Reviews for The Ocean in the Closet

The average rating for The Ocean in the Closet based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-08-30 00:00:00 Jeffrey Horwood From the book jacket: In sunny California, the Vietnam War may have just ended but nine-year-old Helen Johnson's world is beginning to crumble. Her mother's behavior has become increasingly erratic, her father, a recently released POW, is powerless to help, and her brother is too young to understand. Convinced that the key to keeping her family together lies in the mysteries surrounding her mother's adoption from Japan, Helen writes to her great-uncle Hideo in the Japanese town of Kamakura, beginning a journey that will take her across the ocean and through the war-torn histories of both countries. My reactions This beautifully written, poignant novel tackles the aftermath of war and how those aftereffects ripple through multiple generations. The story is told from differing viewpoints, alternating between Hideo in Japan and Helen in California. It begins with Hideo receiving an airmail letter from the granddaughter of his late sister - someone he didn't even know existed. Taniguchi then moves back several months in time to share Helen's experiences as her mother is obviously headed for a nervous breakdown (as it was termed in 1975). The novel continues moving back and forth between the two viewpoints, with some memories of WW2 and the time immediately post war when the conquering forces (i.e. USA) occupied the major cities of Japan. War exacts a terrible toll on the participants and on the bystanders who get in the way. But the effects of war may last much longer than the reconstruction. This isn't the first book I've read about war and its aftermath. It's not the first I've read about the fire bombings in Tokyo, or the atrocities committed on the civilian population by occupying military forces. But there was something about the way Taniguchi revealed these elements that just broke my heart. I rarely cry when reading a novel, but I was definitely in tears several times during this one. I feel I learned a little of the Japanese mentality by seeing things from Hideo and his wife's points of view. I thought Taniguchi captured the way in which a child thinks, the kind of logic a child would use in piecing together an explanation for what is going on around her. I do wish I knew more about Anna and James (Helen's parents). Their pain and suffering was a central point in the story, yet we never hear from them directly. I certainly don't mean to make the book sound bleak and hopeless, because there is plenty of hope and redemption in these pages. I loved Helen - her tender heart, her courage and resilience. And Hideo's quiet strength, endurance and healing heart. And while there is no clearly happy resolution, the novel's ending looks to the future with hope.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-04-04 00:00:00 Benedek Nemeth Qué dificil es escribir algo sobre un libro que impacta tanto que te mantiene en constante sensación de desasosiego a lo largo de la historia. Porque, de la mano de Helen por un lado y de su tio-abuelo por otro van desgranando los acontecimientos que afectaron a sus familias durante tres generaciones y dos guerras (el final de la II Guerra mundial y la guerra de Vietnam), con un lenguaje suave, casi tierno, pero a la vez demoledor, van desgranando hechos, sufrimientos, apegos, desapegos, secretos, sentimientos, o la carencia de ellos... Una historia tremenda, muy dura a nivel de sentimientos, pero muy recomendable.