Silver Like Dust, Kimi Cunningham Grant
Silver Like Dust, Kimi Cunningham Grant
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Silver Like Dust
One Family’s Story of America's Japanese Internment

Author: Kimi Cunningham Grant

Narrator: Emily Woo Zeller

Unabridged: 7 hr 35 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/12/2012

Synopsis

The poignant story of a Japanese American woman's journey through one of the most shameful chapters in American history.Sipping tea by the fire, preparing sushi for the family, or indulgently listening to her husband tell the same story for the hundredth time, Kimi Grant's grandmother, Obaachan, was a missing link to Kimi's Japanese heritage, something she had had a mixed relationship with all her life. Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, all Kimi ever wanted to do was fit in, spurning traditional Japanese cuisine and her grandfather's attempts to teach her the language.But there was one part of Obaachan's life that had fascinated and haunted Kimi ever since the age of eleven—her gentle yet proud Obaachan had once been a prisoner, along with 112,000 Japanese Americans, for more than five years of her life. Obaachan never spoke of those years, and Kimi's own mother only spoke of it in whispers. It was a source of haji, or shame. But what had really happened to Obaachan, then a young woman, and the thousands of other men, women, and children like her?Obaachan would meet her husband in the camps and watch her mother die there, too. From the turmoil, racism, and paranoia that sprang up after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the terrifying train ride to Heart Mountain, to the false promise of V-J Day, Silver Like Dust captures a vital chapter of the Japanese American experience through the journey of one remarkable woman.Her story is one of thousands, yet it is a powerful testament to the enduring bonds of family and an unusual look at the American dream.

About Kimi Cunningham Grant

Kimi Cunningham Grant is the author of Fallen Mountains, Silver Like Dust, These Silent Woods, and The Nature of Disappearing. Kimi is a two-time winner of a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Prize in Poetry and a recipient of a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowship in creative nonfiction. Her poems and essays have appeared in Fathom, Literary Mama, RATTLE, Poet Lore, and Whitefish Review. She lives with her family in Pennsylvania. 

About Emily Woo Zeller

Emily Woo Zeller is an Audie and Earphones Award–winning narrator, voice-over artist, actor, dancer, and choreographer. AudioFile magazine named her one of the Best Voices of 2013. Her voice-over career includes work in animated film and television in Southeast Asia.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Carol on April 18, 2012

I enjoyed the book moderately. There are other books about this unfortunate period of history that cover it better. Kimis grandmother does not really wish to recount her experiences in the internment camp and kimi slowly pulls some stories from her over a period of years. So the actual camp experien......more

Goodreads review by sayitwithasmile on April 15, 2018

I enjoyed this book enormously mostly for personal reasons that I will get in to below. For the general reader, it is a great account of the Japanese American internment experience during WWII. What makes it different and exceptional was that it is told from the perspective of the mixed race grandda......more

Goodreads review by Megan on May 03, 2012

In my high school social studies classes, no one ever once uttered the words "Japanese internment camp". In fact, I learned that our country rounded up and imprisoned the West Coast Japanese when I was in my mid-20s, and I found out because of a song by Fort Minor (a rap group), where the lead singe......more

Goodreads review by Lynne on May 23, 2012

I couldn't decide on two or three stars for this one. The subject is always interesting to me. I appreciate that she brought up the situations where the families were separated and never really connected again besides the occasional birthday card. Many books end with the release of the internees and......more

Goodreads review by Mary on March 22, 2012

I really enjoyed this book as well as informed by it. I thought it was recommended by a friend of mine but as it turns out, she was referring to a different book. I'm glad I made the "mistake"!......more

Quotes

“This vivid account of a Japanese American woman’s imprisonment at the Heart Mountain Relocation Camp during WWII takes the form of a dialogue between the once-imprisoned grandmother and the author, who is her granddaughter. Narrator Emily Woo Zeller does an extraordinary job of varying the voices in the dialogue without losing the intimacy of the story. Her delivery is well paced and easy to understand. The author’s grandmother was not only a prisoner but also a Japanese American, a woman, a new bride, and a mother. All of these facets of her identity, together, shaped her experience and come through in her memories.” AudioFile

“Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, wanting to fit in, Grant felt far removed from her Japanese heritage, including the internment of her grandparents during WWII…Grant offers a portrait of the stoicism and patriotism of her family as well as differences in generations, as the stories evoke her own feelings of rage. But throughout is a portrait of a courageous woman who endured hardship and later established a delicate balance of trust with her granddaughter that allowed her to finally tell the family’s story.” Booklist

“As the author learns about her grandmother’s young adulthood, marriage, and first child, she forms a relationship with the older woman that hadn’t existed before. Verdict: This is a heartwarming, informative, and accessible tale of personal family history. Grant seamlessly intersperses the narrative with facts about World War II, Japan, and the period. Grant’s narrative is not just a story of the Japanese internment; it is a loving tribute to her grandmother. Narrator Emily Woo Zeller allows the story to flow beautifully. Recommended to fans of Theresa Weir and Amy Tan.” Library Journal (audio review)

“The author weaves rich supporting material throughout the narrative, providing a solid context for the relocation and internment of 112,000 Japanese throughout the West…This is also the story of a young woman navigating her marriage to a strong but exacting personality and family ties weakened by the stress and separation of internment…[A] well-written book about life in a Japanese internment camp and the social and political forces that allowed their existence.” Kirkus Reviews

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