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snowwhitehatesapples's review
challenging
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Review can also be found at Snow White Hates Apples.
The Thorn Puller is an intimate and personal semi-autobiographical novel that centres around life, death, religion, motherhood, cultural differences and more. It is told from the perspective of a mother, wife, daughter and poet who travels constantly between California where her husband and children reside and Kumamoto to care for her ageing parents. Ito also seamlessly shifts between poetry to prose, and blends in multiple voices from various texts. This creates this atmosphere where her thoughts and opinions transcend the limitations of time and her own being, forming an intrinsic understanding of how others—no matter who, where and which era they live in—have felt and thought the same too.
Nevertheless, I feel distant from these episodic-like chapters—maybe because I’ve not experienced the same experiences/have not reached the stage of life where Ito is/was when she wrote this book. As a result, there’s a limit to how much I can empathise with, despite not having difficulty understanding or seeing where the narrator comes from.
Still, this book remains thought-provoking and meaningful. I really liked how prominent the narrator’s hope and belief in Jizo is throughout the book too. Every mention of him is a like a prayer for the deity to intervene and help pull out the thorns of suffering from the narrator and the people around her.
The Thorn Puller is an intimate and personal semi-autobiographical novel that centres around life, death, religion, motherhood, cultural differences and more. It is told from the perspective of a mother, wife, daughter and poet who travels constantly between California where her husband and children reside and Kumamoto to care for her ageing parents. Ito also seamlessly shifts between poetry to prose, and blends in multiple voices from various texts. This creates this atmosphere where her thoughts and opinions transcend the limitations of time and her own being, forming an intrinsic understanding of how others—no matter who, where and which era they live in—have felt and thought the same too.
Nevertheless, I feel distant from these episodic-like chapters—maybe because I’ve not experienced the same experiences/have not reached the stage of life where Ito is/was when she wrote this book. As a result, there’s a limit to how much I can empathise with, despite not having difficulty understanding or seeing where the narrator comes from.
Still, this book remains thought-provoking and meaningful. I really liked how prominent the narrator’s hope and belief in Jizo is throughout the book too. Every mention of him is a like a prayer for the deity to intervene and help pull out the thorns of suffering from the narrator and the people around her.
Thank you so much Stone Bridge Press for sending me a copy of this in exchange for an honest review! The Thorn Puller by Hiromi Ito is available at all good bookstores.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Xenophobia
Minor: Blood, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Excrement, and Sexual content
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