Picture Bride by Yoshiko Uchida

Picture Bride Reviews

• 
  Judy

  I read some of the negative reviews of this book and I wonder if the reason for the negative reviews is just that the reviewers aren't Japanese. It seems that their criticisms are mainly based on the fact that the characters didn't "talk" or react the way they thought they should. It seemed like they didn't relate to the characters due to cultural differences, so they thought them to be unrealistic and/or the writing to be poor.
  
  I am Japanese-American and my grandmother was a picture bride. This story, the way it was told, the emotions portrayed and the dialogue as written felt so familiar to me. It immediately made me think of my grandparents. I cried several times as sections would remind me of the various stories of my grandparents; their marriage arrangement, my grandmother's journey from Japan, their first meeting, their early struggles, their internment.
  
  I thought this was an excellent book and one that I will keep in my library to remind me of my grandparents and the beginnings of my family.
• 
  Emily

  Okay, so I read this book for a paper, thinking it can't be that bad... I had low expectations and just hoped to get through it...
  
  The book is crap... it starts out okay, but about 50 pages in I realized that this book was crap... here's a quote
  "'I know you have feelings for Kiyoshi Yamaka that you do not have for me.'
  
  'Oh no!' Hana cried out. Seeing the pain in his face, she felt a remorse that overwhelmed her."
  
  "OH NO!" That's all you have to say when your husband admits he sees that you are attracted to another man? "OH NO!!" That's pretty much where I wanted to stop reading...
  
  There are many other bothersome things about the book, including the husband and wife having a casual conversation, where the husband informs his wife on "The Gentleman's Agreement". The wife then responds with "...that doesn't seem a very gentlemanly thing for such a big country to do to a small country like Japan..."
  
  Come on, that's just laughable!
  
  One thing though, I must applaud the book for at least being about subject matter that never seems to be covered in fictional books. Picture Brides were a large part of Asian American society in the late 19th century, early 20th century. And the book at least attempts to deal with these issues of "The Gentleman's Agreement", but it does it poorly...
• 
  D.

  I kinda wanted to give this two stars because I think the subject matter could be interesting, BUT (HUGE HUGE HUGE BUT) this is one of the most poorly written novels I have read in a long time.
  
  It was bland. Uchida loves herself some adverbs. The dialog was laughable. The characters one-dimensional. The setting is vague.(Seriously, if it is 1918 and I can't feel that, see it, know it...understand the almost century difference? That's a problem.)
  
  Marrying a man you don't love? Internment camps?? This is EXCELLENT fodder for a truly emotional journey. Instead everything plods along - covering the life of a woman from 21 to her 50s in less than 200 pages...huge milestones given pages of time? Plus, it switches viewpoints? Taro has ONE scene where it is from his point of view...but she doesn't do that again for the rest of the novel?
  
  I found myself editing this novel. THAT is how bad it was.
  
  When a character is worried about her mom dying, the author writes this:
  
  <"They say if she has another attack she could..." Sumiko could not go on. >
  
  I thought Sumiko could bury her head in her hands or turn away from the group or explode into tears...but the whole book is like this. The characters don't actually do anything or feel anything. They just say things "anxiously" or "wearily" a lot. They are anxious and weary most of the book, but I don't know what that looks like at all. Does Taro sweat when he's anxious? Does Hana shuffle her feet? Look at the ground? The whole SHOW don't TELL thing kinda goes out the window...
  
  Come on. I'm not being too picky. I don't ask for much...but I ask for my writers not to be lazy. You can write a badly written book with a great plot and I'll forgive you - plot can save you. Or an incredibly written book with a weak plot and I can still savor your language. No plot and it's badly written AND you had some great material to start with? Unforgiveable.
  
  
• 
  Amy Thao

  The book I’m reading is call Picture Bride and the novel by Yoshiko Uchida. In this book it tells a story of Hana, a Japanese young woman who comes to the United States California, San Francisco to marry a man name Taro. Hana has never met Taro in person and they have only send mails and pictures to each other when Hana was still in Japan. In this book it focuses on Hana's relationship with Taro and on her friendship with Kiku. When she first came to the Unites States, Kuju and Hana remain as friends throughout their lives. Mrs. Davis is a white nice and intelligent woman who employs Hana as a maid, she also became her close friend and champion. It also deals with Hana's relationship with her daughter Mary, who rejects her identity as an Japanese American.
  Overall I think this was a heartbreaking story because a Japanese immigrant had to come to America with an arranged marriage and had struggled through running a business, systemic racism, and eventually being sent to WW2 internment camps, Topaz Relocation Center. All I can do is feel sorry for them because they have put up with the unfair treatments they have received at United States. Even though they worked so hard to achieve something they can’t get, and are forced to live in the horse stalls. If anyone likes these types of books, this book is an historical background as American being racism and related to World War 2.
• 
  June Guymon

