All My Darling Daughters

Welcome, once again, to the Fumi Yoshinaga Blog!

Oh, my what a powerful book. I probably say this a lot. I wish I could have one nth of the talent this woman has.

All My Darling Daughters is a set of interconnected stories, the first of which is about a woman in her thirties who lives with her mother who is in her fifties. The mother gets sick with cancer, recovers and ends up marrying a 27 year old former host / aspiring actor. Needless to say, there is some drama in the household.

I don't want to summarize the stories in this book, because it is so worth the read. I do like a lot of ninja-y, highschool drama-y, gay-y stuff, but man, sometimes I really just like to read about salary women in their thirties trying to negotiate the business of their lives.

If I were to recommend a manga to someone who didn't read manga but wanted to try, I'd probably have them start with this one. It's not manga-y; it's literary; it's American Comic-y (not of the super-hero-y variety, but more the independent-y ilk). I will stop with they -ys now.

This is an incredibly tender, smart, elegant, amazing book. GO READ IT!