This was definitely a book that I looked into because of the cover. The black and white with the lines of bright are just visually appealing to me. The simple cover evokes a lot of emotion, for me. And I feel like once you've read the story, you will think this cover is pretty darn perfect. 

Sometimes, a book just hits you hard and leaves its imprint on you. Harmless Like You is definitely one of those books. Written in beautiful prose, this book takes you on a journey to the past, to different countries, into different minds. 

We follow the story of Yuki whose Japanese family is living in New York. First, we see Yuki as a 16-year old whose father is supposed to head back to Japan. With a lot of fighting, she convinces her family to let her stay in New York with a friend, Odile, to finish out her schooling. Living with her friend opens her eyes and her world to a new sort of life. There's an interesting twist with their friendship and Yuki's path hits some unexpected bumps. 

The story also follows Jay, who is a new father and is having a hard time coping with this. Jay's father recently passed away. Jay must now travel across the world to find his mother, who abandoned him when he was two. 

This book is slow. It will take you a while to get into it. And you may be like me and you may read it over the course of many weeks. It has nothing to do with the writing or the style, not for me at least. Not in a negative way. Buchanan's writing wove itself into my body, into my mind, into my heart. I would get...weird anxiety-like symptoms when reading this book. Again, not because I didn't want to read it. The writing style really brings you into the story, makes you part of the story, makes you live the story. You feel what these characters feel. And a lot of what these characters feel are uncomfortable emotions. So, I would read, get super involved for a few pages, then have to take a step back. 

It has been around 6 months since I finished this book. I still think about it randomly when I am doing other things. These characters...they will stay with you. 

This is one I will definitely re-read and purchase to put on my shelves. If you are a fan of family relationships, coming of age stories, and beautiful prose, this is a must read for you!

A delicate and affecting exploration of family, culture, and ambition.

When Jay was only two years old, his mother walked out on him and his father. Thirty-three years later, he's feeling the strong urge to flee after the birth of his own child. The death of his father forces him to confront the mother who has always been a mystery to him. Why would a mother abandon her child? Is Jay destined to abandon his own family?

1968-1983: Yuki is adrift. At sixteen-years-old, after years of being "Yucky Yuki," she finally has a friend.  Unfortunately, her family is planning to return to Japan soon. She asks her parents to let her stay in New York with her new friend Odile and they agree, with very little pushback. Yuki was already lonely and depressed, but she loses her only anchor when her parents leave her behind. She can’t find a place where she belongs.  Living in New York for most of her life has made her too American for Japan, yet she is still too Japanese for the Americans. She desperately wants to be an artist but isn't very talented. She floats through life, latching onto whoever shows her interest. She is highly susceptible to toxic relationships. Her friendship with Odile sparks fast, but burns out just as quickly. Yuki's first boyfriend is abusive, but she can't bring herself to leave; he's the only person who's exclusively hers and she can't imagine anything better for herself. Even her one chance at a healthy relationship is a giant misstep, destined to fail from the beginning. The only time she feels alive is when she’s hurting.

2016: As the son Yuki left behind, Jay has many unresolved issues. He's unable to find his footing as a father. The pregnancy and birth of his child has altered his relationship with his wife and he feels a strong impulse to run. In addition to the stresses of becoming a father, his own father's death has left him without a parent to turn to for support. However, his mother is still living. Jay’s father willed his home to Yuki, so Jay has to locate her to sign the paperwork. Jay is apprehensive about meeting the mother he doesn’t remember, but whose abandonment influenced his life. His biggest comfort is an ugly cat that he refuses to abandon despite his wife's wishes. Will meeting his mother give him closure or confirm a genetic compulsion to run? 

The chapters alternate between Yuki's coming-of-age tale and Jay's struggle to come to terms with his mother's abandonment, until they finally meet in Yuki's Berlin apartment. Harmless Like You is about home, belonging, identity, and the importance of family bonds. There are no explosive revelations, but the inner turmoil of the characters was fascinating. Yuki is so passive, but I was riveted by her story. Anyone who has ever felt like an outsider will see a sliver of themselves in Yuki. During my reading I was anxious to find out why Yuki ran away and if Jay would follow the same course, but most of all I was curious to see if Yuki ever found what she was looking for.

Yuki doesn't feel like she belongs in Japan or America, but when her parents decide to move back to Japan, she stays behind, intent on making it as an artist. Her path diverges, and years later we meet Jay, Yuki's adult son, who is dealing with his own reluctance at being a parent, and must reconnect with his mother after the death of his father. Interesting read.

It is always such a fantastic surprise when a book turns out to be something much more than I thought it would be. Harmless Like You is one of those books. I had thought it would be another tale of a young woman who doesn’t fit in as a youth and then struggles in the big city throughout her adulthood. This was so much more.

Yuki Oyama is a young Japanese American who has been living in the US since she was very young. She has never felt as though she fit in ANYWHERE. When we meet her she is in high school and has no friends, no outside interests. She finally meets Odile, another girl who feels that she doesn’t belong, and they become friends. Odile has dreams of becoming a model. She also has a lot of dangerous and illicit activities that she starts to share with Yuki.

