New and Notable Books
January 28, 2005
FICTION
THE DANCING LION
By Stephen D. Barry (iUniverse, Inc.)
After 15 years as a faculty adviser to the Vietnamese Student Association at a San Jose, Calif., high school, author Barry condenses his experiences into a year in the life of his novel’s main character, Bill Harris, who is unexpectedly assigned to teach a group of barely English-speaking Vietnamese immigrants and has the cultural exchange of his career” and his life. The opening of each chapter with an excerpt from the journal of a young Vietnamese boy is effective, adding cultural sensitivity and authenticity.
KAFKA ON THE BEACH
By Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel (Alfred A. Knopf)
Here’s the setup: A 15-year-old boy runs away from home possibly in search of his long-missing mother and sister and is befriended by a library employee and a young hairdresser; a seemingly mentally challenged victim of a mysterious wartime coma is roaming the streets in search of a missing cat because he has the ability to communicate with the feline breed. In Murakami’s ever-surprising world, these two unlikely characters will meet and more in a delicious, shocking, entertaining adventure you won’t want to see end. Warning: Murakami is totally addictive.
NON-FICTION
VIETNAM TODAY: A GUIDE TO A NATION AT A CROSSROADS
By Mark A. Ashwill with Thai Ngoc Diep (Intercultural Press)
With the 30th anniversary this year of the end of the Vietnam-U.S. War (and the 30th anniversary of the first significant wave of Vietnamese immigration), expect a lot more titles focusing on Vietnam. Vietnam is opening up to Western tourists and corporations. Vietnam Today offers a brief history, cultural overview and contemporary facts and figures to ease the way.
BUDDHA MIND IN CONTEMPORARY ART
Edited by Jacquelynn Baas and Mary Jane Jacob (University of California Press)
Oh, Asian influences are everywhere we look … and becoming endlessly more visible — or, in this case, more visual. Buddhist teachings and perspectives thread through this hybrid collection of academic essays, diverse commentary, artistic statements and interviews with working artists. It’s even PC — check out the bottom of page 49: “… I knew enough of Oriental thought — that adjective was not yet on the index of culturally unrecommended expressions … ” Had to chuckle.
WRONG ABOUT JAPAN: A FATHER’S JOURNEY WITH HIS SON
By Peter Carey (Alfred A. Knopf)
Talk about a bad first impression: The jacket-cover description has the glaring spelling error “Shitimachi” (what does that sound like?!) instead of the correct “Shitamachi” (which literally means “below-town” or more colloquially, “downtown”). And while this thin volume could be written off as yet another white man’s fascination with the inscrutable East, in Booker Prize-winning Carey’s deft hands, Wrong is an entertaining, touching father/son adventure through the land of untouchable ancient swords and the ultimate manga and anime. Oh, and the mistake is obviously the publisher’s — “Shitamachi” is spelled correctly (whew) throughout Carey’s highly readable text.
JAPAN
By Hiroji Kubota, foreword by Elliott Erwitt (W.W. Norton)
Wow! A gorgeous photographic essay of the world’s second largest economy that captures its ultimately high-tech contemporary achievements, sharply juxtaposed with striking images of a strongly traditional society of timeless beauty.
ORIGINAL TAO: INWARD TRAINING (NEI-YEH) AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF TAOIST MYSTICISM
By Harold D. Roth (Columbia University Press)
Discovered over the last quarter-century in China and posited as a foundational text, Inward Training is composed of compact poetic verses written on silk and bamboo that were entombed for over 2,000 years. Referred to as the “original Tao,” the translated text with detailed commentary highlights techniques for effective breathing, better health and longevity — all things from which contemporary mortals could certainly benefit.
PARSIS: THE ZOROASTRIANS OF INDIA
A PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEY 1980 - 2004
By Sooni Taraporevala (Overlook Duckworth)
From the screenwriter of such award-winning films as Mississippi Masala and Salaam Bombay! comes a stunning portrait of a rapidly shrinking community, the Parsis who number just 100,000 today. Followers of Zoroastrianism, one of the world’s oldest religions, the Parsis follow the simple creed of ÒGood Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds.Ó ÒIn numbers Parsis are beneath contempt but in contribution beyond compare,Ó Mahatma Ghandi reportedly said. The book is a stunning compilation: everyday lives Ñ hopes, joys and struggles Ñ realized in one beautiful, lovingly annotated collection of lingering photographs.
ASIAN AMERICAN CHILDREN: A HISTORICAL HANDBOOK AND GUIDE
Edited by Benson Tong (Greenwood Press)
A lively sourcebook filled with compelling essays that look at the Asian Pacific American experience through the eyes of APA youth — a group marked more by diversity than easy-to-define labels.
THE THREE VIRTUES OF EFFECTIVE PARENTING: LESSONS FROM CONFUCIUS ON THE POWER OF BENEVOLENCE, WISDOM, AND COURAGE
By Shirley Yuen (Tuttle Publishing)
With all the endless shelves of parenting titles, here’s one that champions Asian influences. One modern diversion, however: While the ‘family cane’ might have worked for parents in China 5,000 years ago, Yuen refers to corporal punishment as an ‘unwise decisions and in no way condones physical violence. For those of us who grew up with over-the-top strict Asian parents, that’s welcome progress indeed.
AND FOR THE KIDDIES …
LET’S TALK ABOUT RACE
By Julius Lester, illustrated by Karen Barbour (Amistad/HarperCollins)
An award-winning writer, activist, musician and professor, Lester uses his own personal story as an African American to engage young readers in exploring what makes each of us unique and special — and what makes us the same under the different colors of our skin.
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