The Street of A Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama

I remember distinctly being attracted to the brilliant red cover sprinkled with pink cherry blossoms, while in the book store several years ago.  Like many others, on the shelf it sat.  With the tragic earthquake and tsunami in Japan, I thought it was time to read this one.

The Street of A Thousand Blossoms is filled with tragedy from the start.  Kenji and Hiroshi are orphans who are being raised by their grandparents.  Then World War II happens impacting their lives, setting them on an unexpected path.  After each sadness, they appear to move forward only to have misfortune follow them again and again.

Recently I asked one of my writing mentors to give me a critique on a story I was working on.  Her first words were that it was too depressing.  Depressing doesn't lure in the reader.  Then she listed all the reasons it was too depressing and trust me, the list was long.  Her advice taught me a great lesson about writing.  I wish someone had given Ms. Tsukiyama a list.  Maybe we would have had more happiness in this novel.

This novel gave great insight into the Japanese culture.  For that I'll give it credit.  The story however, was so depressing it was often a struggle to keep reading.  Add to that what I thought was poor editing and I was even more disappointed.  The outside of the book is beautiful.  The inside was too sad to be enjoyable.  I rate this book 2 out of 5 stars.