The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

A review by Meganne Fabrega

In most novels it takes only one strong voice to make an impact on the reader, or sometimes two to expand a plot. Three voices may liven things up, while any more than four require a quiet room and, perhaps, a flowchart. In Julie Otsuka's latest novel, The Buddha in the Attic, the author brazenly writes in hundreds of voices that rise up into one collective cry of sorrow, loneliness and confusion. The voices are of Japanese girls and women who were sent to the United States at the dawn of the 20th century to become brides of Japanese men who worked in the fields, laundry rooms and kitchens of the West Coast.

The style and subject of her latest novel are similar to those of her first book, When the Emperor Was Divine, written in 2002 (and talked about for many years afterward). The sentences are lean, and the material reflects a shameful time in our nation's past. The women who came to the United States were filled with hopes and dreams that were dashed as they met their husbands-to-...

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