Opinion: Polite Lies

Even though I couldn't walk and sat in bed all day, the trip to Seattle was worth it because I found Polite Lies by Kyoko Mori in Barnes & Noble. There aren't enough words to describe how much I love and treasure this book. I've been searching for my own copy ever since I came across it by accident last year, during the time when I liked Japanese authors. I only picked it up then because I had forgotten my book for English class and the cover looked appealing enough. It was June so I spent all day preparing for final exams, memorizing biology definitions, recalling the chemical reaction patterns and reviewing the components of the solar system. The only time I tore myself away from my studies was when I walked my dog. I didn't stick my earphones in my ears, as I usually do, but instead took Polite Lies out with me to read. I completed the novel fairly fast as it was quite short (about 250 pages) and I couldn't put it down. I must have bored you by now, sorry. Moving on to what the book is actually about.
I find it really hard to describe the plot, as there isn't much of one. Since I can't spell it out better than the back of the book does, below is the official synopsis.

"In this powerful, exquisitely crafted book, Kyoko Mori delves into her dual heritage with a rare honesty that is both graceful and stirring. From her unhappy childhood in Japan, weighted by a troubled family and a constricting culture, to the American Midwest, where she found herself free to speak as a strong-minded independent woman, though still an outsider, Mori explores the different codes of silence, deference, and expression that govern Japanese and American women's lives: the ties that bind us to family and the lies that keep us apart; the rituals of mourning that give us the courage to accept death; the images of the body that make sex seem foreign to Japanese women and second nature to Americans. In the sensitive hands of this compelling writer, one woman's life becomes the mirror of two profoundly different societies."

My copy will be just as tattered a few years from
now cause I would have referred to it so many times

I treat this book something like a second bible. I spent the entire morning today highlighting and underlining sentences and ideas that I found important. Mori uses the most interesting tone in her writing that I have come across so far - the voice that reads it out to me is calm and simply talking, not forcing any ideas on me or making me agitated as to what happens next. Please forgive my rambling, I tend to get carried away talking about things I really like..




PS: I don't mean to force-feed you any of this, and of course you aren't obligated to read it. But I will post up snippets from each chapter of Polite Lies, parts that I find interesting or important. Enjoy~