Book Description

Customer Reviews (5)

(not an accurate) Portrait of the Philippines
I recently visited the country and although I did witness the harshness and depression, that is only a small part of the image I have of the Philippines.What is portrayed in this book is mostly the depressed side of the country: prostitution, sick children, dirty streets, calamity, unhealthy locals, poverty.Like I said, although I was a witness to all of these, I was also a witness to a colorful culture, hospitality, pristine islands, wealth of natural resources, preserved native and colonial architecture, Fiestas, Filipinos who are content in their simple lives, smiling children.

A great insight for Americans
When most Americans think of the Philippines, they consider the wild excesses of Angeles City and the old Subic Bay era.This book goes beyond that image and gives the reader a more accurate view of the Philippines and its truly remarkable culture.

Great photos!
The photographs brought together a variety of interesting images of the Philippines.As an amateur photographer, I have been searching for photographic books on the Philippines and I found the contrast of beauty and harsh reality very well put together.The only drawback was the poetry.I didn't feel that it captured the emotion of the images.

Meaningful photographs.
This is a beautiful collection of photographs.They speak about the lives of people we hardly see in pictorial collections about the Philippines.The faces of the people are real and desperate.I am reading BinoRealuyo's Umbrella country (which I love) and these pictures almost bringto life the images in the novel.I recommend this book (and realuyo'snovel too).

Beautiful, powerful photographs
I recently got to see the photographs that make up this book at the Sepia Gallery in NYC. These photos are superb and very powerful. Roth has a fantastic eye--her photographs are beautifully composed, showing greatattention to the nuances and details of her subjects. She has obviouslyspent a lot of time immersed in Filipino life and culture--and has theskills to capture it to film. As a photographer, I found her work veryinspiring. Beyond the formal qualities, her photos present very movingglimpses of Filipino life. They are very powerful and showcase a wide rangeof scenes. I highly recommend this collection of photos (especially if youcannot see the exhibit in person). ... Read more

Book Description

Jessica Hagedorn has transformed her bestselling novel about the Philippines during the reign of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos into an equally powerful theatrical piece that is a multi-layered tour de force. As Harold Bloom writes, "Hagedorn expresses the conflicts experienced by Asian immigrants caught between cultures . . . she takes aim at racism in the U.S. and develops in her dramas the themes of displacement and the search for belonging."

Jessica Hagedorn is a performance artist, poet, novelist and playwright, born and raised in the Philippines. Her novels include Dogeaters (Penguin 1990) which was nominated for a National Book Award and The Gangster of Love (Penguin 1996); a short story collection, Danger and Beauty (City Lights 2002).

Customer Reviews (25)

I Wanna B U
People condemned colonialism as being the exploitation of one country by another.The dominant power sucked the resources out of the weaker one, paying only a little back in terms of some technology and a semblance of law and order.But I think now we have realized that that economic bloodsucking was only one of the evils of the imperial experience.More subtle, but maybe longer lasting, was the degrading of the self among the dominated.The ruled felt powerless, they felt their whole culture had failed them and offered nothing of a future, while the West (almost always the dominating powers) remained glamorous, powerful, sexy, and almost unreachable. The dominated peoples shucked off their traditions, rejected their pasts, and tried to become Western.If this is only partly true, it is truer of the elites, who could aspire to local power if they mimicked the real rulers.In the post-colonial era some countries adopted Western institutions to benefit themselves, while others took only the outward forms of the West and used them in corrupt ways.If these remarks hold any relevance to post-colonial society, they are even more true of the Philippines, where America held out a vision of "Americanization"---democracy, education, and pop culture---which could not be delivered in reality in a Southeast Asian peasant society that had lived under loose Spanish control for over 350 years before the Yanks arrived.

DOGEATERS is an achingly realistic portrait of Manila society, where nobody wants to be what they are and everyone wants to be somebody else.Identity comes from trashy Hollywood and Manila movies, soap opera is life.The shopping-obssessed elite rejects everything in their own land.The demi-monde leers around every corner.Phoneyness is next to godliness.The riffraff rule.Everyone survives on the edge.Marginal men become mainstream.Snowy Christmas scenes and "Jingle Bells" greet a holiday, but it's all "out there" somewhere; Manila remains hot and humid, home to a Malayo-Polynesian tradition that is walled off and laughed at by the would-be foreigners that dwell in the vast city.Imelda Marcos, a character in the book, collects her shoes and puts up huge "cultural" monuments that commemorate herself.She has no clue about and no sympathy for the problems of her nation.A thinly-disguised Benigno Aquino gets assassinated and everyone betrays everyone else.Everyone turns out to be marginal in the end.

