The Turtle House, by Amanda Churchill
38/60 | Started 06.15.24 • Finished 06.24.24 | 4 stars
A fellow bookstagrammer raved about this debut so I had to give it a shot. Opening with the setting in 1999 small-town Texas, The Turtle House ends up moving back and forth between the present day and pre-WWII Japan, through to the 1950s and 60s, and on into the 90s. I'm usually not a fan of these time-jumping narratives, but this one was different in that the past was being told by a grandmother to her granddaughter as part of a recording. In that way, it didn't feel as much like jumping around as it felt like telling stories.
The grandmother, Mineko, grew up in rural Japan as part of a family that would not appreciate her for the tomboy that she was. So much of the culture was centered around girls preparing themselves for marriage, and she didn't see herself as the marriage-able type, given her looks and demeanor. However, she comes to find love in an unusual way, and things seem to be looking up for her, until the war comes and tragedy strikes, changing the course of her life forever.
"Mineko, it is like you study minutiae in order to treasure."
In the present day, Mineko and her granddaughter Lia are on the outs with the wider family - Mineko for her stubbornness and Lia for her secrets. The two form a tenuous bond over Lia's recording of Mineko's stories, which deepens over time as they learn to trust each other and work together.
I really enjoyed reading this book. It wasn't at all what I thought it would be - based solely on the cover - and I'm truly glad I read it. The writing wasn't anything profound but I appreciated that it was a clean story with no unneeded colorful language or gratuitous sex scenes. There is a trigger warning about sexual harassment and assault but Churchill gets the point across without exposing the reader to unnecessary descriptions. There is a lot to love about this book, and I'd recommend this to anyone who likes historical fiction, and maybe hasn't read it from a Japanese perspective.
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