3 Review(s)

In Me: A Book of Remembrance, Eaton provides a reflective, semi-fictionalized account of her life, blending personal narrative with fictional elements. Born to a Chinese mother and British father, she grew up in a racially complex environment, grappling with questions of identity and belonging. Through the narrative, Eaton explores her mixed-race heritage and the societal challenges she faced, particularly the struggles of passing for Japanese in order to cater to the literary trends of the time, which favored exoticized depictions of Asian women.The book also touches on her experiences as a writer, her relationships with family members, and the tension between her public persona as "Onoto Watanna" and her private self as Winnifred Eaton. Her reflections on navigating the literary world, often marked by the expectations and stereotypes of the time, offer a unique insight into the life of a pioneering woman of color in early 20th-century literature.