Canada Reads: book 3

Book 3:  "Forgiveness: A Gift From My Grandparents" by Mark Sakamoto
  This is a non-fiction book about two of the authors' grandparents- his paternal grandmother and his
maternal grandfather, during the second world war. The book intertwines the story of Ralph MacLean, who was captured and spent some years in a POW camp, with the story of Mitsue Oseki, whose family was uprooted from British Columbia to be interned on a sugar beet farm in Alberta.
  Both families had their lives completely changed

Mark Sakamoto is a lawyer who has worked in politics.

as the war affected them in different ways.  Although each family experienced man's inhumanity and brutality, they learned to forgive. 
  The end of the book is the story of the author's mother who lived a very destructive life of abuse and addiction.  He also had to learn to forgive his mother. 
   I did not like this book.  I thought it would only be of interest to the author's family.  There are many much better books about World War II- the Japanese internment as well as the bombing and fighting.  
  This book was full of minutiae- too many small unimportant details.  It started out as an essay and I think that was sufficient.  The rest was filler.
  However, there are many people who thought this book was great and I am waiting to see what the panel for Canada Reads will have to say
about it.

Jeanne Beker

  Jeanne Beker will be defending this book. 
  She is a Canadian television personality, fashion editor, author, and newspaper columnist.  She was appointed a member of the Order of Canada and received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame.