The Japanese Lover

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In 1939, as Poland falls under the shadow of the Nazis, young Alma Belasco s parents send her away to live in safety with an aunt and uncle in their opulent mansion in San Francisco There, as the rest of the world goes to war, she encounters Ichimei Fukuda, the quiet and gentle son of the family s Japanese gardener Unnoticed by those around them, a tender love affair begins to blossom Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the two are cruelly pulled apart as Ichimei and his family, like thousands of other Japanese Americans are declared enemies and forcibly relocated to internment camps run by the United States government Throughout their lifetimes, Alma and Ichimei reunite again and again, but theirs is a love that they are forever forced to hide from the world.Decades later, Alma is nearing the end of her long and eventful life Irina Bazili, a care worker struggling to come to terms with her own troubled past, meets the elderly woman and her grandson, Seth, at San Francisco s charmingly eccentric Lark House nursing home As Irina and Seth forge a friendship, they become intrigued by a series of mysterious gifts and letters sent to Alma, eventually learning about Ichimei and this extraordinary secret passion that has endured for nearly seventy years. New Download The Japanese Lover By Isabel Allende For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr I fell in love with Isabel Allende s writing when I was in high school I still remember the first sentence of the first book I ever read of her s Barrabas came to us by sea At the time Allende wrote sweeping historical novels that predominately took place in her native land Chile Yet, her writing style changed in the many years she has been in the United States, branching out to write crime novels and even some books geared toward young adults The passion she wrote with in books like Hous I fell in love with Isabel Allende s writing when I was in high school I still remember the first sentence of the first book I ever read of her s Barrabas came to us by sea At the time Allende wrote sweeping historical novels that predominately took place in her native land Chile Yet, her writing style changed in the many years she has been in the United States, branching out to write crime novels and even some books geared toward young adults The passion she wrote with in books like House of the Spirits and Eva Luna had been lost With The Japanese Lover, for me the epic multigenerational passionate novel has been rekindled Here we meet Alma Belasco nee Mendel an octogenarian who is living out the rest of her days in Lark House retirement center in San Francisco Assigned to her is young Irina Bazili who becomes her personal aid and assistant The parallels between the two women is that they are both immigrants who fled E...4.5 stars.At its core , this is a love story that spans decades, but it is about so muchIt s about surviving, about aging, about forbidden love , about the depth of caring and friendship that allows loved ones to seek their own happiness without reproach Jews fleeing the Nazi occupation of Poland, the war, Japanese internment camps in the United States are part of the unfolding story of an elderly woman coming to terms with and reliving her past But in the present she is instrumenta 4.5 stars.At its core , this is a love story that spans decades, but it is about so muchIt s about surviving, about aging, about forbidden love , about the depth of caring and friendship that allows loved ones to seek their own happiness without reproach Jews fleeing the Nazi occupation of Poland, the war, Japanese internment camps in the United States are part of the unfolding story of an elderly woman coming to terms with and reliving her past But in the present she is instrumental...Oh, I haven t so agonized over a review in such a long time Here s the thing There is a part of me that wondered, If this wasn t Isabel Allende, would this book ever have been published It s pages and pages and pages of exposition A held at arm s distance recitation of characters histories, loves, lives,...Imagine for a moment being 8 years old My 8 year old memory includes loss My father and both grandparents were no longer living That 8 year old memory includes loss of the new custom home my parents built that we were about to move in a week before he died.then a week later a major flood mud slide destroyed every house all new developments except ours However, my mother backed outand never moved us into that new home I remember feelings of fear when we first moved i Imagine for a moment being 8 years old My 8 year old memory includes loss My father and both grandparents were no longer living That 8 year old memory includes loss of the new custom home my parents built that we were about to move in a week before he died.then a week later a major flood mud slide destroyed every house all n...Was this novel really written by the same woman who thrilled me with Island beneath the Sea, Zorro, Portrait in Sepia, Daughter of Fortune, House of the Spirits Somehow I find that hard to believe.Rather than putting her beautifully drawn characters into history, the book just throws every societal ill of the last 75 years at the reader It reads like the writer was handed a catalog of things which must be included First we start with the Nazi invasion of Poland and subsequent emig Was this novel really written by the same woman who thrilled me with Island beneath the Sea, Zorro, Portrait in Sepia, Daughter of Fortune, House of the Spirits Somehow I find that hard to believe.Rather than putting her beautifully drawn characters into history, the book just throws every societal ill of the last 75 years at the reader It reads like the writer was handed a catalog of things which must be included First we start with the Nazi invasion of Poland and subsequent emigration of children and of course, their parents were incarcerated in the Warsaw Ghetto and later taken to extermination Parallel to that we have both the incarceration of Japanese Americans into camps in the American West and communism in Romania Moldavia resulting in human sex trafficking We have young girls being sold into slavery for the brothels of Turkey And I guess, parallel to that we have the child porn industry in the US an...When I started reading Isabel Allende s The Japanese Lover, I liked it well enough but I wasn t feeling anything special I think I was suffering a bit from the high expectations that come with reading a book by Allende But as I got deeper into it, I found myself really drawn in by the story and characters It doesn t have the intense richness of The House of Spirits or some of Allende s other books set in Latin America, but Allende s particular ability to weave characters and their stories and When I started reading Isabel Allende s The Japanese Lover, I liked it well enough but I wa...Interesting story idea, but too many disjointed and melodramatic plot lines, too much telling vs showing, and totally lacking in the lyrical prose of some of her earlier books This one felt formulaic and thrown together.Anyone who has read Allende recognizes her talent for narratives that transcend time, love and cultures across generations In this novel, there are two stories entwined one of eternal love told by Alma, an 80 year old woman as she reflects back on her life to her assistant Irina, from the walls of her retirement room and Irina s own difficult, sad life journey Themes of friendship, loss, family, love and forgiveness abound.I ve read some harsh reviews and perhaps I didn t feel the same emoti Anyone who has read Allende recognizes her talent for narratives that transcend time, love and cultures across generations In this novel, there are two stories entwined one of eternal love told by Alma, an 80 year old...3 starsWe are all born happy Life gets us dirty along the way, but we can clean it up Happiness is not exuberant or noisy, like pleasure or joy it s silent, tranquil, and gentle it s a feeling of satisfaction inside that begins with self love Alma Belasco knows that happiness is not an easy achievement After years of learning and growing and forgiving herself for choices she has made, the aging Alma knows a thing or two about living life and feeling fulfilled Separated from her parents d 3 starsWe are all born happy Life gets us dirty along the way, but we can clean it up Happiness is not exuberant or noisy, like pleasure or joy it s silent, tranquil, and gentle it s a feeling of satisfaction inside that begins with self love Alma Belasco knows that happiness is not an easy achievement After years of learning and growing and forgiving herself for choices she has made, the aging Alma knows a thing or two about living life and feeling fulfilled Separated from her parents during the Nazi occupation of Poland, Alma was raised by a caring and prosperous aunt and uncle in San Francisco Here she makes a lifelong connection with two men her devoted cousin, Nathaniel, and Ichimei, the love of her life However, war, the internment of the Japanese Americans after ...I really liked this book It s about friendship, love, and aging with many touching relationships I also learned about how the Japenese Americans were sent away to interment camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, I had never known this happened.

The Japanese Lover
  • English
  • 20 May 2018
  • Hardcover
  • 322 pages
  • 1501116975
  • Isabel Allende
  • The Japanese Lover