Me: A Book of Rememberance

by Onoto Watanna

Born into a family of sixteen children, Nora Ascouth is used to fighting to be heard. From a young age, Nora becomes determined to have a writing career, and travels around the world looking for the best place to work. From Canada, she moves to Jamaica, where she works for a newspaper. Later, in search of a more personal approach to her work, Nora moves to Chicago to try to sell her own stories. In her attempts to find a way publish her work, Nora ends up finding best friends and fellow writers, Fred and Lolly. The two support Nora as she jumps from job to job, and they all help each other with their writing. After Nora really settles in Chicago, she meets a man that captures her heart immediately. However, as her relationship with Mr. Hamilton grows, conflict arises when he suggests a move to New York. After they marry, the young couple set out to a new city, Nora prepares herself to enter the job market yet again.

With details mirroring author Onoto Watanna's life, Me: A Book of Rememberance is semi-autobiographical. Through the depiction of the struggles and powerlessness Nora faces as a working woman in the 19th century, Me: A Book of Rememberance explores views on race, gender, and class. With an intimate perspective, Watanna reveals truths derived from first-hand experience; Watanna worked not just as a woman in America, but as a woman with Asian heritage in a time where she was heavily discriminated against.

First published in 1912, Me: A Book of Rememberance is one of Onoto Watanna's most intimate works and is rarely found in print. This special edition features a stunning cover design and is printed in an easy-to-read font. With these accommodations, this edition of Me: A Book of Rememberance caters to contemporary readers by restoring the novel to modern standards while preserving the original intricacy of Onoto Watanna's work.

Genres: American

216 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1997

About the author

Onoto Watanna is a pseudonym for Winnifred Eaton (her maiden name) or Winnifred Eaton Reeve (her married name).

From Onoto Watanna: The Story of Winnifred Eaton
"In 1901, the young Winnifred Eaton arrived in New York City with literary ambitions, journalistic experience, and the manuscript for A Japanese Nightingale, the novel that would sell many thousands of copies and make her famous. Hers is a real Horatio Alger story, with fascinating added dimensions of race and gender."

Reviews

[Camelia Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

First published in 1915, Me: A book of Remembrance is a thinly disguised autobiography. Since I have read Onoto Watanna: The Story of Winnifred Eaton, a biography written by Diana Birchall, the grand-daughter of Winnifred Eaton, I can not stop wondering how many events in Me did happen. It is hard to tell. However, I shall review the book as it-is, avoid reading between the lines or filling gap in the character's actions by the true events from the writer's life.

The protagonist, Nora, is a vivacious, independent young woman and an aspiring writer. I like her courageous fight against poverty and her determination of becoming what she wanted to be. In an era when women's choice was very much limited, Nora carefully balanced between her moral ground and survival instincts. She did not hesitate to "cash" her attractiveness for help from men who expressed kindness or love, while maintained her cherished independence.

The book is an interesting historical read. The brief picture of Y.W.C.A Chicago and Union Stockyards was fascinating. I like the use of slangs by the young working men and women, such as "stuck on you", "a steady", "pull my legs" and "dead game-sport".

The characters I like most are Fred O'Brien and Lolly Hope, the protagonist's two best friends in Chicago, two potential great characters - only that our writer was more interested in romance than anything else. There was a brief mention, however, that Lolly wrote an article about the condition on the yard. "She has nerves" Fred commented. It reminds of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, which was also set in Union Stockyards in Chicago around the same time period. Other characters are much less developed. Nora's love interest, a rich man named Mr. Hamilton is incredibly boring and one-dimensional.

Some part of the story reads very dated, especially regarding race and sex, which would stop larger number of modern readers reading it. When kissed by a black man (partly Jewish), she screamed and fled - "that great animal had kissed me". By historical standard, perhaps she was justified, for she passed as White, yet we know her mother was Chinese (or Japanese as she claimed). Some argue that her attitude is an indicator of how hard for a coloured person to live in a world of racism, but still it leaves me cold. The attitude to sex is also dated. At the end of the book, Lolly said to Nora: "You can start all over again. I wish that I could but I have cashed my checks all in." For me, it hints that Lolly had lost her virginity in a failed affair. She soon committed suicide. Perhaps the writer wrote such an ending to achieve a dramatic effect, but surely it does not work anymore.

[Sam Fertig · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really cool book. It's admittedly hard to explore racial discourse in the novel, mostly because ideas of race are often obscured by ideas of gender and sexuality (probably intentionally). As a read, the plot is compelling and quick to be caught up in. I'd highly recommend this book to those looking for a journey about identity--what it means to be female, what it means to be biracial, what it means to be black, etc. Also, though, to those interested in exploring the means and method of writing "otherness" into a novel; this book pairs well with the others on my list.