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May. 30th, 2009 04:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
furyofvissarionLondonstani - Gautam Malkani. A brilliant, funny yet troubling novel. Jas is 19, living in South London, & running with a crowd of guys who are trying to be gangsta & not the good middle-class South Asian boys their mothers want them to be. Malkani's writing is humorous enough to generate actual out-loud laughs from me, & he's able to write in phonetic dialect well--not an easy task.
This is a really interesting look at urban youth culture, the culture of consumerism & bling, but yeah, it's also hilarious. I did find it hard at times because I didn't actually like the characters that much, though I was fairly interested in what happened to them. I had that same feeling I did while watching Better Luck Tomorrow, though (another look at young people breaking the stereotype of Good Asians--what would be the model minority thing back home)--as they get more involved in dodgy stuff I was just holding my breath waiting for the other shoe to drop. The twist at the end I didn't see coming at all, & like any good twist it makes you re-evaluate everything that came before it.
As Long As Nothing Happens, Nothing Will - Zhang Jie. This is a collection of short stories in translation. Zhang skewers the bureaucratic nature of Communist China (though really I think her account of a meeting will be groaningly familiar to many folks involved in activist work), as well as the abuses of the system & the difficulty of running a hospital on too little money & undertrained, underpaid staff. The first story shifts in focus a lot, & I had trouble connecting in my mind how all the characters fit together, & so I didn't like it. The rest of the stories are bitterly humorous & while I don't think it's right to say I enjoyed them, I certainly was more drawn in.
Gorilla, My Love - Toni Cade Bambara. 16 short stories about black life in the US, both small town & urban, all published during the '60s and early '70s. Bambara's voice is wonderful; though many of the stories are just a few pages long, it is easy to slip into each new one w/o the disorientation that sometimes short story collections give me. Her characters are vivid & smart. I think there were only a couple of stories I didn't like much, because I found them confusing. The final piece, "The Johnson Girls," I really liked because it's about a group of women friends coming together to help one of them sort her love life out--that makes it sound horribly cheesy, but it's not, it's actually quite moving.
The WisCon Chronicles Vol. 3: Carnival of Feminist SF - Edited by Liz Henry. I read this on the way home from WisCon & I think it did a pretty good job demonstrating the kinds of thoughtful discussion that WisCon excels in. I also liked that several of the pieces were responses to other pieces in the collection; I appreciated the dialogue. There's also amazing stuff about voices & the cultural relativity of what gets accepted as "good writing." And a lot of discussion about the WisCon Troll -- including an argument for not calling her a troll & not using her real name (which is all over the internets by now). I felt that some of this stuff was way more generous than I have ever felt about the matter, & I was torn between admiration & frustration, heh.
I'd really like to know how these books read to people who've never been to WisCon: is it comprehensible or too many in-jokes & such? I've been thinking more about the in-joke, or in-reference at least, culture at WisCon this year, & how I both delight in feeling like I've been around enough to understand a lot of it, & feel that it probably feels a bit alienating or cliquish at times to new folks.
A Letter to My Father: Growing Up Filipina & American - Helen Madamba Mossman. Mossman grew up in the Philippines during WWII, the daughter of a Filipino & a US woman from Oklahoma; for years she & her family were on the run from Japanese soldiers (who were particularly keen to capture her father, a military officer; her mother, an American; & Mossman's brother & herself as products of this union). After the war they moved to Oklahoma & Mossman capitulated to the pressures to be all-American by speaking only English & shutting out her father. I found the book painful & triggering at times for reasons obvious to many people who know me.
I was a little put off by Mossman's US patriotism at times, which seemed a bit uncritical in places (though she does talk about how the US basically left the Philippines to die during the war for a while), along with comments like how despite the "Asian diet" her & her brother grew up fairly tall. I mean, let's talk about health issues generated by the Standard Western Diet, along w/issues of poverty & malnutrition, when we're discussing what diets may or may not make people tall (not to mention genes)--not that this is a definite indicator of health anyway!
The book mostly focuses on the war, & rushes through her life in Oklahoma & adulthood; I wanted to know more about her struggles to fit in as a non-white person. Anyway, as a voice that is often unheard, & one that is close in many ways to my family's experience, I appreciated this book.
Mella & the N'anga: An African Tale - Gail Nyoka. Delightful novel about a young girl in ancient Zimbabwe who has to save her father, the king, & by extension their land, who is dying as he dies. Fairly standard as far as the plot goes, but Mella is a tough & smart heroine, & who doesn't love a story featuring the rebirth of a forgotten group of female warriors serving a goddess? Plus, it's always soothing to read a fantasy novel where people are described lovingly & as beautiful, & they're not the same pale pale white blonde-or-maybe-raven-haired-or-ravishing-redhead.
