Of Nightingales That Weep

I read Katherine Paterson's Japan novels as a child and loved them, but had been reluctant to revisit them as an adult. What if my nine-year-old self hadn't been able to spot the Orientalism? What if my mind had filled in narrative holes I hadn't realised were there?

Well, having reread Of Nightingales That Weep, I can now state that my fears were unfounded. This is a damn good book; the vast majority of YA fiction out there can't hold a candle to it. Paterson uses all the themes--the meaning of family, of honor, of loyalty, of growing up, even bona fide history--that we've been told Young Readers Don't Like and all the elements--war, death, insecurity, disappointment--we've been told Young Readers Can't Handle and turns them into a show more powerhouse of a story, one that neither pulls its punches nor resorts to either the cutesiness or prurience of more recent YA titles that posit that kids just want pap.

Paterson's Japan is realistically depicted, and she doesn't gloss over the elements of Japanese society that modern Western readers would find disturbing or inappropriate for young readers, but neither does she pass value judgments on them. Her only misstep is the ending: it confused me as a child, and as an adult I found it ill-conceived and ill-justified compared to the rest of the novel. Still we're talking about a few pages in an otherwise excellent book. show less

This book is about a girls whose father passes away. She is left alone and must learn how to fend for herself. She moves to a new place to start a life for herself. She falls in love and gets involved with the wrong crowd. She has to learn how to get out of the place she has found herself in. I would not have this book as a read aloud in the educational sense, but maybe for a fun read as a break for the students.