Mika in Real Life

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How out of nowhere you suddenly and unconsciously dragged yourself back to the lowest or sometimes most humiliating or most hurtful moment in your life? Hiromi was tough, her character was like a catalogue of stuff you hate but I love Mika’s take on her mom; every mother is a first timer for their first kid, and how their relationship grows toward the end was both devastating and uplifting to me.

This is a beautifully written book about mothers and daughters, adult friendship, adoption complexities and what it means to be a happy adult. This was a feel good story about the complex relationships between mothers and daughters, with a focus on adoption. Mika and Hana are pleasingly still best friends and in fact, even though there is the family “romance” of mother and daughter reuniting and romance for Mika herself, the primary relationship in the book is between these two loving friends, and they are surrounded by a great friendship group of diverse and interesting people. The plot is oh my gosh- it was stupid to be really honest but I deeply understand why did it happen and where did it come from Mika, it was all part of her journey to find her true self. The story captures disappointments, forgiveness and unconditional connection, all complicated by differences in culture and race.The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. Some difficult subjects are tackled including *spoiler*TW* rape, so it’s not exactly a light read, but is very engaging heartfelt, and entertaining.

Exploring motherhood, interracial adoption, identity and past wounds, it had more depth to it than I originally anticipated. Each relationship is drawn with nuance and complexity, and each character felt fully realized, so they were lovable despite their flaws. To me, the romance between Mika and Penny’s adoptive father was forced, not to mention a bit creepy and off-putting. And I think that’s kind of natural for a parent to think about their child’s trajectory, if it will mirror their own or diverge.

The story on Motherhood was so touching, as we see Mika make the difficult decision to put her daughter Penny up for adoption, and later build a relationship with her as a young adult. Mika was no different and, while she truly was the conductor of the hot mess express, she was beautiful and doing her best to grow up! I really related to this because I’ve often felt these very same things not being quite American enough and not fitting into my previous culture. i feel like i was able to fully understand mika, her new connection to her birth daughter, her strained relationship with her parents, her budding romance with pennys adoptive dad, and her strong attachment to her best friend.

With the help of her best friends Hana and Charlie, and even her reluctant ex, Mika makes her choice. The biggest aspect of the book that I enjoyed was actually the growing relationship between Mika and Penny. I like the sensitive teenage Penny— she teaches Mika a responsibility and it kind of heartwarming too to read their parts.Mika, too, wants to meet but chooses to invent a more enviable version of herself, which means staging an elaborate and rickety deception involving a hunky boyfriend and ownership of an art gallery.

In her curiosity about Mika’s life, Penny asks a lot of questions, but Mika isn’t keen on letting her daughter know about the sorry state of her own miserable existence, so she decides to embellish the facts about her life just a little. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously. I didn’t think about what I might tell you if you came to me and asked, “Why, who are you, who am I? Jobless, single and living in a chaotic flat share, she can't bear her daughter knowing her life is a mess.At first contentious, their relationship grows and when the truth of Mika's life comes out, watch out! It's a beautifully written exploration of relationships, mothers and daughters, adult friendship, and the complexities of adoption. In the end, Mika must face the truth--about herself, her family, and her past--and answer the question, just who is Mika in real life? Mika’s life was at the lowest at that time (getting fired, failed in relationship with no savings); conflicts came and an unexpected incident making it worst when Mika fakes her success just to look good for Penny.