| Title | : | Heart Mountain |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0140109064 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780140109061 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 432 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1988 |
Heart Mountain Reviews
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The book description is somewhat deceiving describing this as "the story of Japanese Americans forced into a relocation camp-- set in Wyoming during WWII." It turned out to be not just about the internment camps and the people there, but a blend of their stories with the people in the Heart Mountain area . It provides a view of how the war impacted both the Issei, the Japanese immigrants and the Nisei, Japanese Americans and a lot more about the people living in the area that I expected.
There are two major alternating narratives, one of a young man in the town outside of Heart Mountain and one of a young man inside the internment camp. McKay is a cattle rancher who is deemed not fit to serve because of an injury but his two brothers are off to the war leaving him to tend to the ranch. Kai is Nisei, trying to figure out who he is - torn between two worlds and disillusioned with the country he was born in as he is captive in the camp. There of course are interactions between the people in both sides that makes for an appealing story line. An accidental shooting brings McKay to Mariko. I felt connected to these main characters and was always interested in what would happen with them. For me the problem was that there were just too many other characters especially outside of the camp and what was happening with them made the overall story of this shameful period in our history feel a bit diluted. I felt distracted from what I thought was the heart of the story.
It just didn't have the depth or intensity of
Snow Falling on Cedars or
When the Emperor Was Divine, two other books about the internment that I've read. However, this appears to be an accurate depiction of this history, as the author has interviewed people who actually were interned at Heart Mountain, conducted significant research at archives and universities as well as personally written accounts.
I received an advanced copy of this from Open Road Media Access through NetGalley. -
The Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Wyoming, (now a museum) was an actual internment camp where thousands of Japanese, both immigrants and American citizens, were relocated after Pearl Harbour. Greta Ehrlich uses the real place as a base for her fictionalised account of life in such a camp, and chronicles the interactions of the deportees with the local community. In this vivid and often heart-breaking novel we meet some of the Japanese as they try to adjust to their new life, and we also become acquainted with the local community, mainly farmers and ranchers. The focus is on McKay, a young man deemed unfit to fight and who struggles to keep the family ranch going whilst his brothers are away serving in the military. This is just the bare bones of the story and it is best to let the narrative unfold slowly, as in real life. I found this an insightful, compassionate and deeply moving novel. McKay stole my heart, and reminded me very much of some of Larry McMurtry’s heroes – strong, tough, capable, but with tender hearts. It’s a very human story, one in which politics and love often collide in unexpected ways. Ehrlich’s descriptions of the Wyoming landscape are beautiful, and her descriptions of the physical and emotional pain and loss of war equally evocative. An excellent read.
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The war, The Mountain, and the Ranch
The story of a Wyoming community, a Japanese internment camp, a ranch at the base of the mountain and the occupants of all the above. How the participants of each interact with each other and within their communities. Love, romance, loss, racism and compassion all show up in this book in form or another. It is mostly a story of coping with feelings and conflicts within and how those affected cope with them. Very beautiful descriptions of the country of Wyoming and of the ones left behind. The effects of war on all, the loneliness, the pain suffered emotionally and physically and above all the understanding of what was, what is and what will be in there lives. This was a story of wartime which is written and reads like a western book. It was a good book and I would recommend it. -
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read this book.
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After thoroughly enjoying the WW2/Japanese theme in "East Wind, Rain" and "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet," I was very much looking forward to this book. It was, unfortunately, quite disappointing.
The book really needs an editor...or an English teacher. Clunky sentences and awkward story construction made this a chore to read.
Also, I think the book summary is inaccurate, as more of the plot focus is on the residents of the town where the relocation camp was located. Wanting one thing and getting something else entirely makes it difficult to appreciate the book for what it is.
Finally, I thought the characters were one-dimensional. I never felt that I really knew them and wasn't able to emotional connect at at all. -
Like the other novels set during World War II and dealing with the internment camps, this one was poignant and relevant to me personally. My husband was an internee as a baby. His relatives were at Heart Mountain, Wyoming as well as Jerome, Arkansas. It was somewhat surreal to read this and not think of it as fact. There are facts included, like the actual wording od Executive Order 9066 that sent thousands of Japanese-Americans, many of them citizens into barracks surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941. This read took me back there to mthe lives of the internees mas well as to the local people, most of whom were ranchers, trying to live through a time when the world was at war. It made me hope that that time is never repeated.
