Tastes Like War

This is a 2.5 rounded up for me.

In short, this would have made an incredible novel, even in keeping the stylization of a memoir, but simply has a few too many assumptions and too many accusations and conflicting accounts lobbied against it, particularly by other family members, for it to be justified as a memoir for me.

I enjoyed the prose and the winding story telling, which seems to be a reoccurring complaint among other lower scored reviews here on goodreads. I also appreciate the author's desire to understand what her mother and mother's family may or may not have endured, even if how she goes about it in this book is one of the largest issues with it. Alas, the road paved with good intentions...

I think this book will make for great critical conversation for my book club's meeting this month! If you decide to take on this book, I think it's important to at least read the review by the brother, Neville. The sister in law and at least one of the nieces have also left reviews.