for quite a comparison between the cultures, especially on how each culture deals with family tragedy. 

From about the middle of the book up until the end, the stories dealt with premature labor and babies.  Also what could happen as the babies grow up. They almost seemed connected.  They weren’t really connected but I wish they had been.  I found my self a bit confused, at first thinking a story was a continuation of the one before but figuring out that it wasn’t.  They just had the same them that carried information forward.  That is the only qualm I had with this collection.

Suzanne Kamata knows how to weave a short story with well developed plot, characters, and a conclusion that is not abrupt.  She is a true artist of the short story!

4/5

Thanks to Shelf Awareness and Nancy of Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing for the electronic galley.

Did you review this book?  Please leave your link in the comments.

If you would like to participate in Short Story Mondays, go to John of The Book Mine Set. He has a short story review every Monday and a place for you to link your short story review. Come join in the fun and add to my short story TBR!


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Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.

May 11

17

Havana by Suzanne Kamata

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on May 17, 2011
Posted in Short Story Read in 2011  | 3 Comments

 
Recently a book of short stories was advertised an Shelf Awareness, The Beautiful One Has Come by Suzanne Kamata.  I read about it and became intrigued, so requested the eBook ARC.

This past weekend, I read the first story, Havana.

Alica hadn’t seen her old Japanning friend and college roommate, Nagisa  in years.  After graduating Nagisa married a Jiro for his “good salary and mild disposition.  They moved to Havana, Cuba for Jiro’s work and had two children.

Alicia and Nagisa kept in touch and Nagisa invited Alica to come to Havana.  Nagisa arranged for her driver, Javier to take Alicia anywhere she wanted to go ti sight see.  He took her to Ernest Hemingway’s’ house.
“Alicia has never been a big Hemingway fan—all those macho stories about hunting and bullfighting and war! She has never even read The Old Man and the Sea, but his house was one of the few places on the tourist map that she could think of.”
After, Alicia wanted to get something to eat so Javier took her to a restaurant that Hemingway used to eat at,  La Terraza.  She asks him to come in to eat with her, her treat.  Javier, knows his place and that he could be fired but Alicia insisted.  Javier gets nasty looks from people in the restaurant who also know his place but Alicia was oblivious to it.
When Javier brought Alicia back to the house, she tried to give him $100, the same amount he was paid for his monthly salary.  He politely refused but again, Alicia insisted and put it in his pocket. Later Alicaia thinks to herself:
“Is Javier attracted to me? In her mind, she picks through every moment of the day, trying to come up with a significant look or gesture. The way he had opened the car door for her, the way he had bumped his knees against hers under the restaurant table.”

Alicia noticed right away when she arrived to Havana that Nagisa had changed.  While roommates they did all kinds of fun things together, dancing meeting boys, drinking, and smoking pot, just to name a few.  Now Nagisa hardly leaved her house.  Alicia suggested that they go out to Salsa together while she’s there but Nagisa says that she has too look after the children.  Instead she said that she would pay Javier to work late the next day and he would take her.
You will have to read the story to find out what happens next.  The writing is bright and poetic and the character development was excellent for such a short story.  I can tell already, that Suzanne Kamata is a true artist of the short story.  I am looking forward to reading more stories in the book.  Highly recommended.

If you would like to participate in Short Story Mondays, go to John of The Book Mine Set. He has a short story review every Monday and a place for you to link your short story review. Come join in the fun and add to my short story TBR!


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Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.

May 11

10

Stolpestad by William Lychack

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on May 10, 2011
Posted in Short Story Read in 2011  | 10 Comments

I received an eBook of a short story collection from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, called The Architect of Flowers by William Lychack.  I’ve had it for quite awhile now and thought I would give it a try.  I read the first story, Stolpestad.
Told in second person, present tense, Stolpestad is an over worked cop who is finally at the end of his shift when he gets a call asking him to go see a 9 year old child and his mother. 
“End of your shift—or nearly so—and in comes the call over the radio. It’s Phyllis, dispatcher for the weekend, and she’s sorry for doing this to you, but a boy’s just phoned for help with a dog. And what’s she think you look like now, you ask, town dogcatcher? Oh, you should be so lucky, she says and gives the address and away we go.”
When he arrives the boy brings him to see his dying dog.  His mother asks Stolpestad to put the dog down and out of his misery.  He agrees.
Later, while off duty, a now drunk Stolpestad is confronted by the boy and his father, in front of his own home.
“And before you even open your mouth, he’s stepping forward and thanking you for your help—the man shaking your hand, saying how pleased, how grateful, how proud, how difficult it must have been—but his tone’s all wrong, all snaky, a salesman nudging his boy ahead to give you—and what’s this?”
At first, I had a hard time getting into this story.  I don’t like second person narration, to be honest.  I find it clumsy, using you instead of I or the person’s name.  I have a feeling many writers agree with me because I have rarely come across it in all my years of reading.  However, the story itself was a good one with excellent character development.   You can read it here.  I look forward to read more of the stories in this book.

If you would like to participate in Short Story Mondays, go to John of The Book Mine Set. He has a short story review every Monday and a place for you to link your short story review. Come join in the fun and add to my short story TBR!


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Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.

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