Category Archives: Hawaiian
Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers by Lois-Ann Yamanaka
A deft coming-of-age first novel about young Lovey Nariyoshi of Hilo, Hawai’i, trying to forge her identity amidst the mish-mash of Japanese American roots, coveted Barbie dolls, and pop music, surrounded by her best friend Jerome, her too-popular enemies, and her eccentric family.
Review: “Asian American Titles,” What Do I Read Next? Multicultural Literature, Gale Research, 1997
Readers: Adult
Published: 1996 Continue reading
Filed under ..Adult Readers, .Fiction, Hawaiian, Japanese American
Cultural Revolution by Raymond Wong
A collection of interrelated short stories that begins in 1953 Macao, where a sickly Wei lives with his overprotective grandmother and ineffective father. Wei eventually emigrates to Honolulu, gets married, and has two children, Michael and Julia, who come of age amidst ancient family tales, dim sum restaurants, and shopping malls.
Review: “Asian American Titles,” What Do I Read Next? Multicultural Literature, Gale Research, 1997
Readers: Adult
Published: 1994 Continue reading
Filed under ..Adult Readers, .Fiction, .Short Stories, Chinese American, Hawaiian
Talking to the Dead by Sylvia Watanabe
A first collection of lyrical short stories, set in the Hawaiian Islands, about such diverse characters as a female Chinese Fred Astaire, a grandmother who makes quilts of stolen pieces of laundry, and a wild young woman longing to leave the islands any way she can.
The title story, “Talking to the Dead,” received the 1991 PEN/O. Henry Prize; the collection was a finalist for the 1993 PEN/Faulkner Award and won a PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award for fiction.
Review: “Asian American Titles,” What Do I Read Next? Multicultural Literature, Gale Research, 1997
Readers: Adult
Published: 1992 Continue reading
Filed under ..Adult Readers, .Fiction, .Short Stories, Hawaiian, Japanese American
A Little Too Much Is Enough by Kathleen Tyau
Mahi Wong grows up in post-World War II Hawai’i, surrounded by a large and complicated family of parents, siblings, and endless uncles and aunties. She is immersed in a mixed, sometimes confusing Chinese Hawaiian heritage that includes everything from Chinese nine-course banquets, native poi, elaborate luaus, pineapple factories, and crackseed.
Review: “Asian American Titles,” What Do I Read Next? Multicultural Literature, Gale Research, 1997
Readers: Adult
Published: 1995 Continue reading
Filed under ..Adult Readers, .Fiction, Chinese American, Hawaiian
From the Lanai and Other Hawaii Stories by Jessica K. Saiki
Haunting stories, again mostly about the residents of Lunalilo, Hawai’i, including a lonely spinster, a deserted husband, and a young woman desperate for stardom. Other stories explore the interaction between Lunalilo residents and white outsiders, including a woman and her wealthy employer, a young girl and a salesman, and a journalist and a man obsessed with all things Japanese.
Review: “Asian American Titles,” What Do I Read Next? Multicultural Literature, Gale Research, 1997
Readers: Adult
Published: 1991 Continue reading
Filed under ..Adult Readers, .Fiction, .Short Stories, Hawaiian, Japanese American
Once, a Lotus Garden and Other Stories by Jessica K. Saiki
A collection of poignant short stories, mostly about the residents of Lunalilo, Hawai’i, including new picture brides arriving from Japan, young schoolgirls and their dreams, young working women, the silent, other victims of the Pearl Harbor bombing, and numerous lonely men and women.
Review: “Asian American Titles,” What Do I Read Next? Multicultural Literature, Gale Research, 1997
Readers: Adult
Published: 1987 Continue reading
Filed under ..Adult Readers, .Fiction, .Short Stories, Hawaiian, Japanese American
A Small Obligation and Other Stories of Hilo by Susan Nunes
A collection of interrelated stories about young Amy Freitas and her extended family which is Japanese on her mother’s side and Portuguese on her father’s side, as well as some of the other residents of her Hawaiian hometown of Hilo.
Review: “Asian American Titles,” What Do I Read Next? Multicultural Literature, Gale Research, 1997
Readers: Adult
Published: 1982 Continue reading
Filed under ..Adult Readers, .Fiction, .Short Stories, Hapa, Hawaiian, Japanese American
Sister Stew: Fiction and Poetry by Women edited by Juliet S. Kono and Cathy Song
A colorful collection of writings by women of various backgrounds, the majority of whom are either Hawaiian by birth or by adopted residency.
Review: “Asian American Titles,” What Do I Read Next? Multicultural Literature, Gale Research, 1997
Readers: Adult
Published: 1991 Continue reading
Filed under ..Adult Readers, .Fiction, .Poetry, .Short Stories, Hawaiian
Picture Bride by Cathy Song
Cathy Song, 1982 winner of the prestigious Yale Series of Younger Poets, divides her debut collection into five sections, each named after flowers. Song draws inspiration from the works of 19th-century Japanese woodcut printmaker Kitagawa Utamaro, modern American artist Georgia O’Keefe, as well as detailed elements of the life that surrounds her.
The title refers to Song’s mother, who arrived in Hawai’i as a “picture bride,” which meant that the marriage was prearranged based solely on letters and an exchange of pictures between the bachelor in the U.S. and a potential bride in Asia. In “picture-bride” unions, the bride’s arrival on U.S. shores to be collected by her husband, based on her picture, was the very first time that the already-married couple met. Some 30,000 Asian women entered the U.S. during the first three decades of the 20th-century as “picture brides.”
Review: “Asian American Titles,” What Do I Read Next? Multicultural Literature, Gale Research, 1997
Readers: Adult
Published: 1983 Continue reading
Filed under ..Adult Readers, .Poetry, Chinese American, Hapa, Hawaiian, Korean American
Hilo Rains by Juliet S. Kono
A lyrical first collection of poems that draws on such topics as Kono’s native Hawai’i, the legacy of Asian immigrant sugar cane plantation laborers, the Japanese internment crisis, and family obligations.
Review: “Asian American Titles,” What Do I Read Next? Multicultural Literature, Gale Research, 1997
Readers: Adult
Published: 1988 Continue reading
Filed under ..Adult Readers, .Poetry, Hawaiian, Japanese American
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