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kareilaThis slim coming-of-age novel is a bit complicated to describe. The protagonist, 15 year old Aiko, is an aspiring manga artist who suffers from cerebral palsy. She lives in Michigan with her mother, a renowned sculptor who uses Aiko as the model in all of her works. Aiko has never met her father, a Japanese indigo farmer, and she is not even sure he knows she exists, but she fantasizes constantly about visiting him in Japan.
When her mother presents her with airplane tickets, at first she thinks her dreams may finally come true, but instead their destination is Paris, where her mother has won a prestigious prize. She finds a new purpose, though, when she sees the film Song of Bernadette at her best friend's house and begins to imagine she might be cured if she can visit the shrine at Lourdes.
So now I've summarized the first third of the book and I'm still not sure what else I can say about it, except that it's unconventional enough to be interesting while still relating to the universal troubles of growing into adulthood.
When her mother presents her with airplane tickets, at first she thinks her dreams may finally come true, but instead their destination is Paris, where her mother has won a prestigious prize. She finds a new purpose, though, when she sees the film Song of Bernadette at her best friend's house and begins to imagine she might be cured if she can visit the shrine at Lourdes.
So now I've summarized the first third of the book and I'm still not sure what else I can say about it, except that it's unconventional enough to be interesting while still relating to the universal troubles of growing into adulthood.