DOGEATERS starts off in a brilliant way.The first two thirds of the book is exciting and insightful.If you have ever read Vargas Llosa or Lobo Antunes, you will not find Hagedorn at all difficult.Changing narrators and jumping back and forth is part of post-modern literature.Hey, what's so new about that ?I am not at all Filipino, though I have visited that country.OK, I didn't understand most of the Tagalog words tossed into the text without explanation, but you get the sense even so.In the last third, however, the author runs out of ideas.She can't keep up the momentum created through her intense, accurate description ofcertain classes of Filipino society.The story becomes diffuse and kind of limps across the finish line like "American Graffiti".Still, for anyone who fancies a novel that really opens up a culture quite neglected and unknown in the West, DOGEATERS is a must read.

(3.5): Promising Glimps Into Philippine Culture
Let me preface this by saying that I am Filipino, but have very little knowledge of what life in the Philippines is like, so in many respects this novel breaks new ground for me (although I did recognize much of the Tagalogthat Hagedorn uses). That being said, I have to say that this book moves beyond being easily categorized as a transculturation text or something that simply received press because of its introduction of Filipino culture to the American populace (much in the same way that Alvarez and Garcia wrote books that could not be dismissed as simply being Latino-American fiction produced for an ethnic-hungry reading population). The style reminds me of the book "Twelve" in its fast paced movements and I especially liked the way the storylines of all of the characters had a way of intersecting with one another. I loved reading about Joey's character and also liked the way Hagedorn discusses a major problem with many Asian cultures - the problems of navigating the way with which Western culture bleeds into almost every facet of society. Hagedorn writes vivid descriptions of characters struggling with and enjoying the way Western entertainment has become the norm.

Problems with the novel? I guess one major concern is the over-emphasis on explaining what makes a Filipino a Filipino and the constant explanation of every little tidbit of Filipino culture. The way she uses language is well-done and people can understand the Tagalog without any translations, so I wish she had chosen to take a step back and not necessarily explain every cultural tidbit she thought a non-Filipino would not know. If that's what someone wanted they would have purchased a sociology textbook.

In the end, this is an entertaining read that does a good job of playing with narrative forms.

boo.
i thought this book would be interesting.instead, it was too intertwined with daydreams, multiple plots and different characters.it was difficult to read and hard to stay focused.

Somewhat interesting, but weakly structured
The whole idea of the postmodern novel has been rather disintegrated in this book. Hagedorn makes it seem as if giving a slice of life can never reconcile with an actual plot. If anyone has read Salman Rushdie or Marquez, that is obviously untrue. For the other folks, I'm truly sorry you haven't read anything worthwhile written in the past 30 years. In the end the entire theme of coming to age has been hastily written in the last thirty or so pages and everything else before was simple background to the terrible life that most of the characters experienced. If you want something thats almost strikingly similar in style and statire to this novel, read Ishmael Reed's phenominal Mumbo Jumbo.

Fascinating, challenging world
Hagedorn's noteworthy novel presents a story of the Philippines through a Baroque layering of interconnected plots, as the many characters swirl around in the urban landscape of Manila.As some posters have complained, the plot can be confusing because of the many interconnections.In addition to the many characters, the novel is at times overwhelming because it is so filled with named things: imported foods identified by their national origins, references to Hollywood actors and pop culture figures from both the US and the Philippines, and places in the Philippines.The density of this short novel deliberately challenges the reader to follow along by figuring out the plots' interconnections and the many cultural references.For those who aren't willing to meet the novel half way, it certainly would be easy to become lost or bored.In certain ways, I would compare this novel to the experience of entering a virtual world in which the reader has the freedom to explore a different reality.The reader's job is to engage and connect all the people and things to be found there.It is an effort worth making. ... Read more

Book Description

Hagedorn muses about love and sex, and probes with wry humor and sharp social satire the heart-and hearbreaks-of the immigrant experience.

