The Yokota Officers Club
by Sarah Bird 
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Description
Sarah Bird’s gutsy, sharp, and touching new novel opens at full speed. Bernadette "Bernie" Root, military brat, speaks. She has never really noticed what a peculiar bunch of nomads her eight-member Air Force family is (with the exception of her Post Princess sister, Kit), until the summer after her first year of college when she joins them at their new assignment: Kadena Air Base, Okinawa. Just as Okinawa turns out to be a sorry version of the Japanese paradise Bernie knew in her childhood show more at Yokota Air Base, her family, especially her once-beautiful mother, Moe, and her former spy-pilot father, Mace, seems to have been in decline since those glory days of the American Raj. Days when her mother was happy and their best friend, Fumiko, now lost to them, was the family’s maid. The worst part of Okinawa for Bernie, though, is realizing how perfectly she fits with her oddball family and how badly she needs to get out. So when a dance contest first prize, a trip to Japan,offers a chance to escape, she takes it, playing second banana to a third-rate comedian on a tour of Japan’s military bases. At their grand finale at the Yokota Officers’ Club, Fumiko finally reappears, and Bernie discovers the terrible price that is paid when the secrets nations hide end up buried within families. A brilliantly appealing novel whose energy, wit, and feeling have won for it (see back of the jacket) extraordinary advance praise. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Recommendations
JGoto Although the plot is much more complex than The Yokota Officers Club, it also gives a real feel for life on a military base (Canadian) during the Cold War Era.
Member Reviews
July 2009 COTC Book Club selection.
Highly enjoyable, but very sad in parts. As it's a coming-of-age story, this would also likely appeal to older high school students.
Highly enjoyable, but very sad in parts. As it's a coming-of-age story, this would also likely appeal to older high school students.
Here's what I wrote in 2008 about this read: "Utlimately, a fun novel (fun to go back to the 60's, and it's a fun, if dyfunctional, family). Good insights into military, especially officer's, families, and the mini society within U.S. military bases."
hard to get into
trouble keeping track of characters
did learn some of what the military was like
would not recommend
trouble keeping track of characters
did learn some of what the military was like
would not recommend
Very enjoyable. Makes you feel for every military family and what the wives and kids endure. "A brilliantly appealing novel, one of energy and wit." Book Jacket.
Loved this book! Interesting look at life as part of a military family.
Little pitchers have big mouths.
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Author Information
23+ Works 1,719 Members
Sarah Bird is the author of four previous novels: "Virgin of the Rodeo", "The Boyfriend School", "Alamo House", & "The Mommy Club", which received the Texas Institute of Letters 1991 Fiction Award. She lives in Austin, Texas.
Sarah Bird is a LibraryThing Author, an author who lists their personal library on LibraryThing.
Awards and Honors
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Yokota Officers Club
- People/Characters
- Bernadette Root
- Important places
- Okinawa, Japan
- Blurbers
- Bass, Rick; Ray, Jeanne
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 269
- Popularity
- 120,051
- Reviews
- 6
- Rating
- (3.56)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 9
- ASINs
- 4
