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Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories (Revised and Expanded Edition) / Edition 1

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ISBN-10:: 0813529530
ISBN-13:: 9780813529530
Pub. Date:: 04/01/2001
Publisher:: Rutgers University Press

ISBN-10:: 0813529530
ISBN-13:: 9780813529530
Pub. Date:: 04/01/2001
Publisher:: Rutgers University Press

Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories (Revised and Expanded Edition) / Edition 1

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Overview

Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories brings together nineteen stories that span Hisaye Yamamoto's forty-year career. It was her first book to be published in the United States. Yamamoto's themes include the cultural conflicts between the first generation, the Issei, and their children, the Nisei; coping with prejudice; and the World War II internment of Japanese Americans.

In addition to the contents of the original volume, this edition brings back into print the following works:
- Death Rides the Rails to Poston
- Eucalyptus
- A Fire in Fontana
- Florentine Gardens

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813529530
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	04/01/2001
Edition description:	Revised and Expanded
Pages:	178
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

HISAYE YAMAMOTO received the 1986 American Book Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Before Columbus Foundation. Seventeen Syllables received the 1988 Award for Literature from the Association for Asian American Studies.

Contents

Introduction ix

The High-Heeled Shoes, A Memoir 1
Seventeen Syllables 8
The Legend of Miss Sasagawara 20
Wilshire Bus 34
The Brown House 39
Yoneko's Earthquake 46
Morning Rain 57
Epithalamium 60
Las Vegas Charley 70
Life Among the Oil Fields, A Memoir 86
The Eskimo Connection 96
My Father Can Beat Muhammad Ali 105
Underground Lady 109
A Day in Little Tokyo 114
Reading and Writing 122

Preface to the Revised and Expanded Edition 129
Death Rides the Rails to Poston 131
Eucalyptus 142
A Fire in Fontana 150
Florentine Gardens 158
Selected Bibliography 173

What People are Saying About This

Grace Paley

The writing of history and the telling of stories are in our time very different. But these stories about the daily lives of Japanese American women in and out of the World War II internment camps of the United States are history and her story. The women are gutsy or fragile-that is, like any of us would be caught in exile while at home. The stories are beautifully written so we feel them even more deeply.

Joy Kogawa

You can imagine my delight to learn that a collection of her work is now finally seeing the light of day. How good that feels. At least more people will be touched by the grace that flows through Hisaye Yamamoto's pen. The world be a better place because of it.

From the B&N Reads Blog

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Editorial Reviews

The writing of history and the telling of stories are in our time very different. But these stories about the daily lives of Japanese American women in and out of the World War II internment camps of the United States are history and herstory. The women are gutsy or fragile—that is, like any of us would be caught in exile while at home. The stories are beautifully written so we feel them even more deeply.

Grace Paley

You can imagine my delight to learn that a collection of her work is now finally seeing the light of day. How good that feels. At last more people will be touched by the grace that flows through Hisaye Yamamoto's pen. The world will be a better place because of it.

Joy Kogawa

Reading Hisaye Yamamoto's Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories is like sitting down and having a good talk with someone who really remembers, someone who will open a door to her feelings and thoughts about what it has meant to be Japanese American during the last 40 years. . . . Seventeen Syllables is an excellent resource, one that keeps getting better with time.

International Examiner: The Pacific Reader

These remarkable stories are written with the proportion and craft of the masters—there are hints of Chekhov, Elizabeth Bowen, Katherine Mansfield, and Grace Paley. . . . Each of the fifteen short stories, written with the economy of haiku, is a treasure.

Booklist

Reading Hisaye Yamamoto's Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories is like sitting down and having a good talk with someone who really remembers, someone who will open a door to her feelings and thoughts about what it has meant to be Japanese American during the last 40 years. . . . Seventeen Syllables is an excellent resource, one that keeps getting better with time.-- "International Examiner: The Pacific Reader"

The writing of history and the telling of stories are in our time very different. But these stories about the daily lives of Japanese American women in and out of the World War II internment camps of the United States are history and herstory. The women are gutsy or fragileùthat is, like any of us would be caught in exile while at home. The stories are beautifully written so we feel them even more deeply.-- "Grace Paley"

You can imagine my delight to learn that a collection of her work is now finally seeing the light of day. How good that feels. At last more people will be touched by the grace that flows through Hisaye YamamotoÆs pen. The world will be a better place because of it.-- "Joy Kogawa"

These remarkable stories are written with the proportion and craft of the mastersùthere are hints of Chekhov, Elizabeth Bowen, Katherine Mansfield, and Grace Paley. . . . Each of the fifteen short stories, written with the economy of haiku, is a treasure.-- "Booklist"

From the Publisher

Imbued with the serenity of authority, these stories ably conduct the reader through the Japanese experience in America, from the oil fields of Redondo Beach to the internment camps of WW II, through the lives of young and old as they confront American customs, manners and culture. Yamamoto's stories also depict the stained relationships between Japanese immigrants and the nisei (American-born Japanese). Yet the author does not confine herself to ethnic issues. In ``The High-Heeled Shoes: A Memoir,'' for example, the subtle forms of sexual harassment are delineated; a woman's obsession with expressing herself through the condensed poetry of haiku, and her husband's objections are explored in the title story. The inexplicable tragedies of everyday life, an inconsolable mourner, a desertion by a friend, the endless quest for an illusory prosperity (as in the stories ``The Brown House'' and ``Las Vegas Charley) are underscored by a forlorn nostalgia for a history and a culture that fails to be transmitted from one generation to the next. Yamamoto, the daughter of Japanese immigrants, makes a welcome American debut.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Yamamoto, winner of the 1986 American Book Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Before Columbus Foundation, is a talented and sensitive writer whose work often focuses on the conflict between the Issei (first-generation Japanese Americans) and the Nissei (second-generation Japanese Americans). The two stories collected here are ``Seventeen Syllables'' and ``Yoneko's Earthquake,'' in which the author paints in scant strokes the pain and suffering of Issei mothers through the eyes of Nissei daughters. The accompanying material--interviews with the author, a chronology of highlights from Japanese American history, and critical essays--provides useful background for understanding and teaching the two short stories, upon which Emiko Omori's movie Hot Summer Winds is based. As a more complete collection of Yamamoto's short stories, however, Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories (Kitchen Table, 1988) is a much better buy for most libraries.-- Cherry W. Li, Univ. of Southern California Lib., Los Angeles

Library Journal

Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories (Revised and Expanded Edition) / Edition 1

Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories (Revised and Expanded Edition) / Edition 1

Paperback

Temporarily Out of Stock Online

Overview

Product Details

About the Author

Table of Contents

What People are Saying About This

Customer Reviews

Temporarily Out of Stock Online

Overview

Product Details

About the Author

Table of Contents

What People are Saying About This

Related Subjects

Customer Reviews