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I seldom rate a book one star, but Heart Mountain deserves it. The story which takes place in Wyoming near Heart Mountain, the location of a Japanese internment camp during the years 1942-1945. The main character, McKay, is left to manage a family ranch while his brothers have gone off to war. Other main characters include, Pinkey, an aging, alcoholic cowboy, and Bobby, the Japanese cook. Madeleine, a former love interest, who McKay has an affair with while her husband, Henry, is reported missing in the Pacific theater. Mariko, is interned at the relocation center with her wise grandfather, Abe-san. Mariko is married to Will, a political dissident; McKay falls in love with Mariko and they have an affair. There are many minor characters, some of whose purpose is not clearly explained. As much of the action takes place at the ranch and Snuff's Bar; the reader learns about the conditions of Heart Mountain Relocation Center through the eyes of Kai, who writes for the Heart Mountain Sentinel and his journals. Kai lives with his aging parents who sent Kai and his brother, Kenny, to the foster care system because of the father's mental illness.
There were times when I though Ehrlich was writing a bad romance novel. For instance, "...how her pendulous breasts, clanging together like buoy bells, could make him deaf." "He was trembling and could not make his arms and legs stay still, yet the bullet that had preceded his own entry into her always made the passage shockingly familiar." "He (Willard) watched them go arm in arm and saw how once McKay's penis struck straight out from his body, fell and rose again, as if lifting some invisible cargo."
There were verbal and physical fights between the sets of brothers: Kai and his brother Kenny who was serving in the military and McKay and his brother, Champ, who also had served. I believe the Ehrlich included these conflicts to introduce colliding political and personal circumstances.
Strange events and minor characters added nothing to the plot: Willard watching McKay and Mariko having sex, the cock fight, the characters of Wild Man and Venus, Carol's sexual encounter with a dying man that produced a baby, the unexplained death of one Pinkey's son.
In addition, the writing was disjoined; poorly written sentences and awkward story construction made this a chore to read. The overuse of similes was distracting: her breasts were like clouds wound tightly by strong winds, steam from the coffeepot flew over her shoulder like a feather boa, ...and the beautiful braids flung out, then bent under like broken legs. It felt like reading students' stories after a lesson on similes.
Lastly, much of the plot was driven by alcohol ~ long passages about Pinkey's alcoholic's binges. The author returns again and again to Snuff's Bar where characters are drunk.
I read Heart Mountain because it was the reading selection for May and I would not have read past page 100 if I was reading for myself. -
A brilliant novel that transcends genres - it's a western, drama, a war story, historical fiction, and a complex story of complicated relationships and twisted romance with star-crossed lovers.
Admittedly, I purchased this book by cover, assuming it was a history of the Heart Mountain Internment camp. Being of Japanese American descent, I considered it to be a reference to the history of our people. I was initially disheartened to find out it was a work of fiction, which was, no less, written by a person of non-Japanese descent. In an era where cultural appropriation of Japanese culture is rampant in mainstream society, I assumed a novel some 50 years old would be, at best, a culturocentric and inaccurate read.
I could not have been less correct. The opening pages of the book are the authors thanking multiple parties for their consultations to ensure historical and cultural accuracy. It is obvious through this novel that the author didn't just do her homework, but worked for literary perfection. Her knowledge base of ranching, war history, Japanese American culture, U.S. geography, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints were accurate to a level bordering on being esoteric. The diversity of thought, the development of multiple characters, the joys and sorrows and lessons packed into 400 pages painted a rich and unique tapestry of Heart Mountain circa World War II, both inside and outside of barbed wire.
Every character was complex. Every character was virtuous, and every character was flawed. Their development was refined and the reader cannot help but become emotionally invested not just in the in individuals who create the story, but the very disagreeable small town they inhabit. And while I cannot pinpoint if done on purpose,
To be completely objective, there were places where the writing felt choppy and rushed; for that reason I have to subtract a star. I would hope that for the reader who would be interested in this story, my 4 star review would not be a detractor.
I would, and have, recommended this book to many who are interested in the history of Heart Mountain and the events that took place there during World War II. -
I liked the theme of the book - the internment camps for the Japanese Americans - but I think the novel has too many characters, making it difficult to connect with all of them, and with secondary plots that lead nowhere.
