The Buddha in the Attic

The Buddha in the Attic
By Julie Otsuka
Alfred A. Knopf, 2011. 129 pgs. Fiction

This short novel is the combined stories of a boatload of Japanese ‘picture brides’ who travel to San Francisco from Japan to marry the men whose pictures they hold but have never met. Many leave behind their families and the poverty that they could never escape in Japan. They hope to find large homes, wealthy husbands, and a new American life. What they find instead is often more poverty, men who misrepresented themselves in the prenuptial communications, and a country that is less than welcoming.

Otsaka’s writing is succinct and powerful. In 129 pages she portrays an expansive story that is sadly more fact than fiction. Her heroines cry out for the recognition they rarely receive in our American history books and readers will find it difficult to forget their voices long after the last word is read.

CZ