Melody's Reading Corner: Autobiography

Showing posts with label Autobiography. Show all posts

Yakuza Moon: Memoirs of a Gangster's Daughter

Melody

ISBN-13: 9784770030429
Publisher: Kodansha International, 192pp
Pub. Date: May 2007
Translator: Louise Heal

As the title suggests, Yakuza Moon is a memoir of Shoko Tendo, who is a gangster's daughter. In this book, Shoko tells her readers about her childhood, and her life revolving around the yakuzas. Having a yakuza father is tough, aside from this uncontrollable fact she also has to endure the abuse she suffered especially when her father came home drunk in the middle of the night and creates chaos in the house.

Shoko later gets herself involved with the wrong crowd, and became a yanki (juvenile delinquent). During her teenage years, she ditch school, sniff thinner and gets high on speed. When she became older, she got involved either with gangsters who treated her badly or married men who treated her as a kept woman.

Finally, she told herself she wanted to be her own person again, and that was when she had her body tattooed, to symbolize she is being free. She has also became a stronger person after the death of her parents, and is not afraid to put her past behind and be a new person again.

There was a sentence she quoted which I liked:

"Now that I’m alone, do I warrant a full moon? Have I finally overcome my weaknesses and grown up? I’m heading along a new path in life, but if it turns out to be a dead end, I guess I can start over with the next full moon.”

I applaud her bravery after reading this part. Indeed it takes a lot of courage for a person to accept his past and decide to start his life anew.

Yakuza Moon isn't an easy read in my opinion; I have mixed emotions reading this autobiography as there were times I was annoyed that she was degenerating herself, but yet at the same time I also felt sorry for her for behind her rebellious mask, I think she is just an ordinary woman craving to be loved.

Labels: 3.5 stars, Autobiography, Book Review, Fall Into Reading Challenge 6 comments |

Once I Was A Princess

Melody

Paperback: 464 pages
Publisher: Mainstream Publishing;
New Ed edition (October 21, 1999)
ISBN-10: 1840182776

The title first caught my attention, but I have to say it was actually the next line (after the title) that piqued my interest - "A Mother's Worst nightmare". After I read the backcover, I was surprised to note this is not a fiction but an autobiography. I decided to buy it.

The narrator, Jacqueline Pascarl's childhood was a sad one. She was sexually abused and this left her vulnerable after the incident. But her life changes when she met a foreign student thereafter. Bahrin managed to sweep her off her feet with his romantic gestures, and after their few dates he told her he actually comes from a royal family. Although Jacqueline wasn't sure how their relationship is going to take off after that, but Bahrin was so nice about everything so she said yes to him when he proposed. They then left Australia and moved into his family in Malaysia.

But life wasn't a bed of roses for Jacqueline after she moved into his family. Bahrin appears to be a different person back in his own country, and he no longer romances her the way he did back when they were in Australia. He wanted her to be an obedient Muslim wife, and she wasn't allowed to do this or that without his approval or permission. Princess Yasmin (as Jacqueline was now known) began to wonder about this 'stranger' whom she called her husband. And her nightmares began when he began to hurt her, even when she was pregnant with child.

After giving birth to their two children, she decided she had enough after knowing that her husband had secretly married another woman. Feeling cold and distraught, she left for Australia with her children. But things don't end just there, her husband abducted their children and this is where her real nightmares begin.

This book isn't easy to read, especially when I'm a mother myself and I can understand all the emotions Jacqueline has gone through. I felt sorry for her, but then I also have to admire her determination and courage of finding ways to locate her children. Jacqueline has written this book with details and emotions. This autobiography will stay in my mind for some time.