Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
"Deeply human....Brina's work opens a window on a lifelong search for peace, and the life-giving work of listening." Booklist (Starred Review)
Review
"A masterful debut...A can't-miss memoir that will stay with readers after they finish the last page." Library Journal (Starred Review)
Review
"Brina captivates in her stunning and intimate debut memoir....This nuanced tale goes both wide and deep, and is as moving as it is ambitious. Memoir lovers will be enthralled." Publishers Weekly
Review
"In America, we rarely inherit language for grappling with the fraught legacies of family and identity, memory and erasure, empire and occupation. But in Speak, Okinawa, Elizabeth Miki Brina bravely charts a path toward self-recognition and reconciliation, with prose so powerful and pristine it often left me hovering at the edge of tears. This is a bracing, luminous debut that will long be remembered, and long turned to for inspiration." Francisco Cantú, author of The Line Becomes a River
About the Author
Elizabeth Miki Brina is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Bread Loaf Scholarship and a New York State Summer Writers Institute Scholarship. She currently lives and teaches in New Orleans.