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72
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
74/100Critics
44/100Scholars
99/100Author:
Cathy Park Hong
Publisher:
One World
Date:
February 25, 2020
Part memoir and part cultural criticism, this collection of essays deals with family and friendship, art and politics, identity and individuality. An exploration of Asian American consciousness and the struggle to be human.
What The Reviewers Say
The essays wander a variegated terrain of memoir, criticism and polemic, oscillating between smooth proclamations of certainty and twitches of self-doubt.
Whereas many personal narratives present a singular perspective, Hong’s approach is more expansive.
Hong's lived experience schooled her in the pain of being a nonwhite American. She summoned it and added a layer of rich research and critical analysis to school the rest of us on that perspective.
Hong’s metaphors are crafted with stinging care. To be Asian-American, she suggests, is to be tasked with making an injury inaccessible to the body that has been injured.
