On the boat we carried our husbands’ pictures in tiny oval lockets that hung on long chains from our necks.

Skaitau H.Mantel “Woolf Hall”. 527 puslapiai. (Labai patinka). Bet kai skaitau tokias “plytas” dažniausiai skaitau dar ką nors paraleliai.

Ir taip atradau, neabejotinai, viena šių metų, kaip kad švedai sako,  perlų.

Julie Otsuka knyga “The Budda in the Attic” liūdna ir labai poetiška knyga apie japonų emigrantų bendruomenę JAV.
Pasakojimas prasideda, kai paštu užsakytos žmonos plaukia laivu pas savo vyrus, kuriuos pažįsta tik iš nuotraukų. Vėlesniuose skyriuose nuotakos pasakoja apie savo pirmąsias vestuvines naktis, apie visai kitokį pasaulį, nei joms buvo žadėtas laiškuose, apie savo vaikus, apie alinantį darbą, apie bandymą pritapti ir nepritapti naujoje šalyje. Ir apie tai, kaip buvo pasielgta su japonų emigrantais po Pearl Harboro.

Tekstas labai lyriškas, elegantiškas ir intymus, nors nuolat vartojama daugiskaita, tarsi pasakotų choras.
Nors dar anksti sakyti, bet įtariu, kad bus, ko gero, viena geriausių skaitytų 2013aisiais (K.Ž.L, tik tu pati knygos nepirk, sutarta?)

““That night our new husbands took us quickly. They took us calmly. They took us gently, but firmly, and without saying a word. They assumed we were the virgins the matchmakers had promised them we were and they took us with exquisite care. Now let me know if it hurts.
They took us flat on our backs on the bare floor of the Minute Motel. They took us downtown, in second-rate rooms at the Kumamoto Inn. They took us in the best hotels in San Francisco that a yellow man could set foot in at the time. The Kinokuniya Hotel. The Mikado. The Hotel Ogawa. They took us for granted and assumed we would do for them whatever it was we were told. Please turn toward the wall and drop down on your hands and knees (…)
They took us violently, with their fists, whenever we tried to resist. They took us even though we bit them. They took us even though we hit them (…).
They took us cautiously, as though they were afraid we might break. You’re so small. They took us coldly but knowledgeably — In 20 seconds you will lose all control —
and we knew there had been many others before us. They took us as we stared up blankly at the ceiling and waited for it to be over, not realizing that it would not be over for years.””

K.Ž.G