What is the author's style in So Far from the Bamboo Grove by Yoko Kawashima Watkins?

Yoko tells the story primarily from her point of view, except when narrating Hideyo's parallel story. She then becomes the omniscient narrator, although limited in scope. She does not tell the story of her father in very much detail, possibly because he does not speak of his experiences after returning home six years later. Another possibility is that the father's experience is out of the overall story context.

Yoko is only eleven years old through most of the story, and her point of view is limited to what an eleven-year-old can comprehend during wartime. The author adds detail to keep the story meaningful, but not so much that the reader feels an adult voice does the narration. An amount of adult soul-searching does come through the narrative, as if the author tries to dispel extreme bitterness and resentment through the purging that can result from writing down a traumatic life story. This is especially noticeable when Yoko deals with the girls' school students.

"The streetcar passed with a roar, leaving sparkles between the rails. A girl yelled from a broken window, 'Rag Doll!' I bit my lip, feeling anger I could not control and wanting to smack that girl, whoever she was. I stamped the ties and pretended I was stamping on her" (p. 152.)