I enjoyed the way the story unfolds in lyrical or poetic form. A great story which is I would say can relate in what is happening right now. Looking after your family and parents has its challenges which I myself can attest to that.

Overall, I recommend this book. Great short read.


Thank you Netgalley and Stone Bridge Press.

4/5 Stars

At first I thought this book might be too poetic for me as I had never heard of Hiromi Ito and was unaware of her presence as a celebrated poet. What attracted me initially and what eventually made me really like this book is the way Ito intertwines stories about her life with Japanese and US culture and with Japanese fables and myths.

I've been fascinated with Japanese lit for some years and it's always interesting to hear a new, lyrical voice. This is Ito's first English translation but if it is typical of her work I'd definitely read more.

You are never quite sure whether the story is fact or fiction because the lines are quite blurred at times. She uses myth to emphasise real life and the beliefs of Japanese animistic religions are used to great effect.

Some parts were a little lengthy but I found that once I picked this book up I found it hard to put down. I would definitely put this down to Ito's (and therefore Jeffrey Angles' translation) mastery of language.

A fascinating look at life, growing up, middle then old age and death as Ito splits her time between her California based husband and children and her elderly parents in Kumamoto.

Recommended for any fans of Japanese lit/poetry or those simply interested in a different culture.

The Thorn Puller is beautifully written, flowing between prose and poetry. Straddling a divide between East and West, it is nonetheless wonderfully universal, both in style and themes/subject matter. The book was sometimes a little more raw than I prefer, but that is personal preference. On the whole, a beautiful, moving read.

Lyrically written heart wrenching a novel that drew me in. The story of a woman torn between Japan where she she cares for her elderly parents and California where her husband and children are.There are sad moments funny moments a book a novel in essay poetry form.I really enjoyed this unique novel.#netgalley #thethornpuller.

First of all, I would like to thank Netaglley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of the book in return for an honest review.

The book is told in the first person, and tells the story of Ito, who is around 50 years old, and is aging. She has sick parents to care for in Japan, an aging Jewish American husband in California with whom there is always a cultural disconnect, and three daughters, each of whom has her own issues and struggles. At the same time, Ito, a poet, is trying to assert herself, deal with her own issues, and find enough room in her life for her own ambitions, fears, and hopes.

It's a wonderful piece of literature. It is also universal in style and importance. While the story is firmly embedded in Japanese culture, the fact that the protagonist tells her story through the divide in her life between East and West makes it very easy to digest and understand. It is a story of what getting old really means and the responsibilities that come with it. It is also a story of what it means to have elderly parents left behind in another country as an only child. It is also a story of parenting and love and kindness.

The prose is electrifying and difficult to put down. While the book is relatively long and nothing much happens, the storytelling is all consuming and captivating. It is a monologue from the heart and soul.

I recommend to anyone above 40 with aging parents. It is truly a modern masterpiece.

The book takes its name from a Jizo statue in Tokyo that is supposed to remove people's afflictions, and I will acknowledge that. However, this is not what I get from this book. To me, it was a collection of essays, some humorous, some poignant, and all enjoyable. I read the book in spurts. It's not one of those you must read start to finish, and maybe I lost some of the continuity the author intended. At the same time, I enjoyed every page, every phrase, and felt I was peering into the author's soul with each essay. For that reason, I highly recommend the book...for its sheer enjoyment.

Ito's preference as a poet takes lead in this novel. A realistic, first-person presentation of a woman torn between geographies and culture, The Thorn Puller makes a seemingly esoteric experience of going back-and-forth between Japan and California highly relatable. The writer's poetic muscles overtake some areas of the novel and their obsessive dedication to cite every influence in the writing may distract from their own talents as a writer. Translator Jeffrey Angles does an excellent job of capturing what I would imagine to be a challenging interpretation of a poetic work of art.

The novel being semi autobiographical and exploring through the diverged cultural life of the writer/protagonist, gives the writing style a whole new output.
The book highly bases itself into the cultural significance of lifestyle in the writer's nativity that we get very much used to the thorn puller tradition completely. The significant differences in the lifestyles between japan and america, with the marriage issues between very different people
The main idea of not fuxating the book to a story makes it more explorative than living just within the boundaries, in that way, the book never struggles to stay at one place, we see it bouncing back and forth between timelines so much we even stop caring about them, the chapters each explore each situation and characters, and by the book ends we get a perspective on all the characters equally in her family.
The translation was very lively to read, the translation of the different references and poems used was very neat and hope they were close to accuracy.

Blurring the lines between fiction, memoir, and poetry, this is a striking book focused on Hiromi, a middle-aged Japanese woman who frequently flies home to Japan to take care of her elderly parents. The great tension of her life is her parents’ expectation she will take care of them, and her American husband’s expectation she will stay home in California and run their lives. Throughout the book, Hiromi doesn’t shy away from her darkest thoughts, as she deals with motherhood, aging, being a daughter, and marriage.

Angles’ translation opens with a note explaining Ito’s work, and I think, revealing why large pieces of it won’t work with an English audience. Ito uses frequent references and lines borrowed from a number of Japanese words. I struggled with this: because I didn’t have the necessary cultural context, I missed what I expect would have made this a richer experience for me. This is not a fault of Angles or Ito, just the difficulty of translation sometimes - there are works that don’t do as well. I could tell Ito was clever with words and images, and using lines from other works to add to her story, but I didn’t really get it in the way I was meant to.

Thorn Puller is a story about a Japanese woman who is taking care of her elderly parents in Japan while also having her family in the states.

