SOURCE: A review of The Floating World, in VOYA, April, 1990, p. 30.

In the following review, Flottmeier provides a very brief synopsis of The Floating World and discusses its suitability for young adults.

Olivia and her family are Japanese Americans living in the 1950s, moving from home to home, job to job, struggling for part of the American dream and trying to maintain some part of their own heritage. From the vantage point of an adult, Olivia remembers those itinerant days in "a floating world," usually in the family car: various motels, roadside fruitstands, and different jobs for her stepfather. This is a world in which the family is the stabilizing force and the world outside is flexible and changing. With the clarity, simplicity, and directness of a child of about 12, she records everyday events of the family's life without rancor, self-pity, or prejudicial commentary. She brings to life...