"Jessica Hagedorn is one of the best of a new generation of writers who are making American language new and who in the process are creating a new American Literature."-Russell Banks

"[Hagedorn] sees her native land from both near and far, with ambivalent love, the only kind of love worth writing about."-John Updike

Jessica Hagedorn is a performance artist, poet, playwright, and formerly a commentator on NPR. Her novel, Dogeaters, won an American Book Award. Other books include the groundbreaking Charlie Chan Is Dead: An Anthology of Contemporary Asian American Fiction and The Gangster of Love.

Customer Reviews (1)

A unique and impressive anthology of vivid poetry
Writer, performance artist, poet and playwright Jessica Hagedorn's Danger And Beauty is a unique and impressive anthology of vivid poetry, interspersed with the occasional brief prose scene, about everything from pet food and peep shows to the "dangerous music" of 1975. Monologues touching on mature subjects, the undeniable impact a Catholic upbringing has on one's life, and unfettered emotion distinguish Danger And Beauty as poetry that mingles with the forbidden. Sorcery: there are some people I know/whose beauty/is a crime./who make you so crazy/you don't know/whether to throw yourself/as them/or ... them./which makes/for a permanent madness./which could be/bad for you./you better be on the lookout/for such circumstances... ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document, covering the life and work of Jessica T(arahata) Hagedorn, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 1706 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Book Description
Jessica Hagedorn has received wide critical acclaim for her edgy, high-energy novels chronicling the clash and embrace of American and Filipino cultures. With Dream Jungle, she achieves a new level of narrative daring.

Set in a Philippines of desperate beauty and rank corruption, Dream Jungle feverishly traces the consequences of two seemingly unrelated events: the discovery of an alleged “lost tribe” and the arrival of a celebrity-studded American film crew filming an epic Vietnam War movie. Caught in the turmoil unleashed by these two incidents are four unforgettable characters—a wealthy, iconoclastic playboy, a woman ensnared in the sex industry, a Filipino-American writer, and a jaded actor—who find themselves drawn irrevocably together in this lavish, sensual portrait of a nation in crisis. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Dream Jungle
Loved this book. One of my new favorites. Beautiful language. Well connected and intertwined stories. Loved it!!

Just too disjointed and lacking narrative flow.
In this novel set in the Philippines in the 1970s we first meet Zamora, a wealthy Spanish landowner, as he helicopters to a remote area and discovers a small band of people who are still living the stone age.His study of this group of people seem to be his hobby and his passion.

We also meet a young girl who is a servant in his home as well as his troubled German wife who soon grows weary of her unhappy life.There's some political intrigue and some interesting characters and the story had a good chance of holding my interest.Alas, though, the author left too many connecting details out to give it a coherent narrative flow and although I continued reading, the plot never quite hung together.When I finished the book I still wasn't sure what it was about although it raised the questions that perhaps there wasn't a stone age tribe at all, but just a plot on the part of the corrupt government to give Zamora access to areas which would be politically advantageous to the dictator.If this doesn't make sense to you, it doesn't make sense to me either.

Add to this a Hollywood film crew that has come into the town to make a movie about the Vietnam War.This section of the book was probably based on the filming of "Apocalypse Now"This part seemed to flow along well until it, too, lapsed into postmodernism and left more unanswered questions.

There were some parts of the book that were extremely well done. One was the voice of the servant girl character.However, this one character was not enough to save this book from being hard to follow. On the whole, in spite of some good descriptions of the locale, Dream Jungle was too disjointed for me to recommend.

mysterious, disturbing, alluring
Such a mysterious, alluring & disturbing book!What is good: the writing. The language. The sense of place.You can feel the heat.Be utterly squashed by the poverty. Be intrigued by the characters. It's even okay that you don't know if the tribe is a hoax or not.

What is annoying:the many characters, and many POVs, so many that it's hard to keep track of them all.It is also annoying that sometimes a section on a certain character is in first person, and sometimes third.

Well worth reading.