This is a really interesting look at urban youth culture, the culture of consumerism & bling, but yeah, it's also hilarious. I did find it hard at times because I didn't actually like the characters that much, though I was fairly interested in what happened to them. I had that same feeling I did while watching Better Luck Tomorrow, though (another look at young people breaking the stereotype of Good Asians--what would be the model minority thing back home)--as they get more involved in dodgy stuff I was just holding my breath waiting for the other shoe to drop. The twist at the end I didn't see coming at all, & like any good twist it makes you re-evaluate everything that came before it.
As Long As Nothing Happens, Nothing Will - Zhang Jie. This is a collection of short stories in translation. Zhang skewers the bureaucratic nature of Communist China (though really I think her account of a meeting will be groaningly familiar to many folks involved in activist work), as well as the abuses of the system & the difficulty of running a hospital on too little money & undertrained, underpaid staff. The first story shifts in focus a lot, & I had trouble connecting in my mind how all the characters fit together, & so I didn't like it. The rest of the stories are bitterly humorous & while I don't think it's right to say I enjoyed them, I certainly was more drawn in.
Gorilla, My Love - Toni Cade Bambara. 16 short stories about black life in the US, both small town & urban, all published during the '60s and early '70s. Bambara's voice is wonderful; though many of the stories are just a few pages long, it is easy to slip into each new one w/o the disorientation that sometimes short story collections give me. Her characters are vivid & smart. I think there were only a couple of stories I didn't like much, because I found them confusing. The final piece, "The Johnson Girls," I really liked because it's about a group of women friends coming together to help one of them sort her love life out--that makes it sound horribly cheesy, but it's not, it's actually quite moving.
The WisCon Chronicles Vol. 3: Carnival of Feminist SF - Edited by Liz Henry. I read this on the way home from WisCon & I think it did a pretty good job demonstrating the kinds of thoughtful discussion that WisCon excels in. I also liked that several of the pieces were responses to other pieces in the collection; I appreciated the dialogue. There's also amazing stuff about voices & the cultural relativity of what gets accepted as "good writing." And a lot of discussion about the WisCon Troll -- including an argument for not calling her a troll & not using her real name (which is all over the internets by now). I felt that some of this stuff was way more generous than I have ever felt about the matter, & I was torn between admiration & frustration, heh.
I'd really like to know how these books read to people who've never been to WisCon: is it comprehensible or too many in-jokes & such? I've been thinking more about the in-joke, or in-reference at least, culture at WisCon this year, & how I both delight in feeling like I've been around enough to understand a lot of it, & feel that it probably feels a bit alienating or cliquish at times to new folks.
A Letter to My Father: Growing Up Filipina & American - Helen Madamba Mossman. Mossman grew up in the Philippines during WWII, the daughter of a Filipino & a US woman from Oklahoma; for years she & her family were on the run from Japanese soldiers (who were particularly keen to capture her father, a military officer; her mother, an American; & Mossman's brother & herself as products of this union). After the war they moved to Oklahoma & Mossman capitulated to the pressures to be all-American by speaking only English & shutting out her father. I found the book painful & triggering at times for reasons obvious to many people who know me.
I was a little put off by Mossman's US patriotism at times, which seemed a bit uncritical in places (though she does talk about how the US basically left the Philippines to die during the war for a while), along with comments like how despite the "Asian diet" her & her brother grew up fairly tall. I mean, let's talk about health issues generated by the Standard Western Diet, along w/issues of poverty & malnutrition, when we're discussing what diets may or may not make people tall (not to mention genes)--not that this is a definite indicator of health anyway!
The book mostly focuses on the war, & rushes through her life in Oklahoma & adulthood; I wanted to know more about her struggles to fit in as a non-white person. Anyway, as a voice that is often unheard, & one that is close in many ways to my family's experience, I appreciated this book.
Mella & the N'anga: An African Tale - Gail Nyoka. Delightful novel about a young girl in ancient Zimbabwe who has to save her father, the king, & by extension their land, who is dying as he dies. Fairly standard as far as the plot goes, but Mella is a tough & smart heroine, & who doesn't love a story featuring the rebirth of a forgotten group of female warriors serving a goddess? Plus, it's always soothing to read a fantasy novel where people are described lovingly & as beautiful, & they're not the same pale pale white blonde-or-maybe-raven-haired-or-ravishing-redhead.