Booklist
A decade after Charlie Chan Is Dead (1993), until now the best source of contemporary Asian American fiction, novelist and poet Jessica Hagedorn returns to edit a new collection of 42 selections by members of America's fastest growing group. Classically separate from America's "melting pot," Asian immigrants have joined forces to combat racism and social injustice despite enormous differences among them in ethnicity, education, and income levels, a diversity well reflected in the fiction showcased here. There's the Chinese grandmother in Jen Gish's "Who's Irish," who cannot understand her son-in-law's Irish family's "plain, boiled food and plain, boiled thinking." Peter Bacho's "Rico," a portrait of an unemployed "fightin' Philippino" whose only option is enlistment during Vietnam. And Vietnamese-born Lindh Dinh's "Dead on Arrival," a privileged immigrant's stream-of-consciousness reverie that never strays far from thoughts of random mortality. Throughout, the family/not-family, belonging/outsider themes reverberate, rendering these stories at once particular and universal. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
More than a decade after its initial publication, the groundbreaking anthology Charlie Chan Is Dead remains the best available source for contemporary Asian American fiction. Edited by acclaimed novelist and National Book Award nominee Jessica Hagedorn, Charlie Chan Is Dead 2: At Home in the World brings together forty-two fresh, fascinating voices in Asian American writing—from classics by Jose Garcia Villa and Wakako Yamauchi to exciting new fiction from Akhil Sharma, Ruth Ozeki, Chang-Rae Lee, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Monique Truong. Sweeping in background and literary style, from pioneering writers to newly emerging voices from the Hmong and Korean communities, these exceptional works celebrate the full spectrum of Asian American experience and identities, transcending stereotypes and revealing the strength and vitality of Asian America today.
