The Buddha in the Attic (2011) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters/People edit see section history

• We: the Japanese mail-order "picture" brides
• Our Husbands: The men who bought and paid for them.
• Charles: Add a description of this character.
• Midori
• Lester Nakano
• Dr. Giordano
• Lily

Quotes edit see section history

• “A girl must blend into a room: she must be present without appearing to exist. Pg. 6”

  Narrator

• “On the boat the first thing we did - before deciding who we liked and didn't like, before telling each other which one of the islands we were from, and why we were leaving, before even bothering to learn each other's names - was compare photographs of our husbands.”

• “One by one all the old words we had taught them began to disappear from their heads. They forgot the names of the flowers in Japanese. They forgot the names of the colours.”

• “Many of us dismissed the rumours as rumours but found ourselves spreading them - wildly, recklessly, and seemingly against our own will - nonetheless.”

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• Haruko left a tiny laughing brass Buddha up high, in a corner of the attic, where he is still laughing to this day.

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• A girl must blend into a room: she must be present without appearing to exist.

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• This is America, we would say to ourselves, there is no need to worry. And we would be wrong.

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• We gave birth to babies that were American citizens and in whose names we could finally lease land.

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• And every year, in August, on the Feast of the Dead, we lit white paper lanterns on their gravestones and welcomed their spirits back to earth for a day. And at the end of that day, when it was time for them to leave, we set the paper lanterns afloat on the river to guide them safely home. For they were Buddhas now, who resided in the Land of Bliss.

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• We put away our mirrors. We stopped combing our hair. We forgot about makeup. Whenever I powder my nose it just looks like frost on a mountain. We forgot about Buddha. We forgot about God. We developed a coldness inside us that still has not thawed. I fear my soul has died. We stopped writing home to our mothers. We lost weight and grew thin. We stopped bleeding. We stopped dreaming. We stopped wanting. We simply worked, that was all.

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• And even though our husbands had warned us—They’re afraid—still, we were unprepared. Suddenly, to find ourselves the enemy.

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• But it was not we who were cooking and cleaning and chopping, it was somebody else. And often our husbands did not even notice we’d disappeared.

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• silver mirrors given to us by our mothers, whose last words still rang in our ears. You will see: women are weak, but mothers are strong.

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• One calm, windless morning when the sea was flat as glass and the sky a brilliant shade of blue, the smooth black flank of a whale suddenly rose up out of the water and then disappeared and for a moment we forgot to breathe. It was like looking into the eye of the Buddha.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• California: Northern California, Farms
• America
• Japan
• San Francisco

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Mail-order bride: Describe this theme.
• Japanese Internment
• Racism

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Julie Otsuka (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• National Book Award (Finalist, 2011: Fiction)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PS3615.T88B83
• Dewey: 813`.6

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Sexual situations/forced sex/prostitution

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Japanese American Historical Mapping Project
• LitLovers: The Buddha in the Attic: This site contains a summary, the author bio, book reviews and discussion questions.