Harmless Like You: A Novel

by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan Narrated by Emily Woo Zeller, P.J. Ochlan

Overview

Written in startlingly beautiful prose, Harmless Like You is set across New York, Berlin, and Connecticut, following Yuki Oyama, a Japanese girl fighting to make it as an artist, and Yuki's son Jay who, as an adult in the present day, is forced to confront the mother who abandoned him when he was only two years old.



The novel opens when Yuki is sixteen and her father is posted back to Japan. Though she and her family have been living as outsiders in New York City, Yuki opts to stay, intoxicated by her friendship with the beautiful aspiring model Odile, the energy of the city, and her desire to become an artist. But when she becomes involved with an older man and the relationship turns destructive, Yuki's life is unmoored.



Harmless Like You is a suspenseful novel about the complexities of identity, art, adolescent friendships, and familial bonds, which asks¿and ultimately answers¿how does a mother desert her son?

Editorial Reviews

MAY 2017 - AudioFile

This debut audiobook features a unique look at characters who are simply trying to figure out who they are and how they might find some purpose and joy in life. Shifts in time and viewpoint present listening challenges, but easily identifiable characters, and clear and crisply paced performances from both narrators provide skillful guidance. Narrator Emily Woo Zeller captures the angst of young Japanese transplant Yuki, who struggles to fit into the New York City art scene and then into the suburban world of a housewife in the 1960s and ‘70s. P.J. Ochlan's portrayal of Yuki’s son, Jay, is a bit wooden initially but gains intensity and animation as family challenges cause him to mature. Buchanan's gifts for lyrical description and nuanced character development, ably presented by Zeller and Ochlan, create an appealing audiobook. M.O.B. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

11/28/2016
At the onset of Buchanan’s debut, a son shows up at the doorstep of his mother, Yuki, in Berlin after a 30-year separation. Jay’s there to settle Yuki’s inheritance—a house in Connecticut—after his father is killed in a car accident. The story of what prompted Yuki to abandon her family, as well as the details of Jay’s life as a New York gallery owner and recent father, unspool in sections stretching from 1968 to the present. Some parts are more effective than others. After her parents move back to Japan when she’s 16 and leave her in America, Yuki’s push to find love and purpose as an artist takes on a myopic urgency that teeters toward mania. It’s therefore no surprise that she drops out of school, stays in an abusive relationship too long before marrying Jay’s doting father, and becomes a suburban mother, all with creativity-crushing consequences. In contrast, Jay’s ineptitude—at staying loyal to his wife, caring for his “inarticulate pink flesh-sack” of a baby, and facing his emotions—reads like a series of temper tantrums. When mother and son bond over Jay’s ailing cat in Berlin, the union feels too easy given the depth of their estrangement. Still, Buchanan has a knack for mining the murky depths of what it means to identify as an artist, parent, and lover. The journey is sometimes tender, often agonizing—and everything in between. (Feb.)

Library Journal

01/01/2017
Buchanan's debut novel is an intriguingly told tale of a mother and the son she abandoned at age two. In 1968, when her parents return to Japan from New York, teenage Yuki stays behind, moving in with her best and only friend, Odile, and Odile's mother. Her son Jay's story, told alternately in first person (Yuki's story is in third person), opens in June 2016 with Jay as a new father. As the novel progresses, Yuki moves out to live with the abusive Lou and eventually finds refuge in marriage to a longtime friend who encourages her interest in art. Eventually, Yuki and Jay's worlds come together as Jay seeks out his mother after his father's passing. VERDICT While the author skillfully handles the alternating story lines, the focus on Yuki means that readers do not get a complete sense of Jay's upbringing without his mother, only the knowledge of his resentment toward her. Nevertheless, Buchanan's initial effort is a worthy page-turner for those who appreciate stories focusing on families and relationships.—Shirley Quan, Orange Cty. P.L., Santa Ana, CA

MAY 2017 - AudioFile

This debut audiobook features a unique look at characters who are simply trying to figure out who they are and how they might find some purpose and joy in life. Shifts in time and viewpoint present listening challenges, but easily identifiable characters, and clear and crisply paced performances from both narrators provide skillful guidance. Narrator Emily Woo Zeller captures the angst of young Japanese transplant Yuki, who struggles to fit into the New York City art scene and then into the suburban world of a housewife in the 1960s and ‘70s. P.J. Ochlan's portrayal of Yuki’s son, Jay, is a bit wooden initially but gains intensity and animation as family challenges cause him to mature. Buchanan's gifts for lyrical description and nuanced character development, ably presented by Zeller and Ochlan, create an appealing audiobook. M.O.B. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171359324
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	02/28/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	967,576

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