[BF6]⇒ Read Free Go A Coming of Age Novel edition by Kazuki Kaneshiro Takami Nieda Literature Fiction eBooks

Go A Coming of Age Novel edition by Kazuki Kaneshiro Takami Nieda Literature Fiction eBooks

Download As PDF : Go A Coming of Age Novel edition by Kazuki Kaneshiro Takami Nieda Literature Fiction eBooks

Go A Coming of Age Novel edition by Kazuki Kaneshiro Takami Nieda Literature Fiction eBooks

I got this book only because it seemed to be the lesser of all the evils. I wasn't interested in any of the KF books this month, and not only was I not interested, but they all seemed not just lackluster but bad. I suppose that was at 3 am this morning when I couldn't sleep and was cranky, but when I came back to the books after having gotten some sleep my opinions were changed some, but not a lot. So I didn't expect much from this book. I read the sample chapters and already had 4-stars hovering in the back of my mind. Then I bought it and got into it, and was significantly less than inspired.

Somewhere around 30-ish percent my 4-stars had shifted to a magnanimous 3, and I put the book down to go look at the author. And when I read that he'd not only won an award for this book, but that the book's film adaptation won every major award in Japan in 2002 my biggest thought was: "HUH?" I hadn't found the rhythm of the story yet. I didn't necessarily enjoy Sugihara's bad-boy personality and propensity for picking every fight known to man.

What I didn't want, however, was to write a DNF review, so I soldiered on—which is a word that makes me cringe a little now. I don't know when the story caught me. I don't know where I was when I finally got it, because apparently I'd been too slow on the uptake before. The book was breathtaking. The story filled with hidden meanings, and hidden pains. It was a "love" story, but on a deeper level than I ever imagined. It was a stunning look into the ugliness of discrimination, and the fight to have dreams and also keep them. I don't know at what point "soldiering" became riveted. I don't know because I didn't bother to check. I didn't WANT to check, because then I'd learn that however much I had left in the book, it wasn't enough.

I do know the point I started crying though, because I took the time to highlight it. That was at 69%. I'll include that passage at the bottom of this review, and to close it off, I'll just say that whatever I could possibly say to recommend this book would be inadequate, and I'm sure it's already been said. This book is one that stands above those that stand above, and it is perhaps the most prolific KF selection I've ever had the privilege of reading.

"I saw this show the other day about this retirement home for guide dogs in Hokkaido. It's this place where old dogs that can't do their job anymore can go to live out their last days... And then they showed a woman saying goodbye to her guide dog. It was a blind woman and a male golden retriever couple, and she just held him in her arms completely still for a good hour until finally the staff had to pull them apart. As the car drove away from the retirement home, the woman leaned out of the window and waved, shouting, 'See you,' and 'Bye-bye,' and the dog's name, but the dog just sat there and watched the car go. But that's the way it had to be. It's how guide dogs are trained. They aren't allowed to show excitement, and they aren't allowed to bark. Even after the car was gone, the dog didn't move an inch from where they said their goodbyes, and he kept looking in the direction the car disappeared...

...and in the evening it started to rain. Really hard. The dog that had been looking straight ahead until then looked up like he was watching the rain come down and started to howl. Waoon waoon. Like that—again and again. He didn't look the least bit sad or pathetic. He bayed with his back stretched, and the line from his chest to his chin perfectly straight like a beautiful sculpture. I cried my eyes out. Waoon waoon. Just like that.

[So what] I'm trying to say is that I want to love someone the way that dog did. His howl was more beautiful than any music I've ever heard."

To those who would like to know: there is a small amount of mild sexual content, emphasis on the mild...kissing and a few insinuations and comments...and I can't recall a single curse word in the book.


Tags : Go: A Coming of Age Novel - Kindle edition by Kazuki Kaneshiro, Takami Nieda. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Go: A Coming of Age Novel.,ebook,Kazuki Kaneshiro, Takami Nieda,Go: A Coming of Age Novel,AmazonCrossing

Go A Coming of Age Novel edition by Kazuki Kaneshiro Takami Nieda Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews

Can you hide in plain sight behind a name you were asked to assume? But perhaps you don’t care about passing; you’d rather duke it out and literally beat down all challengers. Until you meet a certain someone who assumes you are Japanese… Maybe it’s time to choose. Do you take the chance? This novel is so much better than I was expecting from the sample. While it has a slow start, it’s actually a very fast, engrossing read. GO is a wonderful slice-of-life novel that its description just doesn’t do justice at all. This is not a romance; it’s a journey to adulthood and self-identity. I finished it incredibly moved and reaching for the Kleenex box, fully intending to read it again. Note It's a short novel at 172 pages.

GO shows us a young man growing up as a Korean in Japan. Embodying Koreans in Japan. Enduring racism, forced to carry IDs, request permission to re-enter the country, and labeled as foreigners, even though they were born and raised in Japan and share the same DNA and genetic markers. Looked down upon, barred from certain jobs, attacked without provocation, judged… A place where students crowd outside their school on a “Korean hunt” waiting to beat them up because it’s April 29th, and somehow Emperor Showa’s birthday reminds the Japanese students that Koreans are the “enemy."

