Other Americans
Titles in the Other Americas theme:African American Literature:
Asian American Literature:
Hispanic Literature:
Native American Literature:
Western U.S.:
Hispanic Literature:Bless Me, Ultima (1972) is a depiction of the war between the evil Tenorio Trementina and the benevolent healer Ultima. In this work Anaya intersperses the legendary, folkloric, stylized, or allegorized material with detailed descriptions that help to create a density of realistic portrayal (American Diversity, American Identity: The Lives and Works of 145 Writers Who Define the American Experience, 1995). Book Reviews and Information on Rudolfo Anaya Woman Hollering Creek (1991) is a collection of short vignettes that capture moments in the Mexican-American life–at home, at school, with friends. Some of these focus on integral parts of urban Chicano culture, others on the interaction between that culture and the dominant Anglo society. Cisneros has chosen to write this work, as well as her other books, in English. Discussion of this work will raise the issue of Hispanic writers who write in English, why this might be so, and to what audience they are basically appealing. (Human Pursuits: The Western Humanities Concern). Book Reviews and Information on Sandra Cisneros Like Water for Chocolate (1989) set against the backdrop of the vast Mexican revolution of 1910, focuses on the intimate personal revolution of a woman who must free herself from patriarchal authority. It is a border novel, taking place on a ranch over the border from Eagle Pass, Texas. The interaction with U.S. society is present in the novel, while at the same time affording an eloquent image of Mexican society as it exists with its internal conflicts and without a victimizing dependence on Anglo society. (Human Pursuits: The Western Humanities Concern). Book Reviews and Information on Laura Esquivel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (1989) set in 1949, the novel tells the story of two Cuban musicians who travel to New York and become known as the Mambo Kings. Pilgrims in Aztlan (1992) is considered a classic narrative of Chicano life. Set in Tucson and along the Mexican border, the novel characterizes the conflicts experienced by individuals of Mexican origin during a period of approximately fifty years between the realignments brought on by the Mexican revolution of 1910 and the enormous demographic growth of the American Southwest. Although these individuals strive essentially to maintain a specifically Hispanic/Mexican culture in Southern Arizona, the Anglo reality constantly impinges on their daily lives. One of the most dramatic of these realities was the Vietnam War, which saw many Chicano youths taken from the barrio and sent to fight a war they felt was, in some way, being conducted against their own people. Mendez’s novel captures the loneliness and frustrations of a society "lost" in a dominant Anglo world, as well as the uncomprehending anger and subsequent aimlessness of individuals who have yet to find effective political outlets. In its movement back and forth between Sonora and Arizona, the novel explores the notion of borders and frontiers. That movement also culminates in a transcendent experience that synthesizes all of the explosive tensions of a Mexican-American experience lived between English and Spanish, between the Hispanic barrio and Anglo power, and between a rural setting of profound personal and collective roots and the alienation of the metropolis. (Human Pursuits: The Western Humanities Concern). The Miraculous Day of Amalia Gomez (1991) focuses on a series of experiences during one day in the life of a marginalized East Los Angles barrio woman, who, nevertheless, at the end of her day is able to experience a revelation that dramatically, if violently, connects her to the Anglo culture from which she is so alienated and which she views as the source of her daily sufferings. (Human Pursuits: The Western Humanities Concern) My Grandma Smoked Cigars (1977) provides another dimension of the preservation of Hispanic culture, in this case in the context of rural New Mexico society, where one finds some of the most traditional aspects of Spanish-speaking life maintained. Ulibarri writes of the powerful personality of his grandmother, providing a maternalist interpretation of Hispanic culture as against the aggressive power structures of Anglo society. (Human Pursuits: The Western Humanities Concern) Information on Sabine Ulibarri and Discussion Questions for My Grandma Smoked Cigars Native American Literature:Love Medicine (1984) tells a story about the Kashpaw and Lamartine families. Book Reviews and Information on Louise Erdrich Ceremony (1977) is a story about an American Indian, Tayo, as he has been imprisoned by the Japanese during World War II. After he returns to the reservation, Tayo again feels alienated and he must search for some comfort and resolution in his life. Book Reviews and Information on Leslie Silko Winter in the Blood (1974) is a novel about a young man from the Blackfoot Reservation in Montana who is haunted by memories of his dead brother. He aimlessly wanders through life searching for some connection to his ancestors. African American Literature:Invisible Man (1947) is a novel that addresses issues of race and bigotry as the main character travels from the Deep South to Harlem. Book Reviews and Information on Ralph Ellison Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) Fair and long-legged, independent and articulate, Janie Crawford sets out to be her own person; no mean feat for a black woman in the '30s. Janie's quest for identity takes her through three marriages and into a journey back to her roots. Book Reviews and Information on Zora Neale Hurston Native Son (1940) Bigger Thomas is a black man cut off from family and peers. Superficially like his friends, he is in fact possessed of a different consciousness. To engage that consciousness is for him to risk insanity or violence, so Bigger endeavors to keep his fears and uncertainty at a preconscious level. On the day of the first section, however, he is required by welfare law to apply for a job as a menial at the home of the rich, white Dalton family. Native Son is Wright’s most powerful work, because his theme, universal in nature, is given its fullest and most evocative embodiment. That novel and the autobiographical Black Boy, his two greatest works, are a lacerating challenge to contemporary readers and writers–a challenge to share the relentless integrity of Richard Wright’s vision. (American Diversity, American Identity, Henry Holt & Company, 1995) Book Reviews and Information on Richard Wright Asian American Literature:In the Heart of the Valley of Love (1992) is set in the year 2052 when America is deteriorating. Los Angeles is now a petrified landscape where people disappear and corruption is rampant. This is where nineteen year old Japanese American Francie has lived with her aunt and her aunt’s boyfriend since her parents died. After tragedy strikes, she must venture out on her own and learn how to survive. Information on Cynthia Kadohata The Woman Warrior (1975) tells the story of the generations of Chinese women and the weight felt as an American trying to emerge from their sometimes stifling presence. The subtitle of the book, Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, suggests the book's almost fantastic tone, but also refers specifically to the ghosts of Kingston's female relatives and the tragedy of many of their lives, lives lived in the extremely male-dominated society of China. writes of Chinese folk sayings such as, "When fishing for treasures in the flood, be careful not to pull in girls" and "That in raising girls. Better to raise geese than girls." Book Reviews and Information on Maxine Hong Kingston The Joy Luck Club (1989) tells the story of a daughter who must find her past after her mother’s death. Book Reviews and Information on Amy Tan Western U.S.Sometimes a Great Notion (1963) is a novel based on an Oregon logging clan and a bitter strike. It enters the lives of one family and follows them through their challenges, love, and fulfillment. Horseman, Pass By (1961) powerfully portrays conflicts in the Old West as it tells the story of Homer Bannon, a cattleman, and his stepson Hud. The Angle of Repose (1971) is a Wallace Stegner novel about faith, trust, and the "continuities of history." Lyman Ward, the grotesque narrator-protagonist, is alienated from the present. To escape the traps and betrayals of the present, Ward explores the lives of his grandparents so, as he says, "I don’t have to live on my own." Through his exploration of his family history, Ward is finally brought full circle: he must live in his own present because, he discovers, the past was not any simpler or more secure or more idyllic than the present. Book Reviews and Information on Wallace Stegner
Last updated: September 8, 2006 - 11:10am by eric.hildreth
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