A Wild Ride
What a ride. In short, it was a rush to read Dream Jungle. The characters are fascinating and the environment and situations these people are in this story are as equally compelling. I can't even begin to describe the book because the characters and plot lines are so layered and complex. It is woven tightly though and in the end, everything makes perfect sense. Jessica Hagedorn is one of the premiere Filipina American writers around--thank you for consistently producing outstanding work!

A Matter of Perspective
When I first encountered the work of Jessica Hagedorn, I have to admit - I found the oeuvre suspect.I read "Dogeaters" and this was my initial reaction: "As a Filipino abroad, you will be nostalgic but you will be disturbed by it.The language is pure sensationalism - but it is representative of a slice of life that we might not be proud of but seem to fall into without much examination.That "Dogeaters" is a cold, hard look at ourselves, I give her the 5 stars.The question I have for Jessica Hagedorn is, if this is deconstruction, where is the reconstruction? Do we remain "Dogeaters"?"Then, my curiosity got the better of me, I read "Gangsters of Love."I found myself easing up a little: "Perspective is another thing Hagedorn is good at.Despite destabilizing a basically linear story she plays with perspectives when she switches from Rocky to Elvis and plays around with what Elvis is thinking and feeling.The whole question of the Chinese experience is not really fully developed in this story - as if Hagedorn did not really want to go there - as if to tease us that there is more there.Maybe the story can be picked up by something like the movie Mano Po (Regal Films) or Arlene Chai's works.Nonetheless, the book ["Gangsters of Love"] is as compelling as any in its genre.After reading Dogeaters, I was convinced that Hagedorn may have missed an opportunity by not presenting a possible solution - but perhaps the cathartic nature of her work is a solution in itself.I highly recommend this book ["Gangsters of Love"] not only to the Diaspora Filipino trying to form some sense of closure but to the widest possible audience to get a sense of the Filipino immigrant experience and to begin dialogue.This piece ["Gangsters of Love"] is new dawn - a reconstruction from a deconstruction." Then I picked up "Dream Jungles" and now I find myself caught by the "cojones."

In this work, we see a more subdued but not any less forceful Hagedorn - it seems that all the angst that filled "Dogeaters" has washed away and we are left with a more penetrating piece - heavily researched and always problematizing.The problem with a forum like this one - the review section - is that it allows for perspectivism making reader response to the book less polished, more real.Since we are in the space of perspectives...

The narrative can be seen to be emanating from two central perspectives: Zamora de Lagazpi and his counterpoint Rizalina.In a funny sort of way, Hagedorn is trapped in a self-created "double-bind." While she problematizes all types of categories she inadvertently reifies them.At the hub of this tale, is Zamora de Legazpi - the son of a powerful family of the Filipino elite.Zamora is a "mestizo," personifying what the common sense understanding is of mixed Spanish and Filipino "blood."The mestizo is stereotyped as having a huge appetite and a passion for conquest the not only rivals the Spanish conquistadors but in a sense picks up from where they have left off.

Oddly enough, reality has provided Hagedorn with a convenient backdrop as she includes the account of Pigafetta.Zamora is as guilty as Pigafetta of a malignant form of "Orientalism" - actually it is more like "Primitivism."Zamora "discovers" the "Taobo" - a lost tribe of natives.Zamora makes one of the younger members Bodabil his "Wild Child."In an effort to legitimize his bizarre project - Zamora solicits the aid of his friend and college roommate journalist Ken Forbes.Who is she kidding?Anyone who is the least bit familiar with the story of the Tasadays will spot Manda Elizalde, John Nance, and the Tasadays.As I have previously written, about Robin Hemley's exceptional book, "Invented Eden: The Elusive, Disputed History of the Tasaday."The story of Emmanuel "Manda" Elizalde is as problematic as ever.If there was any reason to doubt the veracity of the story at all, it would be very involvement of Elizalde at the center and the Marcos" at the periphery - or where they? Anyway, another way to position oneself as a reader is to see things from Rizalina's perspective.

