A Temporary Residence

Library Journal

A Temporary Residence is the Mt. Hope Assembly Center, a former race track converted during the early days of World War II into a detention center for Japanese-Americans. The story of America's concentration camps has been well told in several nonfiction accounts. Even so, Hudson's novel can serve as a revealing introduction to this shameful episode of prejudice and maltreatment. Her prose bristles with just indignation and her research is clearly evident; unfortunately her characters, whether they are camp officials or evacuees or their wives, are mostly one-dimensional illustrations of good, evil, and indifference. This weakens what otherwise might have been a powerful protest novel. Charles Michaud, Turner Free Lib., Randolph, Mass.