From the Publisher
Told in the distinctive rhythms of Hawaiian Creole English, this vibrant...wholly original” coming-of-age tale (Elle) is “a rare book-exuberant, fresh-voiced, rich, crazy, stabbing, comic, and as true-toned as a crystal glass tapped with a knife” (E. Annie Proulx).
Publishers Weekly
In a starred review PW called this Hawaiian coming-of-age story "fresh, distinctive" and "starkly realistic." (Apr.)
Library Journal
In her debut novel, the author presents the history of a Japanese American family living in Hawaii in the 1970s. The narrator, Lovey Nariyoshi, tells her story of growing up in a white ("haole") culture that keeps her family segregated. "No japs on TV," observes Lovey, "except Mrs. Livingston and Kay-to." This engrossing novel is strongly woven together, with chapters that swing from the heartfelt, childhood memories of Lovey's father, Hubert, to the fiendish behavior of her neighbors. Hawaiian Creole is dispersed effectively with English, further corroborating the fervent characters and their stories. By focusing decisively on her own distinct culture, the author successfully uncovers the damaging restrictions of American culture at large. This commanding novel should delight and haunt every reader. Unconditionally recommended for every library collection.-David A. Beron, Westbrook Coll. Lib., Portland, Me.
Anne Whitehouse
The Hawaii of Lois-Ann Yamanaka's first novel is not the beautiful Eden we've come to expect in the literature of the Pacific Rim, but rather the setting of a hardscrabble life of an impoverished family as seen through the eyes of its eldest daughter, Lovey, as she grows from childhood to adolescence in the 1970s.
Lovey Nariyoshi is the descendant of Japanese agricultural workers who emigrated to Hawaii two generations earlier to work in the sugar cane plantations. Her dominant emotion is shame, which Yamanaka unearths in great detail. Even the very language Lovey speaks at home -- a pidgin English dialect that is the lingua franca of agricultural migrants and workers in the Pacific Islands -- is belittled by her teachers. Lovey experiences this contempt of her language as contempt for her. Because the novel is written in this dialect, the narrative itself becomes an act of defiance and liberation.
Lovey is also ashamed of her family's second-hand, make-do existence, which the other children ridicule. "Next Daddy going tell us eat dirt for dinner because good for our body and you going believe him," Lovey complains to her sister. "He take us to the dump and tell us thass treasures and you believe. Not me. I ain't being dumb no mo."
In vivid and often violent vignettes, Ms. Yamanaka describes Lovey's defeats and triumphs as she learns to celebrate her origins and her individuality. Yamanaka has created memorable characters who inspire Lovey: her open-hearted, coarse, and vulnerable father Hubert; her best friend Jerry; and angelic, tragic Crystal, Lovey's tutor whom she idolizes. This exotic coming-of-age novel culminates on a moving note of reconciliation. -- Salon
What People Are Saying
Annie Proulx
"A rare book - exuberant, fresh-voice, rich, crazy in stabbing, comic and as true-toned as a crystal glass...."
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