Face of a Stranger

The book started out a teeny bit dry and left me confused because I didn't know who was what character and what their purpose was. Yet, as the book developed, the plot got soooooo good. There was obviously a lot of planning that went into this book, which made me happy to read it, because I hate books that are just flopped together for a quick dollar. I'm not going to go into what the plot was, because I think you should go out and read it for yourself and see the surprising ending!

This is an absolutely charming read, although it does take place in a distressing situation: young hopeful women from Japan are lured by the promise of marriage by the picture of a clueless gardener... who is discovered by two of them who manage to confound the exploitative but incompetent henchmen forcing them to stay in the brothel. The simplicity of the narrative style belies the complexity of the plot; Yamaguchi does a masterful job keeping the characters very clearly separate, although that means a bit of stereotyping. The characters are well-drawn, each with his or her redeeming sincerity within his or her weaknesses for status or revenge. Some outstanding comic scenes. Very good pace and excellent details of the 19th c. setting Without being too heavy handed, Yamaguchi does clearly paint the picture of discrimination suffered by non-white immigrants, but the more telling portrait is of the sad tendency for the first-arrived to take advantage of the later ones within the same ethnic group. Even though this takes place in a brothel, there is no raunchy language or graphic scenes, and I would recommend this for even junior high students for two reasons: great historical detail and a good plot device to explore human nature.