A worthy addition to a well-established genre

books:


	• Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers: A Novel Lois-Ann Yamanaka Picador, 2006 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 15 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

An Enjoyable Quick Read

With very endearing characters, Lois-Ann Yamanaka has written an enjoyable, heartfelt coming of age story. This book is a wonderful way to pass a rainy (or snowy), cold weekend. However, I have to admit that I don't necessarily find 'Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers' a must-read, but it is perfect if you're looking for some 'light' reading.

a reflection on paper

Hmmm,here is an awkward but charming story of an awkward but charming adolescent girl growing up as a Japanese-American in "Haole" culture. I quite enjoyed this book although its not for everyone; say, people who don't have patience to read continuous pidgen dialogue.

However, Yamanaka is one of my favorite authors, and I must review her first work here as it is fantastic in my baised opinion. As I can relate, I sympathized with Lovey as she made the same assumptions, made the same awkward mistakes, and encountered the same misrepresentation and discrimination as I did growing up, only magnified by the 1970's time period to which the story is set.

I like this story because of its authenticity, and how Yamanaka mixes an uncomfortable tension with nostalgic and humorous comfort throughout the book. I also love the way she brings a 1970's Hawaii to life (the food!). A very much appreciated read.

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A worthy addition to a well-established genre

The "misfit coming of age" genre of novel has a long pedigree. This time, the story is of a girl from a working class Japanese family trying to navigate the race and class divisions of 1970's Hilo, Hawaii. This is not the happy Hawaii most tourists see. The story is by turns funny, poignant, cruel, and hopeful. Just what the genre calls for. The author's unique addition here is the use of the Hawaiian creole (often called, inaccurately, pidgin) in the dialogue, which gives the voices in this tale an authenticity that is very rich. If the story itself is not terribly original, it is still a lively and interesting read and illuminates aspects of Hawaiian life that are invisible to most Americans.

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TRUE WRITING

This book is one of the best I have ever read - but I guess I can say that for just about anything Yamanaka writes. I loved it. It was so real to me. I cant wait for more! This is true writing...Yamanaka made me feel like I knew these characters. LOVE IT!

excellent

This book is, as the title says, excellent. The hard times of Lovey, a young girl in a poor Hawaiian family, make up this novel which I couldn't put down. The Pidgen spoken in the book makes the feel of it authentic, aND that's only the language. the characters, Lovey, who has a hard time at school and is ashamed of the way she is, her little sister Calhoun, who inherits their father's "Ghost eye," Lovey's best friend Jerry, who is admirable in his persistance of some kind of happiness, Jerry's brother Larry, who takes pleasure in abusing everyonearound him, Larry's girlfriend Crystal, the perfect, sweet girl whom everyone loves, and qutie a few more, definetely bring this book to life. Honestly, the end is pretty sad, but I will choose to let you figure out by yourself how, despite the situation with her father, Lovey proves the size of her heart and family devotion.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

Her name is Lovey Nariyoshi, and her Hawai?i is not the one of leis, pineapple, and Magnum P.I. In the blue collar town of Hilo, on the Big Island, Lovey and her eccentric Japanese-American family are at the margins of poverty, in the midst of a tropical paradise. With her endearing, effeminate best friend Jerry, Lovey suffers schoolyard bullies, class warfare, Singer sewing classes, and the surprisingly painful work of picking on a macadamia nut plantation, all while trying to find an identity of her own. At once a bitingly funny satire of haole happiness and a moving meditation on what is real, if ugly at times, but true, Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers crackles with the language of pidgin--Hawai?i Creole English--distinguishing one of the most vibrant voices in contemporary culture. Stories from this enduring novel have been adapted into the film Fishbowl, by groundbreaking director Kayo Hatta.

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