Juxtaposed against the caricature of the elite in Zamora, is the powerless imagery of Rizalina vis-à-vis not just Zamora but Moody, Mayor Fritz, and Pierce.Rizalina enters the milieu a peasant girl who comes to work for Lagazpi as a maid - the daughter of the cook actually.Zamora finds himself smitten by the young Rizalina and pursues her immediately.I am still in a quandary about the use of names - Rizalina and Zamora, is there something in that?Why would Rizal or his project be played through the personification of a young girl of 14? Oh well, stuff to keep thinking about.Rizalina's life becomes increasingly problematic.It begins when she runs away and is just as quickly abandoned by a never-do-well boyfriend - who apparently already had a wife.Rizalina finds a job as a prostitute in the metropole.Rizalina is "strong," serving as a counterpoint to Lagazpi's inherent weakness.Rizalina is nothing short of a survival machine.In a sense I found myself thinking that this is a really poignant articulation of how Filipinos negotiate survival.In the end, isn't that what we are really all about survival? Anyway, as Hagedorn's oeuvre grows - like fine wine - she just gets better with age.Back to the source... Charlie Chan anyone?

Miguel Llora ... Read more

Amazon.com
Jessica Hagedorn received high praise for her debut novel, Dogeaters, which took place in Manila. Her second book shows that Dogeaters was no fluke. The Gangster of Love opens in Manila but the action quickly moves to San Francisco and then New York before turning full circle. Hagedorn's worlds are peopled with a maelstrom of jostling, exuberant characters. The focal point of this storm of humanity is Raquel (Rocky) Rivera. The arc of her journey from Manila to the United States and back will include a boyfriend named Elvis Chang (with whom she plays in a rock band called Gangsters of Love), a daughter, a flock of drag queens, and jobs as receptionist at an acupuncture clinic and waitress at a French-Vietnamese bistro. Original, exhilarating and electric, The Gangster of Love takes a fresh look at family and questions of race, culture and identity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

worth the "struggle"
I read this book for an Asian American history class and I (as well as my entire class) really enjoyed it.Unlike other Asian American literature, Jessica Hagedorn does not FOCUS on her character's Fillipina identity but instead offers it as part of a more complicated whole.This may put some people off but for me it made Rocky's character less one dimensional and much more interesting.True, as one critic has already complained, this book is not going to go on long, nostalgic descriptions of well-loved aspects of Fillipino culture, but that's not the point.This is a fast-paced novel about a Filipina growing up in the punk scene (first in San Franscisco, then New York); it is a coming of age story.However I disagree that this book does not deserve a place in Fil-Am literature.Quite oppositely, I believe this book depicts Fil-Ams in modern American culture and how they relate to others "on the fringe" of society.That Hagedorn does not focus solely on the how ethnic her characters are helps to see them as people rather than just representatives of an ethnicity. The switches in perspective help the reader to step back from Rocky and see what life is like from the perspective of other people living in her life.This allows the reader to create a more objective understanding of Rocky and the world she lives in.

My Kind of Heaven
I was maybe thirteen or so when I bought this book, give or take a year, depending on when it was printed. Too young, I know, now that I'm seventeen and have just thoroughly read through the novel twice, to have read and understood the concept of this book. Definitely not a story for a pre-teen (the novel deals with sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll) Yeah, almost too rough for my age, but I absolutely adored this book, and Rocky Rivera has got to be one of the best developed fictional characters I have ever read about. The plot jumps back and forth a lot, some of the conversations are vague, and sometimes you wonder 'Did I lose a day? When did it start talking about this??' But overall, the book is a great read. I'd recommend it to those who enjoy interesting, painstakingly confusing (in a super good way) novels.

An authentic voice that redeems American literature from the canon of contemporary crap
Amen to Jessica Hagedorn forredeeming post-modernist American literature from stylized pretention in her novels"Dogeaters" and "Gangster of Love."
Hagedorn succeeds where Auster and De Lillo fail in capturing polychromatic angles of 1970's 80's America, as well as the chaotic and multi-dimensional experience offamily, divorce, Filipina/Asian American identity and immigration from a country already heavily infused with American influence.
The layers of irony in the first page ofthis novel is a testimony to thestory that follows.

Bridging The Cultural Divide
Interlaced in the story of Rocky Rivera (and a wonderfully developed cast of characters) is a deep sense of the rich heritage that is a Filipino upbringing.Laced with that Hagedorn grit is a consistent level of angst that immigrants feel when moving into a new cultural milieu.Hagedorn is amazing with playing within the private sphere and experience - anxious about the clash between traditional Philippine values and modern American values.

