Review of Sister B
-
Ellie Acheson
- Posts: 4
- Joined: 22 Jul 2021, 12:49
- Currently Reading:
- Bookshelf Size: 0
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-ellie-acheson.html
- Latest Review: Sister B by David Charles Hart
Review of Sister B
[Following is a volunteer review of "Sister B" by David Charles Hart.]
It's the 1930s in the United States and we meet our main character Willie Mae, nicknamed Sister B, a headstrong African-American woman who is moving from Mississippi to California. Meanwhile in Japan, a young photographer named Akio has fallen for Misaki, a blind musician who is half Japanese, half African-American. The Japanese government asks Akio to travel to America and pose as a tourist, taking photos to collect information about the USA. Over time, the stories of these individuals parallel each other, and begin to intertwine after Akio & Sister B meet by coincidence on a train ride.
Just from that description, if you're like me, you're already caught by the premise of Sister B and will want to read on. The book's major characters are both compelling and realistic, which is the story's greatest strength. I felt that the author David Charles Hart did a wonderful job of showing the nuance of the issues and perspectives addressed, including humanizing Japanese citizens rather than just treating the Japanese like "bad guys" because of the World War II setting.
Other positive points of this book include that the author's prose style was brisk and easy to read, while still conveying some lovely images and descriptions. It's obvious that a lot of care and research has gone into this book and I appreciate that it shone a light on some lesser-known historical subjects, such as the view of African-American people in Japan.
Although the core story of Sister B was compelling and I enjoyed the characters, I felt the book was bogged down by too much info-dumping of historical facts. For example, in one early chapter a character sits down and thinks about recent geopolitical developments she's heard about in the news and we get a simple bulleted list of historical events. I found this awkward and unnecessary, especially as I was broadly familiar with lots of these historical details already.
David Charles Hart based much of the story of Sister B on real events in his family's history, specifically the life of his mother, who was the real-life Sister B. Although this leads to some of the book's strong points -- i.e., the characters & plot are realistic because they were based in reality -- I think that may also be its weakness. Presumably due to this origin, the book reads as though it is somewhere in between fiction and nonfiction. I wished that Hart had spent more time diving into the characters' feelings and relationships, rather than being so preoccupied with making sure we knew what was happening in the world around them. Alternately, perhaps if it were a pure nonfiction book, it could have given all the didactic historical information without it feeling awkward.
Though I did enjoy reading Sister B and following along the journey of this remarkable woman, I couldn't help but feel I was seeing the shape of different, better books this novel easily could have been; due to this, I'd give it a rating of 3 out of 4 stars.
Despite that rating not being perfect, I'd still recommend this book to anyone who is interested in this period of history, especially if they don't know much about it already and thus the information would be new to them. Once I got used to the prose style not feeling like a typical fiction book, I was able to settle in and follow the story on its own terms, enjoying what I learned from it.
I didn't notice any grammar or spelling errors, so it's clear that the book was professionally proofread to a high standard. I did see some formatting errors in my ebook; the copy I downloaded looked like it had been incorrectly converted from a PDF. I read it in EPUB, so I'm not sure if this issue was present in other formats.
Lastly, I'll address language & content. The book involves use of the N-word and other racially offensive insults, and some scenes of racist violence & hatred; these are included in the interest of historical accuracy and contextualized properly. There's also some profanity, discussion of sexuality, and some sexual scenes. It's definitely an adult book that I wouldn't recommend to young readers or those who will be upset by such content.
******
Sister B
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
It's the 1930s in the United States and we meet our main character Willie Mae, nicknamed Sister B, a headstrong African-American woman who is moving from Mississippi to California. Meanwhile in Japan, a young photographer named Akio has fallen for Misaki, a blind musician who is half Japanese, half African-American. The Japanese government asks Akio to travel to America and pose as a tourist, taking photos to collect information about the USA. Over time, the stories of these individuals parallel each other, and begin to intertwine after Akio & Sister B meet by coincidence on a train ride.
Just from that description, if you're like me, you're already caught by the premise of Sister B and will want to read on. The book's major characters are both compelling and realistic, which is the story's greatest strength. I felt that the author David Charles Hart did a wonderful job of showing the nuance of the issues and perspectives addressed, including humanizing Japanese citizens rather than just treating the Japanese like "bad guys" because of the World War II setting.
Other positive points of this book include that the author's prose style was brisk and easy to read, while still conveying some lovely images and descriptions. It's obvious that a lot of care and research has gone into this book and I appreciate that it shone a light on some lesser-known historical subjects, such as the view of African-American people in Japan.
Although the core story of Sister B was compelling and I enjoyed the characters, I felt the book was bogged down by too much info-dumping of historical facts. For example, in one early chapter a character sits down and thinks about recent geopolitical developments she's heard about in the news and we get a simple bulleted list of historical events. I found this awkward and unnecessary, especially as I was broadly familiar with lots of these historical details already.
David Charles Hart based much of the story of Sister B on real events in his family's history, specifically the life of his mother, who was the real-life Sister B. Although this leads to some of the book's strong points -- i.e., the characters & plot are realistic because they were based in reality -- I think that may also be its weakness. Presumably due to this origin, the book reads as though it is somewhere in between fiction and nonfiction. I wished that Hart had spent more time diving into the characters' feelings and relationships, rather than being so preoccupied with making sure we knew what was happening in the world around them. Alternately, perhaps if it were a pure nonfiction book, it could have given all the didactic historical information without it feeling awkward.
Though I did enjoy reading Sister B and following along the journey of this remarkable woman, I couldn't help but feel I was seeing the shape of different, better books this novel easily could have been; due to this, I'd give it a rating of 3 out of 4 stars.
Despite that rating not being perfect, I'd still recommend this book to anyone who is interested in this period of history, especially if they don't know much about it already and thus the information would be new to them. Once I got used to the prose style not feeling like a typical fiction book, I was able to settle in and follow the story on its own terms, enjoying what I learned from it.
I didn't notice any grammar or spelling errors, so it's clear that the book was professionally proofread to a high standard. I did see some formatting errors in my ebook; the copy I downloaded looked like it had been incorrectly converted from a PDF. I read it in EPUB, so I'm not sure if this issue was present in other formats.
Lastly, I'll address language & content. The book involves use of the N-word and other racially offensive insults, and some scenes of racist violence & hatred; these are included in the interest of historical accuracy and contextualized properly. There's also some profanity, discussion of sexuality, and some sexual scenes. It's definitely an adult book that I wouldn't recommend to young readers or those who will be upset by such content.
******
Sister B
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Sister B by David Charles Hart
