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.
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