Kaye Starbird

This was a First Reads win. I read a lot of WWII fiction. I agree with Nancy Pearl that this book is worthy of being pulled out of obscurity and re-presented and thank her for it - it is a great program, and I would look other works she chooses. I was glad to read this book as I haven't read any other fiction that deals with first hand experiences of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the time that followed. The main device used by the author is to tell the same stories twice, once from the mother's point of view and once from the daughter's point of view. Sometimes they differ, sometimes they are the same. Most of the time it is in very small details, and even when the difference is more significant, it doesn't make much difference per se. If I were inclined to be critical, I could say it is one way of bringing a shorter story up to full novel length! My favorite parts of the book were at the beginning right after the attack where the various neighborhood women came together in their stengths and weaknesses and despite their differences. I found the later parts of the book, once they had returned to the East to be weaker, and as an editor, I would have worked with the author to further develop some of this aspect prior to publication. It did leave me curious though as to how representative Marty and her cousin Joe's feelings were about their fathers. I think she probably did a pretty good job. Although my mother was an older child at the time, I so wish I had explored this period of her life with her in more detail as her father served a number of years in Europe during the war while I had the opportunity. This book is worth the read.… (más)

Disclosure: I received a free copy of The Lion in the Lei Shop by Kaye Starbird from Amazon Publishing via GoodReads First Reads.

The Lion in the Lei Shop tells the moving story of a military family whose lives are transformed by the air raids on Pearl Harbor and the events that follow. Of the two viewpoints used to tell the story, the young daughter, Marty, is the more compelling narrator, while her mother April's parts of the tale come across cold and matter-of-fact at times. It is perhaps unnecessary for the mother to repeatedly discredit her daughter's memories of certain events, since the separate narratives of the same incidents clearly establish already that each character remembers things rather differently. Because the two tellings overlap more so than intertwine, the plot does not move along as smoothly as it might, and the second telling does not always add much in terms of perspective. The tiny details, from food to clothes to personal relationships with the loveably quirky cast of minor characters, help make this novel as vividly real as a memoir.

Fans of The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet will also enjoy The Lion in the Lei Shop.… (más)

I wanted to like this book much more than I did. It could have been so much more, but wasn't. In the beginning the author, who clearly didn't do enough research, throws out supposed bits of history, which were inaccurate and totally unnecessary. Then she never touches the subject again. Given her lack of decent research it was probably a good thing, but odd in an historical novel and the reader needed more information on how the war was going and how it affected the general populace. Because I am well versed in the subject, I really noticed the holes and inaccuracies.

The story is told through two voices, Marty (who is 5 when the story opens and 9 when it ends) and April, 25 when the story opens. I never warmed to Marty, which was itself strange. I read lots of childrens books and generally become engrossed with the child's point of view. I usually felt Marty was annoying or her comments snarky. In the first half of the book I liked April and thought her story was much more interesting. She gives us a much clearer picture of the other military wives, many of whom I really liked. The book definitely loses both interest and power when Liz and Honey are absent. April herself, as she slips into depression, becomes less interesting, too. There's little to draw the reader to the new men who are introduced, which is too bad because I think they both would have added interest and information the reader needed. Generally, this book was very uneven and I can't recommend it.… (más)