Helpful Score: 3
Excellent writing, amazing vocabulary...but you need to have some good mental health because this guys stuff is dark. Not for the weak of heart.
Helpful Score: 1
I found this book to be thoroughly enjoyable from the first paragraph to the very last word. It was an easy read and a fun story but still had depth. It's the story of searching for one's identity and place in the world, of prejudice and preconceived notions, of misunderstandings. Hiro Tanaka is born in Japan to a Japanese mother and a white father who abandoned them before he was born. As a half-breed he is never accepted in Japan, so at the age of 20 he decides to get a job as a cook on a ship bound for America, where he has heard they will accept anyone. Unfortunately, things go badly and he ends up jumping ship off the coast of Georgia, finally coming to shore on swampy, confusing Tupelo Island. Meanwhile, Ruth Dershowitz is an aspiring author at an artist's colony on the island struggling to make her mark on the world. Their paths intertwine. I really enjoyed the way the story was told from the points of view of different characters--from the main characters to minor characters to very minor characters--which helped explain all of the misunderstandings and how even though everyone has good intentions, bad situations can still occur. A great story. I'd love to read more by this author.
Helpful Score: 1
One of the better novels you will find about Japanese in Georgia.
Helpful Score: 1
It has been years since I read this and I don't remember it in much detail. I remember that it was quite unusual. Amazon readers give it 4 stars.
From Library Journal
Offspring of a young Japanese woman and a spaced-out American hippie briefly entranced with Japan, Hiro Tanaka grows up scorned as a half-breed in his racially pure homeland. So when he nears America aboard the sailing vessel on which he serves as cook's assistant, Hiro literally jumps ship. He's sure that in America a man of mixed race can easily fit in, but he's in for a big surprise. Landing on Tupelo Island near Georgia, he inadvertently frightens a number of witless residents and thus finds himself a hunted man. He is briefly protected by Ruth Dershowitz, a resident at a writers' colony on the island, but her motives are mixed: she's mostly interested in Hiro as an experience that will enhance her writing and highly developed sense of self. Indeed, virtually everyone in this picaresque novel acts primarily from self-interest; even our Hiro comes across as something of an anti-hero, self-pitying if vulnerable. Boyle's lucid prose charges ahead wrecklessly, sweeping readers along as it effortlessly blends the story of Hiro's plight with that of the writers' colony. But Boyle's unrelieved indictment of prejudice at times seems one-dimensional, his characters so bigoted, foolish, or otherwise unengaging that we are left longing for some sign of human dignity. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/15/90.
From Library Journal
Offspring of a young Japanese woman and a spaced-out American hippie briefly entranced with Japan, Hiro Tanaka grows up scorned as a half-breed in his racially pure homeland. So when he nears America aboard the sailing vessel on which he serves as cook's assistant, Hiro literally jumps ship. He's sure that in America a man of mixed race can easily fit in, but he's in for a big surprise. Landing on Tupelo Island near Georgia, he inadvertently frightens a number of witless residents and thus finds himself a hunted man. He is briefly protected by Ruth Dershowitz, a resident at a writers' colony on the island, but her motives are mixed: she's mostly interested in Hiro as an experience that will enhance her writing and highly developed sense of self. Indeed, virtually everyone in this picaresque novel acts primarily from self-interest; even our Hiro comes across as something of an anti-hero, self-pitying if vulnerable. Boyle's lucid prose charges ahead wrecklessly, sweeping readers along as it effortlessly blends the story of Hiro's plight with that of the writers' colony. But Boyle's unrelieved indictment of prejudice at times seems one-dimensional, his characters so bigoted, foolish, or otherwise unengaging that we are left longing for some sign of human dignity. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/15/90.
Helpful Score: 1
T.C. Boyle is a writer I have admired for many years. I have read and enjoyed several of his novels and short story collections and I always look forward to reading more of him. East Is East is, at the beginning, a somewhat humorous look at what happens when a 20-year old Japanese seaman jumps ship off the coast of Georgia in hopes of finding acceptance among the many races that abound in America. His name is Hiro and he has been scorned and ridiculed in Japan because he is a half-breed. His father was an American hippie who abandoned him and his mother when he was a baby. Hiro doesn't really know much about America other than what he has learned from TV, movies and pop music but he feels if he can make his way to a large American city such as "The City of Brotherly Love", he'll be able to fit in with the masses. But ultimately, Hiro is in trouble when he first sets foot on Topanga Island off the Georgia coast. He is hungry and alone and when he approaches a poor black resident cooking up some oysters, he doesn't expect to be attacked and the results leave Hiro on the lam from the law and the INS. He does finally find food at the cottage of a woman writer who is in residence at an artists' colony and she takes pity on him. But of course, this doesn't last and Hiro becomes the target of most everyone on the island.
When I first started reading this, I felt it had the feel of a Carl Hiaasen novel, full of humor and characters that deserved to be put in their place. Hiro was a character that you commiserate with and hope that he will be able to live his dreams. Another character, Ruth, the woman who befriends Hiro is also someone to root for. But the novel definitely has a darker side and is a harsh look at how we view outsiders. This story reminded me somewhat of one of my favorite Boyle novels, The Tortilla Curtain, which was also about an oppressed man who is on the run in America because he is from another culture and is misunderstood. Boyle is really a great wordsmith and I'll be looking forward to more.
When I first started reading this, I felt it had the feel of a Carl Hiaasen novel, full of humor and characters that deserved to be put in their place. Hiro was a character that you commiserate with and hope that he will be able to live his dreams. Another character, Ruth, the woman who befriends Hiro is also someone to root for. But the novel definitely has a darker side and is a harsh look at how we view outsiders. This story reminded me somewhat of one of my favorite Boyle novels, The Tortilla Curtain, which was also about an oppressed man who is on the run in America because he is from another culture and is misunderstood. Boyle is really a great wordsmith and I'll be looking forward to more.
