English is not my first language so I first was wondering if reading TC Boyle in original language was not too ambitious of me (even if I read "San Miguel" in English too).Anyway, with East is East, I was engulfed very quickly in the story, as usual with this author, and I enjoyed every line of it, the rythm and the music..it all came back very naturally. Few time ago I also read The Women about Frank Lloyd wright, and the narrator also being a Japanese-American, I kind of connected again, curious to see why TC Boyle was bringing another Japanese-american on the American soil (well..almost). Again I enjoyed the sheer brilliance with which he throws his characters in impossible situations, their human weakness and smallness when deprived of everything and facing forces of nature, the indifference and cruelty of nature for the petty -but subtle- concerns of the human mind. And no witnesses, no grandiose end, just solitary men, women, and the rudeness of the elements. As in Water Music, there is a pleasure that is almost sadistic to enjoy the miseries of a poor guy lost in a swamp, bitten to death by mosquitoes and all kind of creatures, and to see his efforts to ameliorate his situation, especially when you're comfortably installed in your sofa. What can I say, TC Boyle manage to makes it so entertaining and epic that it is funny... And we know it's all literature, isn't it ? And hope, there's always hope. At the end anyway I felt bad for everything that happened to Hiro, and the time I laugh when I learn about the Okenofee, "the swamp archetypal, the swamp of legend, of racial memory, of Hollywood", "the refuge for every least thing that swam or flew or crept on its belly". I loved the parallel with the literary salon, "La Dershowitz", vanitas vanitatum, if only she hasn't been so superficial, she could have save him, and yet, I also felt for her despair, the causes of her heartbeats, ambitions, and jealousy. I felt too for Saxby and his quest for the albino, pygmy sunfish, his very own White Whale. He also had his reasons, and I was happy there was no description of the possible fiasco his grand idea could have lead him (the fishes were minuscules but very territorial and aggressive, we were told).
Hiro Tanaka is a Japanese sailor with an unknown American father. He grew up in Japan and has always felt (and looked) an outsider. When the ship he’s working on nears the American coast, he jumps overboard and swims to shore.He lands at Georgia near an artists’ colony. Here works Ruth Dershowitz, a beginning writer. She is the second main character of the book.Ruth is very keen to become a successful writer but the story she works on does not progress very well. When she has the chance to hide Hiro from the authorities, she uses the situation as material for a new story.As Hiro inadvertently has arrived on an island, and can’t escape easily to the mainland, the inhabitants gather to track him down and arrest him. Hiro uses a samurai book, that he brought with him, as inspiration on how to deal with the difficult situations he sees himself getting caught up in.I found the first quarter (maybe more) of the book quite slow going. There was a lot about Ruth and her position in the artists’ colony. I didn’t find her very interesting or pleasant.I had more empathy for Hiro, who is trying to find a way to get away from the island and becomes more and more reliant on his samurai book as the situation becomes harder for him.The story really picks up around three-quarters in the book and it even becomes hard to put down.It was interesting how Hiro, who had always been looked down upon as a “foreigner” by his fellow Japanese, now found himself in a place where he was the “dirty Chinese” rather than the American of mixed race which he hoped to become.Again, like in Tortilla Curtain, this is a book about an illegal immigrant at the very edge of society. I again wanted the immigrant to succeed in the US, but this doesn’t quite happen. He realizes in the end that he’s been treated as an outcast in America just as much as he had been in Japan.
What do You think about East Is East (1991)?
I wish there was a way to do half stars because I debated between 3 & 4 stars... East is East follows two people (Hiro & Ruth). Hiro is a shipwrecked Japanese man running from the INS and Police who believe he committed murder. He had come to the United States to find his American father because he never felt like he fit in in Japan. The other, Ruth, is an undistinguished writer living among much more noteworthy authors in an artists' colony. By hiding Hiro, Ruth finds a voice for her stories and the confidence to thrive among her new peers. Their relationship is very interesting, as is the search for Hiro going along throughout the book. The story could have been a lot shorter though. T.C. Boyle is funny, but a little too esoteric.
—Lisa
Mitte des 18. Jahrhunderts in Japan: Ein japanisches Handelsschiff wird auf dem Weg nach Edo von einem Sturm heimgesucht und treibt monatelang auf offener See. Schließlich strandet die Mannschaft von Kapitän Kodayu an einer Insel - und muss feststellen, dass Klima und die "dämonenhaften" Bewohner so gar nicht Japan ähneln, sie also weit weg von ihrer Heimat sind. Zufälligerweise sind auch Russen auf der (Aleuten-)Insel, bei denen sie Unterkunft finden - Verständigen können sie sich mit ihnen natürlich nicht. Während zunächst noch manch einer hofft, sich bald auf den Rückweg nach Japan machen zu können, sterben bereits die ersten Mannschaftsmitglieder, denn das bitterkalte Klima sind die Japaner nicht gewohnt. Der erste Winter vergeht und noch immer ist kein Schiff in Sicht. Schließlich fangen die Japaner an, die russische Sprache zu erlernen, und zu hoffen, dass sie es bis nach Russland schaffen, um von dort nach Japan zurückkehren zu können. Doch der Weg ist weit und ihnen steht eine Odyssee durch Russland bevor, nicht alle werden diesen Weg überstehen.Bei mir stand das Buch eine ganze Weile ungelesen im Regal - zu unrecht. Kodayu und seine Männer gewinnt man schnell lieb und bangt mit ihnen, wenn ihnen vor Kälte die Zähne klappern oder sie sie mit den russischen Behörden zu kämpfen haben. Teilweise ist es in der heutigen Zeit schon fast unvorstellbar, wie wenig man damals über andere Länder wusste, wie sehr man sich beispielsweise in Russland darüber freut eine grobe Karte von Japan zu bekommen. Praktischerweise ist in dem Buch eine Karte mit dem Reiseweg von Kodayu enthalten, so behält man bei den Inseln, aber auch den Städten innerhalb Russlands den Überblick.Mir hat das Buch insgesamt sehr gut gefallen, für action-wütige Leser hat das Buch allerdings sicher ein paar Längen. Yasushi Inoue beschreibt sehr schön und nachvollziehbar, wie schwer es sein kann (insbesondere unter diesen Umständen) sich in einem fremden Land einzuleben - und wie sehr einem das Land schließlich doch ans Herz wachsen kann, wenn man Land und Leute näher kennen lernt.
—Franziska
Comic, tragic - an easy satirical read but with subtle claws that stick in you. A woebegone mixed-race Japanese sailor abandons ship and ends up in the swamplands of the American south in a writers colony - which sounds like an Elmore Leonard plot line, but actually becomes something quite different. The best pieces are the inner monologue of Hiro Tanaka and the ambitious, possibly-self-deluded American Jewish author who sees him as an escape from her artistic rut. There is some violence, some chasing, some snide depictions of the lives of genteel literary types, and some ichthyology ... but it's less humor than you expect from that depiction, and a bit more pointed as the story evolves.
—Michael