This book was quite sad. The depictions of caring for an elderly parent were quite heartbreaking. Ito, the main character, is complex and quite interesting. At times she seems thoughtful and caring and at others she seems crass and self involved.

I thought the writing was beautiful. But I had a hard time staying engaged in the story. The story dragged at times and it became hard for me to feel motivated to read.

This book had a unique voice, unlike anything I’ve read in awhile. I think the author is incredibly talented.

Lyrical, fiercely honest and heart wrenching, The Thorn Puller is what happens when poetry meets prose. Ito is a master of capturing the essence of complex emotions in even more complex relationships: wife to husband, mother to daughter, child to aging parents. I was captivated from the beginning by the rawness, beauty, and sometimes even humor Ito used to express what is often too difficult to put to words. A phenomenal read.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Stone Bridge Press for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Since this book sounds like a poem in the English translation, I guess it was even better in the original language. Aside from the style, it is peculiar that the topics then treated are really among the most "earthy" and it is perhaps this bipolarity between the topics and the language in which they are treated that captures the protagonist's difficulty in living between two cultures as different as American and Japanese. Beautiful, not easy, but definitely beautiful.

Siccome questo libro sembra una poesia nella traduzione inglese, immagino che in lingua originale sia stato persino migliore. A parte lo stile, é particolare il fatto che gli argomenti poi trattati siano veramente tra i piú "terreni" ed é forse questo bipolarismo tra gli argomenti ed il linguaggio in cui vengono trattati, che riprende la difficoltá della protagonista di vivere tra due culture cosí diverse come quella americana e quella giapponese. Bello, non facile, ma decisamente bello.

I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

An astounding and brutiful book that keeps going "yuya yuyon - back and forth, back and forth." Back and forth between America and Japan, between an ailing mother and an ailing father, between an ailing mother and father and an ailing husband, between husbands and wives, mothers and daughters, parakeets and dogs. Back and forth between menstruation and menopause, self-denial and self-preservation, realism and surrealism, the archaic and the modern, life and death. An astounding and brutiful book that keeps going a long time after you put it down and makes you want to pick it up again and again.

The Thorn Puller written by Hiromi Ito with translation by Jeffrey Angles is a semi biographical book about a woman who finds herself torn between two worlds and two sets of duties. In California she has a young daughter and a husband with a newly diagnosed cardiac condition, while in Japan her aging parents are facing health struggles of their own and in need of greater care and attention. As she shuttles back and forth between countries we see her struggle with the demands placed on her and the impossibility of being in both places as much as she needs or would like to be.
The author is well known in her native Japan as a poet, and I could see why this is so in the writing style of the book, where she blends prose and poetry while also introducing references from mythology, folklore and religion. This blend made the book interesting to read, and unlike anything else I have read in recent memory.
I appreciated the unflinching honesty with which the author approached difficult topics, she is not afraid to expose the harsh realities involved in caring for an elderly parent, from bodily fluids to the sense of loss as their memory fades and you become a stranger to someone you love very much.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

The Thorn Puller is both poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction, drawing from Japanese folktales to connect the writers life to something bigger than it is.

Itō cares for both her aging husband in the US, and her elderly parents in Japan. Travelling between both countries as primary caregiver to those around her. The readers are shown what biculturalism is like to live with and having two conflicting cultures being a huge part of your life.

The theme of motherhood, femininity, female sexuality, life and death is also rampant throughout the novel.

At times, I found the writing to be a bit slow and I think Western readers will have a hard time discerning the different “voices” that Itō borrows from. Overall, a wonderfully unique semi autobiography.

This book is about a woman’s role as caretaker to seemingly everyone in her life.

I was so excited to read it, but I just couldn’t connect with the characters. It reads as almost stream of consciousness and I can’t tell if that’s just the translation or a purposeful literary attempt at giving the reader the experience of what it’s like to be a caretaker who is on the brink because everyone needs you-and gig just can’t get a break, so your mind is running at top speed always.

Thank you to Stone Bridge Press and Netgalley for ARC and opportunity to review.

This ARC was an unflinchingly honest and funny memoir from Ito describing her chaotic family life - flying back and forth to Japan/California to look after her elderly parents, of her daughters and her husband, not to mention family pets and a whirlwind of emotions. It touched on sensitive topics close to home - ageing, death and dying, mental health issues but through it all Ito has managed to hold it together and write it down. The translation was brilliantly done. #thethornpuller #netgalley

It took a while to get into The Thorn Puller I initially thought I was reading a novel, turns out it's memoir in short story format. Once I got into the rhythm, I really enjoyed read and I felt so sad when I got to the end.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, from Stone Bridge Press and #NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity to preview and review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

A lovely read I truly enjoyed

'The Thorn Puller' follows Hiromi Ito in her travels between Japan, where she cares for her elderly parents, and the US, where she cares for her elderly husband. Her humor and delivery reminded me of Kishon, though it's been probably 10 years since I last read anything by him. She weaves in and out of prose and poetry smoothly to tell stories of her family and her life. There's a surprising amount of body fluids in this book but those are the facts of life I guess. Or death. I enjoyed it though, the book was raw, funny, gross and hopeful and by the end every Jizo appearence felt like seeing an old friend and my own thorns were being pulled.

The storytelling was a bit tedious at parts, but I don't believe it was Ito's or the translator's fault. I imagine a native speaker who's familiar with the 'voices' she borrows would have another layer to enjoy during those parts but sadly I've only read The Pillow Book out of them, so maybe it's time to change that.