Growing Up Ethnic in America
Contemporary Fiction About Learning to Be American
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
Stories navigating the commplicated terrain of race in America, from acclaimed writers like Toni Morrison, E.L. Doctorow, Sandra Cisneros, Sherman Alexie, and Amy Tan
The editors who brought us Unsettling America and Identity Lessons have compiled a short-story anthology that focuses on themes of racial and ethnic assimilation. With humor, passion, and grace, the contributors lay bare poignant attempts at conformity and the alienation sometimes experienced by ethnic Americans. But they also tell of the strength gained through the preservation of their communities, and the realization that it was often their difference from the norm that helped them to succeed. In pieces suggesting that American identity is far from settled, these writers illustrate the diversity that is the source of both the nation's great discord and infinite promise.
"These beautiful stories radiate with the poignant, ingenious ways young people come to terms with their ethnic identities, negotiating their families, school, friends and their futures . . . This exemplary collection fulfills the editors' aims: to open dialogue and encourage the telling of difficult, adaptive or affirming life experiences." -Publisher's Weekly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In their third editorial collaboration, the mother-daughter Gillan team (Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry) collects 35 wide-ranging literary voices, this time on the theme of ethnic childhood in America. Including excerpts from modern classics by such acclaimed authors as Toni Morrison, Amy Tan, Sandra Cisneros and E.L. Doctorow, the Gillans shape this compilation of fictional works around four concepts--performing, crossing, negotiating and bridging--focusing on the often contradictory, sometimes humorous process of reconciling personal identity with perceived ideals of "American" culture. Gary Soto writes of a nine-year-old boy's deep wish to have dinner like the Cleaver family on TV, neatly dressed (even wearing shoes!) and eating mashed potatoes, instead of beans and tortillas. Gish Jen recounts a delightfully tentative eighth-grade romance between confident Chinese-American Mona Chang and a Japanese exchange student. Veronica Chambers reveals with swift, sure strokes the magical, protective power in a girl's mastery of double Dutch. And Beena Kamlani paints a stirring portrait of a conservative, heartbroken Indian-American family whose 15-year-old daughter is pregnant. These beautiful stories radiate with the poignant, ingenious ways young people come to terms with their ethnic identities, negotiating their families, school, friends and their futures. The four sections around which the works are structured sometimes seem arbitrary, and the editors themselves recognize that the selected stories defy classification. The volume would be useful in the classroom from grade school to university, for the stories are accessible but rich with meaning. This exemplary collection fulfills the editors' aims: to open dialogue and encourage the telling of difficult, adaptive or affirming life experiences. Author appearances.