Sugihara/Lee is fighting his father, his culture, and his country with his fists, with his intellect, and with every single fiber of his being for the right to be himself, not defined by others, by paperwork, or by his blood. Can the one girl he shares so much in common with find it in her heart to accept that he’s still the same person she loves, even if his name is actually Korean and not Japanese?

Great book and well worth the read!

I read GO by Kazuki Kaneshiro as a February 2018 First Reads / First selection.
I was immediately drawn into the story of Sugihara. I laughed, I cried (okay, not really, but my heart hurt immensely) and felt swarms of joy in just 160 pages. The length was the perfect amount, however I could have kept reading about these characters for days. Sometimes books drag on and lose their magic, not this one. And while the description does mention romance, it is so much more than that. So if heavy romance isn't your thing, you're safe with picking up this book.
I was so fascinated--and entertained--by the narrator of this story that I actually read it in one sitting. Sugihara, a Japanese teenager, is both familiar and exotic. He's a smart-ass, scrappy kid, a mixture of bravado and vulnerability, intelligence and naïveté. Sugihara's understanding of himself and his place in the world is profoundly influenced by his circumstances He's the son of Koreans who have lived most of their adult lives in Japan. Although I've read a few articles about discrimination against Koreans and other minorities in Japan, this first-person novel allows the American reader to understand the issue on a personal level and to feel the identity confusion and alienation that is the result of systemic discrimination. No aspect of Sugihara's life is untouched by the fact of his ethnicity. When he and a Japanese girl from a "good" family fall in love, even that joy is distorted by a sense of foreboding--what will happen when she finds out he's Korean?

Reading fiction in translation can be problematic--characters can wind up "sounding" as though they've been poorly dubbed. *GO* is exceptional in its authenticity of voice. The love story is awkward and real. The humor-as-defense that Sugihara relies on to get through his difficult life is genuinely funny. Although there's some minor cursing and a couple of sex scenes, I think this would be a particularly good book for any high-school aged kids you might know. I'm looking forward reading more Kaneshiro!
I got this book only because it seemed to be the lesser of all the evils. I wasn't interested in any of the KF books this month, and not only was I not interested, but they all seemed not just lackluster but bad. I suppose that was at 3 am this morning when I couldn't sleep and was cranky, but when I came back to the books after having gotten some sleep my opinions were changed some, but not a lot. So I didn't expect much from this book. I read the sample chapters and already had 4-stars hovering in the back of my mind. Then I bought it and got into it, and was significantly less than inspired.

Somewhere around 30-ish percent my 4-stars had shifted to a magnanimous 3, and I put the book down to go look at the author. And when I read that he'd not only won an award for this book, but that the book's film adaptation won every major award in Japan in 2002 my biggest thought was "HUH?" I hadn't found the rhythm of the story yet. I didn't necessarily enjoy Sugihara's bad-boy personality and propensity for picking every fight known to man.

What I didn't want, however, was to write a DNF review, so I soldiered on—which is a word that makes me cringe a little now. I don't know when the story caught me. I don't know where I was when I finally got it, because apparently I'd been too slow on the uptake before. The book was breathtaking. The story filled with hidden meanings, and hidden pains. It was a "love" story, but on a deeper level than I ever imagined. It was a stunning look into the ugliness of discrimination, and the fight to have dreams and also keep them. I don't know at what point "soldiering" became riveted. I don't know because I didn't bother to check. I didn't WANT to check, because then I'd learn that however much I had left in the book, it wasn't enough.

I do know the point I started crying though, because I took the time to highlight it. That was at 69%. I'll include that passage at the bottom of this review, and to close it off, I'll just say that whatever I could possibly say to recommend this book would be inadequate, and I'm sure it's already been said. This book is one that stands above those that stand above, and it is perhaps the most prolific KF selection I've ever had the privilege of reading.

"I saw this show the other day about this retirement home for guide dogs in Hokkaido. It's this place where old dogs that can't do their job anymore can go to live out their last days... And then they showed a woman saying goodbye to her guide dog. It was a blind woman and a male golden retriever couple, and she just held him in her arms completely still for a good hour until finally the staff had to pull them apart. As the car drove away from the retirement home, the woman leaned out of the window and waved, shouting, 'See you,' and 'Bye-bye,' and the dog's name, but the dog just sat there and watched the car go. But that's the way it had to be. It's how guide dogs are trained. They aren't allowed to show excitement, and they aren't allowed to bark. Even after the car was gone, the dog didn't move an inch from where they said their goodbyes, and he kept looking in the direction the car disappeared...

...and in the evening it started to rain. Really hard. The dog that had been looking straight ahead until then looked up like he was watching the rain come down and started to howl. Waoon waoon. Like that—again and again. He didn't look the least bit sad or pathetic. He bayed with his back stretched, and the line from his chest to his chin perfectly straight like a beautiful sculpture. I cried my eyes out. Waoon waoon. Just like that.

[So what] I'm trying to say is that I want to love someone the way that dog did. His howl was more beautiful than any music I've ever heard."

To those who would like to know there is a small amount of mild sexual content, emphasis on the mild...kissing and a few insinuations and comments...and I can't recall a single curse word in the book.