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Limited to: Words in the TITLE "Speak, Okinawa"
Author Brina, Elizabeth Miki, 1981- author
Title Speak, Okinawa : a memoir / Elizabeth Miki Brina
Publ&date New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2021
©2021
Rating Rating
book jacket
LOCATION CALL NO. STATUS
 ADULT  92 BRINA Elizabeth    AVAILABLE

Details

Edition First edition
ISBN 9780525657347 hardcover
0525657347 hardcover
9780525657354 electronic book
NUMBER 40030378100
Descript 289 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
Summary "A searing, deeply candid memoir about a young woman's journey to understanding her complicated parents--her father a Vietnam veteran, her mother an Okinawan war bride--and her own, fraught cultural heritage. Elizabeth's mother was working as a nightclub hostess on U.S.-occupied Okinawa when she met the American soldier who would become her husband. The language barrier and power imbalance that defined their early relationship followed them to the predominantly white, upstate New York suburb where they moved to raise their only daughter. There, Elizabeth grew up with the trappings of a typical American childhood and adolescence. Yet, even though she felt almost no connection to her mother's distant home, she also felt out of place among her peers. Decades later, Elizabeth comes to recognize the shame and self-loathing that haunt both her and her mother, and attempts a form of reconciliation, not only to come to terms with the embattled dynamics of her family but also to reckon with the injustices that reverberate throughout the history of Okinawa and its people. Clear-eyed and profoundly humane, Speak, Okinawa is a startling accomplishment--a heartfelt exploration of identity, inheritance, forgiveness, and what it means to be an American"-- Provided by publisher
Note "This is a Borzoi book" -- title page verso
Includes bibliographical references
Subject Brina, Elizabeth Miki, 1981-
Brina, Elizabeth Miki, 1981- -- Family
Brina, Elizabeth Miki, 1981- -- Travel -- Japan
Japanese American women -- Biography
Japanese Americans -- Ethnic identity
Japanese Americans -- Biography
Ryukyuans -- New York (State) -- Biography
Intercountry marriage -- New York (State) -- Syracuse
Racially mixed people -- Biography
Okinawa-ken (Japan) -- Biography