Full review on my blog -
Two stories that connect through the love affair of a Wyoming cowboy and an interred Japanese woman living in the Heart Mountain interment camp. The story about ranch life during WWII is full of interesting characters and anecdotes about weather, animals and injuries. The camp has its stories of loss and hardship. Cowboy meets artist and their story blends the two worlds.
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Real
Ehrlich's writing is poetic and confidently pulls from many sources: ranching, Japanese culture, military jargon, American history. These characters will linger for me in their imperfection. -
Very interesting read with real, flawed characters. I do question the reality of McKay sleeping in the screened-in porch in -30 degrees F. That's asking for frostbite and death. The rest of the story was enjoyable.
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Fascinating topic and I tried to like this book on it, but it just didn't ring true.
Sorry to say that I DNF this one.... -
Probably should give 3 stars. Really tricky to work out the point of some passages. Too much hard work on an interesting topic.
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Ugh. I really wanted to read this, and I really tried - even though it slowed a reading drive I'd finally had back but jesus, its just so boring.
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My nephew-in-law’s grandparents were Japanese prisoners at Heart Mountain, which made me curious about it.
It’s a mid-Western novel based around the Japanese prison camp and the surrounding area of mid-western ranchers. Of course, there is also a romance thrown into the mix.
It kind of reminded me of the sort of novels I used to read in my younger years, though it did give me a peek into the lives of these incarcerated Americans. I know that later on I’ll probably read a non-fiction book about the subject. Very interesting and profound chapter in American history. -
This was fascinating read! Ehrlich stayed true to the Wyoming native land and time period. An enjoyable read that inspires the life of Japanese-Americans during this time.
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Read as a companion to Properties of Thirst..this novel from 1988 explores most of the same themes and they make a good pair.
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I really wanted to like this book. I hoped for historic accuracy in the form of a novel... and Heart Mountain Japanise internment camp in Wy did exist... as for historically more than that- I think it is pretty iffy. The main Japanese-American charactors were more exceptions than the rule... a graduate student whose parens gave him up to be raised by a white family when he was a child (so being intered brought him back to live eith his parents and no contact with his adopted family appears to remain or bother him), an older Japanese cook at the neighboring ranch that relates more closely to the Chinese immigrants because he cooked on the railroad, and a 20 something Japanese-American woman who is dating a French educated Japanese man and living with him (unmarried) in the room beside her father or grandfathers room.... with no conflict???...... and then there are the inacurracies in the farming/fanching story.... don't get me started. I only got 1/2 way through... skimmed the rest of the book and was ok with having skipped it.
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A friend once shared an article with me that discussed how Western narratives are conflict-centered, but Eastern narratives are snapshots of moments in time. Though by a Western author (and one who writes about the West, as well), this book very much has that feeling about it: incomplete stories of characters that pick up and leave off at different, and hard-to-locate moments in time, often with no resolution.
I wanted to read a novel about the Japanese relocation to internment camps, but I'm glad this wasn't a straightforward historical novel. I also generally love Gretel Ehrlich's descriptions of life in the West (The Solace of Open Spaces is one of my favorite books); she really captures the empty, desolate beauty- the isolation and the complete-ness. -
I wanted to read more about the Japanese internment camps in western states during WW ll and this fictionalized version included descriptions of the Heart Mountain camp and and its relationship to the surrounding western ranching communities in Northern Wyoming.
The story telling mode was rich and vivid. I gained a better understanding of what happens when cultures with different traditions are forced into close proximity. I couldn't avoid thinking about parallels to current conditions in America where fear and hostility are heightened by violent clashes that destroy peaceful or a least neutral relationships among groups.
I also appreciated the details of local fauna and flora, geography, and the hardships of rural life. -
Learned more about the internment of Japanese during the four years of the US involvement in WWII, tragic loss of democracy for our Asia immigrants. Also learned more about Wyoming ranch, the residents & their somewhat limited social life, the landscape, farm animals and weather. Put it all together for an interesting story of the USA in the 1940s, at Heart Mountain, Wyoming.
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Why I picked it — I have read a bunch of books on the topic, and the multiple viewpoints interest me.
Reminded me of… When the Emperor Was Divine, by Julie Otsuka, and Tallgrass, by Sandra Dallas
For my full review —
click here -
I liked this but there were too many characters to follow and some that I just was not interested in. It had more information about life in Japanese internment camps in WWII but a lot more about the people living nearby.
