Review of
World of Strangers
Published:
June 2000
Reviewer Rating:
Avg User Rating:
(2.21)
It is set in an interesting new format which I appreciate, it was organized by time stamps (military time of course). This kept it flowing a bit better than her other Enterprise Logs Story "The Veil at Valcour". That is about the only nice thing I have to say about this story.
It definitely felt a little callous and out of touch. You could tell the author wanted to make a commentary on the immorality of Japanese Internment, but boy did it feel like it fell flat. Hardison does not display a lot of sympathy or empathy for someone who he helped raise. Luke is risking his life for a country that doesn't trust him because of how he looks. He really bears his heart out about his concerns for how his family is treated, and he gets told to suck it up and go back out there. Hardison tells Luke that his family is paying for the betrayal of other people, but in actuality never was a Japanese American convicted of an act of espionage during World War II. I feel it irresponsible for a modern author to perpetuate this myth that we used the justify the internment of American Citizens without cause. I understand this is probably what Hardison would have believed at the time, but the author has a forward which she could mention this in, and instead used the foreword to thank family members who had served in WW II, and not give an essential fact about a community that she was attempting to represent.
It feels like Carey wanted this to be a hard look at our past but boy did it feel soft. I think this could spark some debate about how we interrogate our past. The United States past is full of terrors, and it is important that we write about them.
It definitely felt a little callous and out of touch. You could tell the author wanted to make a commentary on the immorality of Japanese Internment, but boy did it feel like it fell flat. Hardison does not display a lot of sympathy or empathy for someone who he helped raise. Luke is risking his life for a country that doesn't trust him because of how he looks. He really bears his heart out about his concerns for how his family is treated, and he gets told to suck it up and go back out there. Hardison tells Luke that his family is paying for the betrayal of other people, but in actuality never was a Japanese American convicted of an act of espionage during World War II. I feel it irresponsible for a modern author to perpetuate this myth that we used the justify the internment of American Citizens without cause. I understand this is probably what Hardison would have believed at the time, but the author has a forward which she could mention this in, and instead used the foreword to thank family members who had served in WW II, and not give an essential fact about a community that she was attempting to represent.
It feels like Carey wanted this to be a hard look at our past but boy did it feel soft. I think this could spark some debate about how we interrogate our past. The United States past is full of terrors, and it is important that we write about them.
