The Red Kimono: A Novel by Jan Morrill
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As delicate as a cherry blossom, The Red Kimono blooms quietly but persistently. It’s a gentle story of a very ungentle time. Mostly expressed through the words of young people, The Red Kimono is, of course, a comment on racism and war, but it is also a coming of age story not only for its characters but for a culture. Whether you buy the plot, or not—whether you appreciate the characters or the lovely prose or not, the premise for the story is true. Japanese interment really happened and it happened here in America. The resulting disruption to families was far reaching and long lasting. [a:Jan Morrill|5020480|Jan Morrill|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1358028386p2/5020480.jpg]doesn’t beat you over the head with it, but it’s impossible to ignore the unsettling feeling that the events she describes so clearly are shadows of events happening half a world away during the same time period. If you enjoy writers such as Amy Tan and N. Scott Momaday, you may enjoy the clash of cultures in The Red Kimono.

View all my reviews