Rocky moves to San Francisco from the Philippine with her mother Milagros and brother Voltaire and is thrust into a maelstrom of personalities in the supporting cast of Elvis, Keiko, Auntie Fely and Uncle Bas.Rocky moves to New York to embark on an adventure that is not really representative of the typical Filipino immigrant experience but it is a rich space to explore a sense of displacement.

This book raises crucial questions for immigrants in general and Filipinos in particular. What is it that we should retain? What should be ready and willing to let go?Is there a point of no return? When we become American do we stop being Filipino?Do we exist in two realms? Do we exist in multiple spheres? Does this dichotomy REALLY exist or is it real because we make it so?It is not until Rocky is drawn to her father's deathbed that she comes to the realization of the chasm between what she was and what she is and what she is running away from.Which brings to mind another point - running away.

Running away is a common problem among displaced immigrants.There is that sense that one has to leave someplace to escape or run away from one's place of origin. It has to be THAT BAD. The sense of desperation is exemplified by Milagros - who is running away from Rocky's philandering father.Milagros is never comfortable in San Francisco - she is torn between what status demands and her embarrassment at being seen in what she has become.She hangs around Auntie Fely. This cultural subtlety is very difficult to pick up from one outside the milieu - when Milagros is embarrassed to be seen with Auntie Fely at the Imelda trial in New York.With one foot in the old country serving as a fulcrum and the other in the new country is little wonder that most immigrants can maintain a sense of center and remain sane.Never really forming a sense of closure but developing coping mechanisms the émigré is left to his/her own devices and is constantly nostalgic about going home. Begs the question: Where is home? Home, I guess, is a matter of perspective.

Perspective is another thing Hagedorn is good at. Despite destabilizing a basically linear story she plays with perspectives when she switches from Rocky to Elvis and plays around with what Elvis is thinking and feeling.The whole question of the Chinese experience is not really fully developed in this story - as if Hagedorn did not really want to go there - as if to tease us that there is more there.Maybe the story can be picked up by something like the movie Mano Po (Regal Films) or Arlene Chai's works.Nonetheless, the book is as compelling as any in its genre.After reading Dogeaters, I was convinced that Hagedorn may have missed an opportunity by not presenting a possible solution - but perhaps the cathartic nature of her work is a solution in itself.I highly recommend this book not only to the Diaspora Filipino trying to form some sense of closure but to the widest possible audience to get a sense of the Filipino immigrant experience and to begin dialogue.This piece is new dawn - a reconstruction from a deconstruction.

Miguel Llora

The book was as rocky as the characters in it.
I saw Jessica Hagedorn speak at the 92nd street Y, which is where I recieved her book. Once I began to read the book I became absorbed into her book. Jessica Hagedorn does a good job at describing the essence of the bohemian/ punk rock culture. My only problem was that the book became really confusing once in the middle. The beginning of the book was straight forward and easy to read, but once Rocky becomes pregnant , the whole book seems confusing. The book became really boring once it got to a certain point, and I became really dissapointed. ... Read more

Book Description
The pages of Suitcase intertwine the freshest mix of writing, art,and photography from around the world. From Amos Oz's tale of epiphany at theborder between Israeli desert and suburbia to Nuruddin Farah's account ofsurviving childhood, crocodiles, and colonialism in Somalia; from JacquesDerrida's reflections on politics and immigration in a new Europe to SeydouKeita's historic photographs of Mali's changing society, Suitcase's mix ofinternational writing and art reflects a stangely familiar country in whichcultures and perspectives jostle and complicate each other. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

I enjoyed this collection, especially the main story, Pet F
This was one of the best collections of poetry I have ever read. Though my critique may be somewhat tainted by the fact that I had dinner with her when she came to SF, I feel that the person who wrote those tales in the book-was the same sensitive person and talented artist I met and enjoyed the company of. As a young aspiring writer myself, Jessica gave me a confidence that I too can pursue my dreams, even if I never become famous for it. I told her that there are a lot of things that make me angry with this world, and fill my head with a lot of violent thoughts. She told me to "punch the paper" and let it out. These early works of hers show her punching the paper of her youth. -Samuel "Elustrisimo" Lauranilla ... Read more