During her senior year in high school Yuki’s father is transferred back to Japan and Yuki somehow talks her parents into letting her stay behind with Odile and her mother to complete her high school education and go on to college. Let’s just say that things don’t work out as they were supposed to. The girls friendship breaks up, Odile flees to be with a man she knows and Yuki makes some very bad decisions.

The novel is also told from the viewpoint of Jay, a young father struggling with the change in his marriage that a new baby brings. He is the owner of a successful art gallery. He knows who his mother is because he has done his research, although she left when he was just 2 years old. Jay’s father has just died and he must go to Japan, find this woman and deliver the deed to the house, get the papers signed, etc. He is anxious to meet his biological mother.

Without going into the plot, there are other reviews on here for that, I want to concentrate on the writing. Buchanan writes about the importance of “home”, somewhere where a child and/or adult can be themselves, feel comforted and grounded and supported. Yuki never had that sense of home even while living with her parents, her father was a busy man and she didn’t really have a connection with her mother. Odile has a self absorbed mother who writes romance novels and continues to have self destructive relationships. Both Yuki and Jay were their parents only child and the book touches upon that subject also. Something that was intriguing but also scary was the insertion of the issue of domestic violence in the book. Buchanan handled it masterfully, I was able to understand why someone might put up with being in an abusive relationship because they feel this person is the only one who will have them. Many people who live with abuse have a very low opinion of themselves and their worth. Finally it is Yuki’s art that directs the way that she lives her life.

Tough a bit of a slow start this book is worth the wait. Once I got into the characters I was hooked.

One technique that the author used that I enjoyed was the description of a particular color at the beginning of the chapters told from from Yuki’s viewpoint. Examples of this: “1982, Vermillion. In medieval times made with mercury and sulphur. Why were the brightest paints also poisons?”

“1975, Caput Mortum. A purple-brown. Literally: dead head. Amed for the color of dried blood but it does well for painting of old fruit and fading bruises. The name may also refer to worthless remains”. The color descriptions also seemed to be distinctly chosen to highlight something that was going on in Yuki’s life, as in the color that could be used to paint “fading bruises”, again touching upon domestic abuse.

Will also post on Amazon upon publication.

Beautiful writing, fascinating characters, and wonderful storytelling all rolled into one. What a gem!

Though I really enjoy novels that follow multiple generations and allow the reader to slowly see the connections between alienated family members, as well as stories that explore immigration and being between cultures, I had to work to get myself to continue to read this novel. The characters and writing were not bad, but the story did not take me along for the ride.

Yukiko Oyama is a lonely sixteen year old girl living in New York in 1968. Yuki's parents are ready to go back to Japan after many years of working in the USA. Yuki's father has little confidence that she will get into a Japanese university and Yuki has no desire to try to adjust to life in a place that is foreign and seemingly unfriendly to her. Yuki is a third culture kid at a time when there weren't many of them anywhere in the world. New York in the sixties wasn't as diverse as it is now and Yuki is different in many ways, finding herself quite alone at her parochial school in the village. She constantly disappoints her father with her low scores in math and her love of art. Art is the only thing that transforms her lonely heart to one of joy. She manages to make a friend and then stay with that friend when her parents travel back to Japan.

<i>Harmless Like You</i> is a powerful story of loneliness, depression, and grief. Rowan Hisayo Buchanan has shown extraordinary talent in creating a narrative of events that reach far back into history, showing their effect on descendants for many years afterwards. RHB's writing pulled me into Yuki's world. I ached for her solitary years as a teenager and then cringed at the decisions she made, mostly ones that might have helped her but almost always made things worse.

The life of an expat, especially that of a young person, is never easy. Buchanan has taken that experience and created a work of art that many of us have lived and understand so well. She told the story of one woman but gave us glimpse into the lives of many.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company (publish date: February 28th 2017).

Wow, this novel.

Yuki Oyama’s father’s job sends the family to Manhattan. Yuki feels stuck between two cultures, but doesn't want to leave New York when it’s time for her family to return to Japan. She convinces her parents to allow her to stay in America with a friend to further her education. Her friend is beautiful and beside her Yuki feels ugly. Her friend’s mother has an abusive boyfriend and in time Yuki develops a crush on him. She soon becomes entangled in a relationship with this older man. Yuki fights to succeed as an artist as her identity is threatened by this consuming relationship.

Jay, a new father, struggles with the topography of his new life as a parent. His mother abandoned him and his father when he was young. Now he has his own child and isn’t connecting to her like he should. His father dies and Jay’s wife wants him to get rid of his beloved hairless cat now that his father isn’t able to do so. And there is the issue of his father’s estate as his father is still legally married to his mother, Yuki Oyama.

Harmless Like You is a dual point of view novel that explores love, loss, identity, and art. Its prose is breathtaking at times; I wanted to highlight so many passages for their beauty and poignancy. There is a lot of rawness to this work as well, including a very cutting portrayal of domestic violence within a relationship. Rowan Hisayo Buchanan’s debut novel is certainly noteworthy and would make an excellent book club pick.