Monday, August 8, 2016

The Japanese Lover by Isabelle Allende

My Rating: 3.8

This is the story of Alma and Ichimei. In 1939, as Poland falls under the shadow of the Nazis, young Alma’s parents send her away to live in safety with an aunt and uncle in their opulent mansion in San Francisco. She encounters Ichimei, the quiet and gentle son of the family’s Japanese gardener and they begin a love affair. This flashes forward to decades later when Alma is near the end of her life.


 This books captures the war, illicit cross-culture relationships, treatment of the Japanese and so much more as it spans the generations. Unfortunately, Allende's writing and characters felt very flat. These story lines had so much promise but didn't deliver. I loved Allende's Island Beneath the Sea but it feels like her writing and character development have changed since then. Very disappointed.



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