Book Description
a collaborative chapbook by mother & daughter ... Read more

Amazon.com
Hailing by lineage or immigration from Asian posts such as Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong,Korea, Vietnam, and India, the contributors to Making More Waves are as well known as Lisa See(On Gold Mountain) and Chitra BanerjeeDivakaruni (The Mistress of Spices ), andas new to print as 16-year-old poet Juno Parrenas. The story "Summer of My Korean Soldier"and the essay "Hambun-Hambun"neatly mirror one another, and illustrate an experienceshared by all of these writers: the sense of being an outsider. In polished or jagged prose, the authorsrecount their lives and dig into feminist issues such as violence against women in war and peacetime,sexuality, and the nexus of race, class, and gender. They deftly explore how being Asian in America shapessuch concerns and casts up others.Book Description
Asian-American women writers of all ages explore a complex range of identities through poetry, fiction, essays, and memoirs, most of which have never been published. The contributors take on little explored topics and expand the limits of ethnic-based identity, resisting stereotypes and breaking silences. Candid and memorable, their essays, stories, and poetry change popular assumptions and engage readers.This inclusive new collection, by the editors of Making Waves, gathers a diverse range of poems, essays, and fiction by Asian-American women, established writers and new voices alike."Making More Waves is a continuum, a celebration and acknowledgment of our unique artistic visions, our differences, our often painful histories and complex experiences. . . . An empowering collection." -from the Foreword by Jessica Hagedorn Contributors include:Marilyn ChinChitra Divakaruni Yen Le Espiritu Kimiko Hahn Nora Okja Cobb Keller Elaine Kim Carolyn Lei-lanilau Maria G. Lee Lisa Lowe Chandra Talpade Mohanty Dana Y. Takagi Renee Tajima-Pena Trinh T. Minh-ha Mitsuye Yamada Helen Zia ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent Read!!!
I bought a copy of "Making Waves" by the same authors. It was a powerful book, to say the least. I really admired the honesty by all of the Asian American ladies that contributed to the book.
This book, which is the follow-up, is also a powerful book, too. You see, even though I'm a Caucasian male, I'm a Christian and an ordained minister. Most of the ministry and worship I do is with Asian Americans(most of the are college age and young adult). Since I didn't grow up Asian, this book and its predecessor were a valuable resource to me.
After seeing this book, I'm more sympathetic to the struggles that Asian Americans go through, and especially the females. Too often Hollywood and the Far Eastern Movie companies have portrayed Asian Females as the sultry and sexy "Gesha Girl" stereotype. This book lets the ladies speak and takes the reader into their hearts and minds. It lets the reader know what they've actually been through, what they struggle with(and still do), and what they do to surivive. I'm glad they've shared what they did. I think it's long overdue that their voices were heard.
I would reccommend this book to anyone doing ministry to Asian American females as I do or to any male dating or married to an Asian American female. Praise God for Elaine Kim and the Asian Women United!

~*~ a thick chunk of asian heritage ~*~
i suppose you expect a formal review of some sort, but i'm just writing something freshly thought out:

i LOVE this book! it's pretty rare to discover asian american works of writing published in today's world. Itiincludes stories, essays, poems, photography, and pictures of artwork doneas well.

Anyone who is interested in heritage, asian americanliterature, or just would like a good collection of writing to read, ihighly reccomend this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Rare Jessica Hagedorn memorabilia/tape interview. One of 130 interviews with contemporary writers undertaken by The American Audio Prose Library and one of the most scarce titles in the legendary series. The interview lasts 58 minutes and was conducted by the literary scholar Kay Bonetti. In a celebrated New Yorker Magazine review, Jessica Hagedorn was praised by John Updike, the most influential working reviewer/critic in America today, as one of the most talented writers of her generation. Harold Bloom, the greatest living literary critic, weighed in and wrote that "Hagedorn expresses the conflicts experienced by Asian immigrants caught between cultures. She takes aim at racism in the United States and develops in her dramas the themes of displacement and the search for belonging" (Harold Bloom). © 2005, ModernRare.com ... Read more