Almost Japanese - Softcover

Adolescent Emma uses physical detail to recall her childhood: feet leave "two parallel tracks in the snow" when she is dragged to nursery school; arms and legs make angels in flour on the kitchen floor; face is lost to the pin-holes of malicious classmates in a photograph. Emma is a gawky though imaginative outcast who, like the water in her father's flooded fountain, "wanted out"out of the conventional world of the Canadian city where she lives. And Emma gets out by falling innocently in love with the prominent Japanese conductor who comes to direct the city's orchestra. Sheard gets just right all the details of Emma's obsessionan obsession that profoundly affects the course of her life. If we'd like the author to dig deeper into the nature of such longing, and if the ending drifts a bit, this intimate portrait of a young girl's maturing is still a fine addition to most collections. Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.