Hiroshima Dreams

This was a rather disappointing book. The title led me to believe that the majority of the book would have something to do with Hiroshima and memories of the atomic bombing, but that part is actually basically only incidental to the rest of the book.

The story is about Lin, a young child (around kindergarten age at the start of the story) who has the gift of “second sight.” Her grandmother comes to live with her and her family. The mother is Japanese, the father American, the two having married not long after the end of World War II.

The grandmother lived through the bombing of Hiroshima, and possesses her own form of psychic abilities.

Throughout the book Lin grows older, going from an extremely shy girl into a somewhat less shy young lady. As the story goes on, various modern-day references are added, such as Clinton's affair, the bombing of the Twin Towers in New York, George Bush/Dick Chaney's administration, etc.

I like the parts about the personal things Lin is going through, and the grandmother's memories of Japan.

I was disappointed in several ways, though.

For one thing, Lin's second sight is not really referred to that much or is really used that much.

The story covers probably around eighteen years in time, and the events are so condensed that the book comes across almost as an outline of what would have been a much longer book.

The title of the book leads one to think that a considerable part of the book would be based on what happened at Hiroshima, yet that is a very, very small part of the book.

Of those, It think the condensed nature of the book is the most bothersome to me. I feel that there is so much more that could have been done with the story, but wasn't.

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