Satomi is an eleven-year-old girl being raised by her mother, Akiko. Although mothers in her book are hardly sweet and nurturing, Mockett moves beyond the anger to explore daughters’ quest for their mothers. Few authors, however, deal with the complexity of those relationships as well as Marie Mutsuki Mockett. Only a couple of decades ago, mothers and daughters were seldom the focus of literature, but now that more women writers have emerged, they are everywhere. At a more universal level, the image suggests the process of finding and retaining what is true and important from the past for each of us. Subtly it is a major theme in the book, symbolizing the search for the piece of one’s mother that a daughter carries forth into her own life. It is critical to one of the subplots in this book. “Picking bones from ash” refers to the traditional Japanese practice of carefully removing the bones from ashes, with chop sticks, during special rituals involving cremation and burial. Graywolf Press (2011), 320 pages.Ī spectacular and totally absorbing novel about several generations of Japanese woman seeking to find and reestablish connections with their mothers and their pasts. Picking Bones from Ash, by Marie Mutsuki Mockett.
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