  A book that drags you into the plot and then tells you to keep reading.
• 
  Elaine

  Uchida's tender novel about a young Japanese picture bride who travels alone across the Pacific to marry a man she has never met in 1920 reveals how powerful fiction can be. She told a similar story -- the true one about her mother -- in an earlier nonfiction book, Desert Exile. Both the novel and the memoir trace the lives of Japanese women in America through the anti-Asian laws of the 1920s, the Depression, and finally the internment during World War II. They are both valuable. But Picture Bride offers a much more detailed look at the interior landscape of one woman's life - taking us through surprising twists (a romantic attraction to her husband's best friend, the heartache of a rebellious daughter, her loyalty to a husband who has not treated her well), and allowing us to get a valuable sense of what many "picture brides" were feeling as they endured (and somehow flourished during) a life made difficult by racism, poverty, and male domination. Powerful descriptions of life inside the dusty, cold, barren desert concentration camp in Utah, with the completely unsuitably beneficent name of Topaz.
• 
  Ashley

  Read this for book club, finished it in time, but I was feeling icky so I didn't go.
  
  I was actually pretty disappointed in this book. There is so much she could have done with this book, so much material she could have worked with to make an amazing story- but it just fell flat. She tried to cram too many years into one small story and it just didn't work. She switches points-of-view way too often, but randomly so it didn't really make much sense. And the characters really show no emotion, and she doesn't even really describe what they are feeling. Oh, your mom died? That must make her feel bad. And that was about it.
  
  Still, there were some interesting things that I did not know. The facts are interesting and worth retelling; but it seemed like I was reading more of a history book than a novel. (not that I don't enjoy reading a history book, but that's another story.)
  
  216 pages; 2010 total: 13873
• 
  DaNette

  I enjoyed this novel about a young Japenese picture bride coming to San Fransico to marry a man she has never met. The story tells about the sacrifices of the Japenese-Americans specifically during WWI. The book ends just after the internment of these citizens in camps such as Topaz found in UT.
  I enjoyed reading about the cultural differences between our two countries and the sacrifices these people made to fit in in a new culture and community. They had such dreams for themselves which were mostly only realized by their children after their own deaths.
• 
  Kat

  Basic plot: Japanese woman comes to America to be a wife to a man who already has emigrated to the USA from Japan but wants a Japanese wife. They go through a lot of crap, including internment in a camp in the USA during WWII.
  
  I remember this book as being a decent read that brought me a lot of insight into the Japanese internment camps in America. It's one of the more forgettable books I've taught, though.
• 
  Mica Williams

  love love love this book. its educational and has a very smooth emotional build. it was a real page turn until the very end. the ending was very surprising as well!
  
• 
  DoHyun Cho

  The book describes the life of early Asian immigrants in the early 1900s very well. The story starts off with Hana's background life, where she was living in a very wealthy Japanese family. However, with Hana being rebellious, she decides to move to the United States through the introduction of a Japanese immigrant husband, waiting for a wife in Japan to travel to the United States. With expectations of a very fruitful life, she was met with a reality of Asian lives in the United States. She came to realize that all the fantasies in the letters that were written by her going-to-be husband and the stories that she has heard were very exaggerated and at most times, not true. Hana accepts this reality and decides to adapt to the poor American life, suffering the repercussions. While she is finally getting used to American life, developing a family, and successfully helping her husband financially, World War II breaks out. As many of us know, one of the major events of World War II is the bombing of Pearl Harbor, in which the Japanese were heavily involved. This caused the Asian immigrants in the United States to be heavily discriminated against, especially the Japanese immigrants. This caused Hana's life in the United States to collapse in an instant, all she had built up and all the other connections she had made with the American society. Hana and the Japanese immigrant community were forced to give up their property and move to concentration camps, where they suffered many casualties and deaths, living in the poor conditions that were provided by the camps. The story ends on a sour note, with Hana's husband, Taro, getting shot and dying. Again, I believe this is a great novel that was published to share the stories of the Asian immigrants in the early 1900s in the United States. I think this book is good for readers who are interested in war history, immigrants, and discrimination in the United States. One thing I wish the author would have added is how life was after the war, and what changed.
• 
  Elena Luna

  Picture Bride is a book about Hana's journey moving from Japan, to a different country, the United States. Hana's family found a Japanese man in the United States and they want her to marry and move with him. With only an old picture and some of his letters and not knowing more than that about him, she decides to move there and marry him. Hana thought moving to the United States and marrying him would change her life in order to make it easier and better. But when she comes to the new country, she discovers that an old picture and some letters, are not enough to get to know someone. She has to face reality and soon she finds herself doing the same she would've be doing if she had stayed in Japan. During the book, there are lots of different events that made me want to keep reading, there are sad, happy, and even funny events in the book.
  I really liked this book because it is easy to read. The writing style was my favourite while I was reading this book because it gives you a lot of details, which make me feel part of the story. The book is written in third person narrator, but it is so well written that it made me feel really connected to the characters. Something I really liked about this book is the fact that it is real, all the events are well explained and it makes sense to the timing and the situation. This book has a lot of surprises and nothing happens as you were expecting, which I really enjoyed, because it is real and even though it can be sad, the story makes more sense.
  I recommend this book to anyone who wants to read something new, something that they are not used to. Anyone who wants to read a real story, full of drama, sadness and lots of tears!
• 
  jaiben Zhen

