The Favorites

by Mary Yukari Waters

Book Overview

From an award-winning author whose debut story collection received unprecedented praise, comes an elegant novel about mothers and daughters, secrets and silences, and familial bonds in a culture where... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416561072
• ISBN13: 9781416561071
• Release Date: June 2009
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 279 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Mothers & Daughters, Sisters & Secrets...

Like a soft whisper, Mary Yukari Waters' writing is quietly powerful. Her book, The Favorites, is simply wonderful. She perfectly captures the subtle nuances of a relationship between a mother and her daughter, and the 3 generations of women this story is about... The Favorites is narrated through the voice of 14-year-old Sarah as she returns to Kyoto to visit her mother's family. Her innocent observations guide the story, as she learns about the beauty of Japan, the streets & surroundings that her mother walked as a child, and the complexities of the relationships between the women of her family. The Favorites also touches on the challenges an immigrant experiences in a land foreign to them- Sarah is half Japanese because her mother married an American, so she deals with her feelings of being an outsider,with strangers on the street, but also with her family. We learn of the differences of Sarah's mother living in America as a foreigner and her return to her native home. What's also wonderful is how Sarah views these differences, and her growing appreciation and love as a result I loved this book! In near perfect prose Mary Yukari Waters relates the honesty in feelings a daughter has for her mother; the unconditional love, the teenage embarrassment, the growing respect & love... It's about aunts & cousins, nieces & matriarchs, and how everyone has a special place in a family. Mary Yukari Waters writes so well about the complex feelings these women have for each other. She uses the eyes of Sarah to tell us and does this with the backdrop of one of my favorite places, Japan. A country filled with wonderful traditions, beauty, and superstitions... All is slowly divulged as the story takes us from the everyday lives of the women of the Kobayashi and Asaki houses one long summer in 1978. Sarah begins to slowly fade a bit as the story seems to tell itself in other parts, and in doing so we learn more details of another important woman in the household, and how the secret that binds the houses has affected her. Their histories and passions create a wonderful story that will stay with you after the last page is turned... Mary Yukari Waters writes the stories of these women with passion, but with the restrained grace of the Japanese women she is writing about. This novel was so moving. The story still haunts me... If you enjoy stories of mothers & daughters, sisters, family secrets, this book will not disappoint.

Family secrets

"Favorites" is a novel of relationships; mainly of mothers and daughters but also of sisters and cousins and aunts. Three generations of women have their relationships with each other bound by a secret that they all know, but must not talk about: One woman, widowed with one child already and another on the way in war-torn Japan, gave up her baby daughter to her sister-in-law. The two families live side by side, observing strict rules of behavior towards each other. The first part of the story is told largely through the eyes of Sarah Rexford, fourteen when the novel starts. Half American, half Japanese, she and her mother- daughter of the woman who gave up one child- are visiting Japan. Although Sarah spent her early childhood in Japan, and knows how to behave properly, she is now old enough to question things and learn the secret. Through her learning of traditional Japanese ways, we learn them. It's a bit lecture-y at times, but because it's a parent instructing a child, it's not too heavy handed. This is how we learn *why* the women must act as they do. As we go further into the story, we see deeper into the relationships. Though there are men in the households, they almost never appear- it's all about the women. The different degrees of love between them, their losses. It's a very touching novel that burrows down into the heart. Although she's been a short story writer for sometime, this is Waters's first novel, but it has the power of a fully developed novelist. I look forward eagerly for further work from this writer.

Family and Tragedy in Kyoto

In her debut novel, The Favorites, gifted short story writer Mary Yukari Waters tells the story of a Japanese family once torn apart by war and now living with the sacrifices of the past. The Kobayashi and Asaki households live side by side, seemingly related only by marriage; however, a deeper, unspoken secret unites them. Divided into four parts, The Favorites begins when fifteen year old Sarah Rexford and her mother Yoko arrive in their native Kyoto for the summer. Sarah is a "half" -- half-Japanese and half-American -- and thus does not belong fully to either culture. However, as she navigates the complex family relationships, sees her mother for the first time as popular, becomes reacquainted with her young cousins, and gets settled into the Japanese household, Sarah begins to understand some deep truths about her extended family and where she belongs in its hierarchy. In later sections, the point-of-view switches to those of the Japanese women and their methods of coping to a family tragedy that ignites the wounds of their past. At first, the cultural details are somewhat heavy-handed, and they seem designed to instruct rather than provide richness to the story itself. When combined with Sarah's unsophisticated point-of-view, these facts give the first part the feel of a young adult, or possibly middle school, novel. Fortunately, Ms. Waters leaves Sarah's point-of-view for a subtle but much deeper look into the family dynamics through the eyes of the Japanese women. The way the Japanese women cope with their unspoken emotions gives this novel the heart it lacks in the beginning. Ms. Waters is an excellent writer, and her accessible prose and characterizations carry this story forward with ease, even though it reads at times like an extended short story. As the novel moves from teenage blunt force to delicate beauty, it offers the rewards of a well-written tale. -- Debbie Lee Wesselmann

The Soul of an Author

A touring novelist is often asked: Did that really happen to you? The answer is invariably no and, if the author is feeling particularly risky, yes. An important task undertaken by a writer is to make connections that are vital but missing from both the personal and the common consciousness. To accomplish this, an author of fiction must mine everything that he or she knows and shoot it through a prism of experience. It is hard to separate the writer from the story, and asking him or her to quantify a specific aspect would be akin to asking you if you just drank the perfect glass of water. What does it matter if it is genuinely authentic and essential? This is one of the aspects that elevates award-winning author Mary Yukari Water's beautiful and poignant first novel, The Favorites. It is the tale of a group of Japanese women who are working through intergenerational relationships and the decisions that position them inside their personal stories. Fourteen-year-old Sarah Rexford is a half-Japanese and half-American visitor to her mother's Japanese homeland for the summer. Waters understands this experience, and she reveals the cultural and family dynamic as both an insider and a visitor to this exotic locale. She accomplishes this in a way that the well-researched writer or the well-traveled journalist cannot. There are inner circles and outer circles within the family that can only be penetrated by tacit agreement, and there are inside faces and outside faces--wrought by historical, social, and person decisions--that may never be unveiled during the course of lifetime. "Uchi versus Soto: inner circle versus outer circle. ... Uchi meant the few allies in whom a woman could place absolute trust. Soto was everyone else..." Understanding these circles is vital to daily interaction. Treading through them like an American means disaster. The curiosity of a child compels this foreign understanding, but Sarah suffers a psychological deficit for being half-Japanese and raised abroad in America, and she will continually battle the inevitable barriers from her family and even her own mother. Within this conundrum, the Japanese American contraposition is used, occasionally with humor, as a mirror to Sarah's dilemma. At one point, Sarah and her cousins play a game of "American Emotions," wrought through their skewed perception of American pop culture. "Sarah, wanting to seem as Japanese as possible, had been parodying American movies. 'I love you, son,' she said in a deep voice. 'You are very special to me.'" The idea of the western outward expression of feelings versus the eastern reluctance becomes a haunting theme as the story unfolds. At the core of the secret family life--which ceremonially and rhythmically turns in beehive fashion with great energy, duty, and honor--is the revelation that due to overwhelming post WWII circumstances Sarah's grandmother was pressured into giving up her newborn child to her nearby childless sister-in-law. Like American

Great story in a beautiful setting

This remarkable story develops through the visits of a Japanese/American girl to her mother's home in Kyoto. The complexity of relationships and cultures is entertaining on many levels and full of insight. You'll have to make an effort to keep the names of the characters straight, but it's a touching story well told.