Showing posts with label asian americans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label asian americans. Show all posts
Jan 19, 2019
Sep 14, 2018
Feb 1, 2018
Jun 1, 2011
The spirit catches you and you fall down - Anne Fadiman
Summary: A study in the collision between Western medicine and the beliefs of a traditional culture focuses on a hospitalized child of Laotian immigrants, members of the Hmong tribe, whose belief that illness is a spiritual matter came into conflict with doctors' methods. - (Baker & Taylor)
Booklist Reviews
The Lee family had suffered much in Laos and Thailand before coming to the U.S. and settling in Merced, California, among an already large Hmong population. Fadiman explores relations between young Lia Lee, her parents, and various physicians. She brings Hmong culture vividly to life and shows how naturally misunderstandings arise when American health-care providers deal with Hmong patients and their families. For example, the Hmong feel that soul strings must be tied around parts of the body when the individual is endangered; American nurses understandably but insensitively cut off these dirty ties. Fadiman's brief history of the Hmong also explains Lia's parents' desire to be independent and in charge, in the process filling a gap in many a reader's knowledge. Her book has a scope much broader than that of a medical case history, and it could well spark discussion of such questions as whether an immigrant lacks intelligence if she cannot express herself quickly and clearly in English and whether a foreign culture is always inferior. ((Reviewed September 15, 1997)) Copyright 2000 Booklist Reviews
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Apr 1, 2011
No-no boy - John Okada
Summary: In the aftermath of World War II, Ichiro, a Japanese American, returns home to Seattle to make a new start after two years in an internment camp and two years in prison for refusing to be drafted.
No Review Available
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Nov 1, 2010
The kitchen god's wife - Amy Tan
Summary: A Chinese immigrant who is convinced she is dying threatens to celebrate the Chinese New Year by unburdening herself of everybody's hidden truths, thus prompting a series of comic misunderstandings - (Baker & Taylor)
Publishers Weekly Reviews
Tan can relax. If The Joy Luck Club was an astonishing literary debut, The Kitchen God's Wife is a triumph, a solid indication of a mature talent for magically involving storytelling, beguiling use of language and deeply textured and nuanced character development. And while this second novel is again a story that a Chinese mother tells her daughter, it surpasses its predecessor as a fully integrated and developed narrative, immensely readable, perceptive, humorous, poignant and wise. Pearl Louie Brandt deplores her mother Winnie's captious criticism and cranky bossiness, her myriad superstitious rituals to ward off bad luck, and her fearful, negative outlook, which has created an emotional abyss between them. Dreading her mother's reaction, Pearl has kept secret the fact that she is suffering from MS. But as she learns during the course of the narrative, Winnie herself has concealed some astonishing facts about her early life in China, abetted by her friend and fellow emigree Helen Kwong. The story Winnie unfolds to Pearl is a series of secrets, each in turn giving way to yet another surprising revelation. Winnie's understated account--during which she goes from a young woman ``full of innocence and hope and dreams'' through marriage to a sadistic bully, the loss of three babies, and the horror and privations of the Japanese war on China--is compelling and heartrending. As Winnie gains insights into the motivations for other peoples' actions, she herself grows strong enough to conceal her past while building a new life in America, never admitting her deadly hidden fears. Integrated into this mesmerizing story is a view of prewar and wartime China--both the living conditions and the mind-set. Tan draws a vivid picture of the male-dominated culture, the chasm between different classes of society, and the profusion of rules for maintaining respect and dignity. But the novel's immediacy resides in its depiction of human nature, exposing foibles and frailties, dreams and hopes, universal to us all. Major ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selections; first serial to Grand Street, Lear's, McCalls and San Francisco Focus; paperback sale to Fawcett/Ivy; author tour. (June) Copyright 1991 Cahners Business Information.
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Sep 1, 2010
The woman warrior: memoirs of a girlhood among ghosts - Maxine Hong Kingston
The woman warrior: memoirs of a girlhood among ghosts - Kingston, Maxine Hong
Summary: A Chinese American woman tells of the Chinese myths, family stories and events of her California childhood that have shaped her identity. - (Random House, Inc.)
No Review Available
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Jul 1, 2010
In the shadow of the cypress: a novel - Thomas Steinbeck
In the shadow of the cypress: a novel - Steinbeck, Thomas
Summary: A turn-of-the-twentieth-century discovery of ancient jade artifacts on California's Monterey Peninsula by a Stanford marine biology professor is marked by violent debates and a tragic accident. - (Baker & Taylor)
Staff Review
A rich, multi-layered, complex and thoroughly delightful book. Thomas Steinbeck, John's son, shares his father's ability with language and his love of the California Monterey area. Dramatic history of California and the Chinese immigrants, an exciting mystery, plus a really great duo of brainy scholars on the case, come along for a great read.
American born Chinese - Gene Luen Yang
American born Chinese - Yang, Gene Luen
Summary: Alternates three interrelated stories about the problems of young Chinese Americans trying to participate in the popular culture. Presented in comic book format.
Booklist Reviews
With vibrant colors and visual panache, indie writer-illustrator Yang (Rosary Comic Book) focuses on three characters in tales that touch on facets of Chinese American life. Jin is a boy faced with the casual racism of fellow students and the pressure of his crush on a Caucasian girl; the Monkey King, a character from Chinese folklore, has attained great power but feels he is being held back because of what the gods perceive as his lowly status; and Danny, a popular high-school student, suffers through an annual visit from his cousin Chin-Kee, a walking, talking compendium of exaggerated Chinese stereotypes. Each of the characters is flawed but familiar, and, in a clever postmodern twist, all share a deep, unforeseen connection. Yang helps the humor shine by using his art to exaggerate or contradict the words, creating a synthesis that marks an accomplished graphic storyteller. The stories have a simple, engaging sweep to them, but their weighty subjects--shame, racism, and friendship--receive thoughtful, powerful examination. ((Reviewed September 1, 2006)) Copyright 2006 Booklist Reviews
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Shortcomings - Adrian Tomine
Shortcomings - Tomine, Adrian
Summary: Ben Tanaka, a confused, obsessive, twenty-something Japanese American, embarks on a cross-country search for contentment--or the perfect girl--in a graphic novel that tackles modern culture, sexual mores, and racial politics with honesty and humor. - (Baker & Taylor)
Booklist Reviews
After a decade's worth of pithy, finely observed short comics stories chronicling the rudderless lives of his alienated twentysomething contemporaries, Tomine stretches out a bit in a novella about Gen-Xer Ben Tanaka, a movie-theater manager whose attraction to white girls threatens his troubled relationship with Japanese American girlfriend Miko. The dislikable (selfish, snobbish, lacking self-awareness) Tanaka's a bold choice for a protagonist. But like the other, equally flawed characters, including Miko, who leaves Berkeley and Ben for an internship in New York, and Ben's best friend, Alice, a Korean American lesbian, he's strangely sympathetic as Tomine incisively portrays him. The low-key, understated artwork points up Tomine's perceptive characterizations, which are conveyed as much through facial expressions and body language as by the true-to-life dialogue. Shortcomings' greater length, deeper portrayals, and accuracy about sexual and racial politics constitute an advance by Tomine. Pehaps there will be a similar leap forward in subject matter next time. The gifted young artist has been mining this milieu long enough. Time for him to broaden his worldview. Copyright 2007 Booklist Reviews.
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