Guest Post: Carin B. (A Little Bookish) on Asian-American Writers

At Bloggiesta, a few weeks ago, Carin B. from A Little Bookish agreed to do a guest post for my blog. She’s my first guest blogger and it’s great to have her here!

Carin’s own blog has book reviews on Fantasy, Sci-Fi, General Fiction, and some Non-Fiction. Currently, she organizing the wonderful Book Read ‘Round the World event, where she sends two books around the world for bloggers from various countries to read and connect. Maybe there’s still time to join in!

The topic of Carin’s guest blog is Asian-American writers, which is of special interest to her given her own Japanese background.

Carin B. from A Little Bookish

I’ve been following Leeswammes’ Blog for a while now. When she joined the Japanese Literature Challenge, I got really excited because 1) I haven’t read a lot of Japanese literature and 2) I am a fourth generation Japanese American. Because of our mutual interest in Asian authors, we talked about some Asian American writers that we enjoy and I was asked to write a guest post on some of the books by Asian American writers that I really enjoy.

In my own life, I have grown up in a very American household that was more influenced by Hispanic culture (I’m originally from New Mexico and my dad is Hispanic) than Japanese, but I noticed that despite being Sansei (third generation Japanese American), my mom is still quite Japanese in some ways.  The older generations in my family tend to be tight lipped and focused on the present and future, while the younger generations want to know what makes them who they are since they did not grow up in the typical American household. Because I am fourth generation American, my experience is less this way, but it still exists. As I’ve gotten older, books by Asian American authors have become more interesting to me because the main characters are often searching for a sense of identity with a cultural that they only partially know—the strong presence of Asian culture and norms in the home and the American culture they are immersed in once they walk out the door of their house often conflict on an inner level, and their search for the significance is a very prominent theme in my own life.

~Carin B.,  A Little Bookish

Here are a few of my favorite books by Asian American authors:

One Thousand Chestnut Trees

One Thousand Chestnut Trees by Mira Stout (Korean American):

Anna is a young artist that feels aimless and begins to search for meaning by traveling to Korea to learn about her family’s history. Her great-grandfather was once the ruler of the Kwangdon Province, but lost everything when the Japanese invaded. He ordered a temple to be built on top of a mountain amongst one thousand chestnut trees.

The book explores Korea’s history and weaves Anna’s family legacy into a beautiful tale of self-discovery. I really liked the language of the book and the little details that I still remember, including the making of kimchi that was buried underground. I didn’t know much about Korea, but the book made me want to visit the country after I read it.

The Bonesetter's Daughter

The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan (Chinese American)

The Bonesetter’s Daughter was the story of a woman coming to grips with her mother’s illness and the difficult relationship the two had in years past.

Ruth’s mother LuLing, tells her tale of being raised as a child by a burned nursemaid named Precious Auntie. Precious Auntie claims to know the location of a hidden cave that contains dragon bones.

Through LuLing’s story, Ruth comes to understand her mother’s motivations and her own as well. The book is relevant to any mother-daughter relationship but I think is especially interesting for families who have divergent cultures.

The Street of a Thousand Blossoms

The Street of a Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama (American of Chinese and Japanese descent)

The Street of a Thousand Blossoms was a different book for me because while Gail Tsukiyama is an American writer of both Chinese and Japanese descent, this book was about two brothers who grew up in Japan.

One brother, Hiroshi, is ambitious, strong, and outgoing and trains to be a sumo wrestler. His brother Kenji is soft-spoken and wants to become a Noh mask maker. As young boys, their lives are interrupted by the Second World War where they endure terrible hardships including the fire bombing of Tokyo.

After the war, both boys grow into men and their lives take them in very different directions, but they remained linked by the shared experiences of their childhood and brotherhood. The story was interesting to me because as a Westerner, I don’t often hear the Japanese experience of the horrors of WWII and the rebuilding of Japan afterwards.

Thanks, Carin, for telling us about your background and your favorite Asian-American writers! I have read some books by Amy Tan, but not this one. The book by Mira Stout sounds very interesting too. And books about Japan, well, I always enjoy those. Carin, maybe you’d also like this book: My Year of Meat by Ruth Ozeki, which is set in modern-day Japan and America, and deals with the eccentricities of Japanese culture.

—xxx—

Look out for another guest post here on Leeswammes coming Thursday. This will be the first in an international guest blog series, Book Bloggers Abroad, that I organize. Don’t miss the post by Rachel from Australia!