  This book is about a young and beautiful Japanese lady named Hana, who crossed the Pacific Ocean to marry Taro, a hard-working and humble men. The book talks about how Hana and Taro met. Taro lives in America. Hana and Taro had never met before, with only have written just a few letters and have only seen each other through pictures, Hana takes the big decision to move to America and marry him. She decides to marry Taro because she wants to be a free women. Hana faces the challenges of moving away from her lovely country (Japan) to marry Taro.
  After a few years their baby is welcomed to the world, and they named her Mary. However, I really love this book because it contains, drama, history, romance, and a little bit of humour. I know that I might sound too dramatic but in many occasions this book has brought me tears. Tears of many kind but not the bad kind. If I had cried that means that this book has touched my heart. This book is appropriate for every age. I recommend this book to kids, teenagers and adults.
• 
  Mikaela

  Have you ever wondered how it feels like to love or marry someone that you have never met in your life? Picture bride is about the life of Hana after she made a decision and left her home country. She went to United states to marry someone she has never met. She has seen pictures and read letters from him and that's all the she knows about him. The first thing that i liked in this book is its key concept. It helps me understand the story even more plus i don't need to pause reading and get to my phone to search for the meaning of the word. Next is the authors style, i like how he gives a detailed description of the characters and their actions. It makes me feel connected to the story. In this way it makes me exit the real world and enter the world in the story. The story is very realistic, everything is not written in the way how you wanted to end but in the way how it's supposed to end. This book is captivating and I would recommend this to young people, teens and even adults.
• 
  Max Ostrovsky

  I entirely missed the point of this book.
  It starts off about a strong young Japanese woman leaving her homeland to come to America to become the wife of a lonely friend of her uncle.
  She was strong. She was opinionated. She spoke her mind. There was infidelity.
  
  That was only the beginning.
  Then the rest of the book, she becomes weak and meek and does everything she can to become the perfect suppressed Japanese wife.
  
  I know that makes it more historically and culturally accurate. And if it were a memoir, I might have enjoyed it more. But reading about a woman who completely degrades herself and completely loses the identify of the young woman she was was not enjoyable to me.
• 
  Sue

  This novel of a young woman who comes to America to marry a man who previously immigrated from Japan was excellent. Hana has only an old photo of her future husband as embarks on the long sea voyage to San Francisco. She has learned how to be a submissive Japanese wife, but her nature is to be strong & independent. These two ideas war in her as she learns about American ways, faces prejudice & bigotry, and tries to make a marriage with a stranger. It's an interesting tale full of detail that makes the reader envision the time & place, plus the character of Hana is someone you root for as her life becomes more & more difficult.
• 
  Kylie Mossman

  I enjoyed reading Picture Bride, as I have read other novels about the internment of Japanese Americans across the west coast during the war. Sometimes the story was really slow and I had to force myself to keep going, but there were also many events that engaged me. Hana and Taro, like many others, loved and honored America, but never lived to see citizenship. Picture Bride tells a sad but true story of what life was like for many Japanese immigrants.
• 
  Lena Riemersma

  A young Japanese woman travels to San Francisco in the early 1900s to become the wife of an older man based on nothing but a distant relative's descriptions and an outdated photo of him. Hoping to improve her life, this educated woman is instead forced to perform menial work and experience prejudice in America. Bland writing that fades from memory like that discolored photo.
• 
  Lynette

  Great choice for our book club. By the end I wondered how in the world our country could have done this to a whole group of people. It really brought to the forefront the hardship internment camps were for the Japanese people.
  A big black mark on the presidency of FDR! I really don’t like that man and what he did during his term.
• 
  Arun Croll

  There are many better-written novels than Picture Bride, but few of them give a voice to the experience of Japanese-Americans before and during World War II. As someone with a personal attachment to the subject matter, I was too invested in the characters to give this anything less than a 3 out of 5.
• 
  Marco Nicol

  It was an easy read. Chapters being short make it easy to just read a little bit or binge a lot as you read about what happens in the experiences of Hana coming to America, getting married, and raising a family in the early 20th century while adjusting as a Japanese immigrant and the racial prejudice that came with it. Definitely worth reading.
• 
  Sel

  It was good and i liked it. I like it was about diffrent culture and i get to learn their culture and i get to realize how other race experience during WWII.