Book Review #12
Yesterday I started and/or completed:
White Ghost Girls by Alice Greenway
Fake Liar Cheat by Tod Goldberg
Covering by Kenji Yoshino
Not a fan of the first two; I felt they had a weak storyline, was boring, didn't speak out to me. Greenway's childhood in Hong Kong gave the background of the story a certain authenticité, but her characters were rather unbelievable by their actions without grounds. The last half of the book fell flat as well, making Hong Kong out to be just another exotic local a necessity to keep one's attention.
Fake Liar Cheat disappointed me because I loved Goldberg's Comeback Special; it had vibrant, believable characters and a hilarious but tender tone of an Everyman who happens to have a ubiquitous velvet portrait of Elvis, only bleeding to match a religious artefact. Fake Liar Cheat made me believe that he is better off with short stories at the moment. The only character I loved was Charlie, a minor guy. Fake Liar Cheat had the feeling of a quickie trendy novel of the early 00's that is full of Fight Club-esque action without meaningful goodness. I'll have to post the Comeback Special on my official (nee seldom updated) blog sometime soon.
I definitely recommend reading Covering. I've read a few memoir/scholarly books lately and have not been too impressed by the level of synthesis overall. I believe that memoirs are easy to write but difficult to write well. The flood of memoirs/life rants into the market have really turned me away from reading lately.
However, I think Yoshino does an admirable job of employing this method; the few autobiographical stories he uses are pithy yet empathetic, personal yet universally relevant to his topic of covering.
Yoshino moves away from the issue of civil rights as a central focus because he feels there are already enough laws and bills on protecting the one's race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. However, he points out the crucial lack of laws protecting the behavior consequent to identity. Being told to act less gay, Asian, motherly, etc; everyone, even white heterosexual males are told sometime to tone down a part of them that is perceived to clash with a non-existent mainstream. A modern-day version of brute assimilation into the "melting pot."
Yoshino's stories mainly focus on his gay identity, but what I like so much about about his writing is that he is able slide neatly into discussing scholarly issues with relevance and vice versa. His concepts really appeal to me and other embittered by cyclic, futile student/community activism (which may only be localized to my old campus.)
PS: Does anyone have access to law journal archives? I'm interested in reading Jean Shin's "The Asian American Closet." 11 Asian L.J. 1-29 (2004).
White Ghost Girls by Alice Greenway
Fake Liar Cheat by Tod Goldberg
Covering by Kenji Yoshino
Not a fan of the first two; I felt they had a weak storyline, was boring, didn't speak out to me. Greenway's childhood in Hong Kong gave the background of the story a certain authenticité, but her characters were rather unbelievable by their actions without grounds. The last half of the book fell flat as well, making Hong Kong out to be just another exotic local a necessity to keep one's attention.
Fake Liar Cheat disappointed me because I loved Goldberg's Comeback Special; it had vibrant, believable characters and a hilarious but tender tone of an Everyman who happens to have a ubiquitous velvet portrait of Elvis, only bleeding to match a religious artefact. Fake Liar Cheat made me believe that he is better off with short stories at the moment. The only character I loved was Charlie, a minor guy. Fake Liar Cheat had the feeling of a quickie trendy novel of the early 00's that is full of Fight Club-esque action without meaningful goodness. I'll have to post the Comeback Special on my official (nee seldom updated) blog sometime soon.
I definitely recommend reading Covering. I've read a few memoir/scholarly books lately and have not been too impressed by the level of synthesis overall. I believe that memoirs are easy to write but difficult to write well. The flood of memoirs/life rants into the market have really turned me away from reading lately.
However, I think Yoshino does an admirable job of employing this method; the few autobiographical stories he uses are pithy yet empathetic, personal yet universally relevant to his topic of covering.
Yoshino moves away from the issue of civil rights as a central focus because he feels there are already enough laws and bills on protecting the one's race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. However, he points out the crucial lack of laws protecting the behavior consequent to identity. Being told to act less gay, Asian, motherly, etc; everyone, even white heterosexual males are told sometime to tone down a part of them that is perceived to clash with a non-existent mainstream. A modern-day version of brute assimilation into the "melting pot."
Yoshino's stories mainly focus on his gay identity, but what I like so much about about his writing is that he is able slide neatly into discussing scholarly issues with relevance and vice versa. His concepts really appeal to me and other embittered by cyclic, futile student/community activism (which may only be localized to my old campus.)
PS: Does anyone have access to law journal archives? I'm interested in reading Jean Shin's "The Asian American Closet." 11 Asian L.J. 1-29 (2004).
posted by ML at 10:12:00 AM
1 Comments:
Found you while searching for info on Tod Goldberg's new book -- I think Goldberg himself doesn't care for fake liar cheat, according to the stuff i've seen on his blog. if you liked his short stories, you should read his second novel, living dead girl, which apparently is a really strong book.
back to searching,
susan
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