This lyrical collection explores the diversity of the Asian American experience while experimenting with form, language, metaphor, and myth.
From the story of a goddess fleeing the civil war in Cambodia who is picked up by a Coast Guard ship and interrogated by uncomprehending INS officials to that of the biracial children of a Nebraska farmer and his Filipino showgirl wife coping with the loss of their mother as well as their father’s way of life in their small farming community, Glamorous Asians provides an unusual glimpse into a world often left unexplored.
Reviews:
“May-lee Chai is a gifted young writer whose scalpel-sharp wit cuts through the heart of immigrant America. In this wonderful new addition to Asian-American literature, Chai explores the mysteries--and brutal realities--of invisible lives, of people misunderstood or simply ignored by mainstream culture, by giving voice to their unfulfilled dreams, secret ambitions, and hidden triumphs. This collection sings with despair, rage, exhaustion--and hope.”--Iris Chang, the New York Times’ best-selling author of The Rape of Nanking and The Chinese in America.
“In this book, May-lee Chai renders the folly and wisdom of youth and age and lays bare the heartbreak beneath gender, culture, and class. We’re in the hands of a sophisticate with a piercing eye, a nuanced intelligence, and a sprightly sense of irony.”--Marilyn Krysl, author of Warscape with Lovers and How to Accommodate Men: Short Stories.
“The beauty of this slim, evocative collection lies not only in the highly personalized portraits of Asian Americans, but also in May-lee Chai’s gracefully nuanced writing. It is a small treasure.”--Howard Goldblatt, award-winning translator of Mo Yan’s Red Sorghum and Chu T’ien-wen’s Notes of a Desolate Man (with Sylvia Li-chun Lin).
This book is also available directly from the University of Indianapolis Press: Contact: Lin@uindy.edu Fax: 317-788-3480
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