The Colors of Desire: Poems [Paperback]

David Mura (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1994

A collection of poems by the author of Turning Japanese, exploring race and sexuality, history and identity, through the lens of desire.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Mura used two powerful motifs to unify this work: his Japanese American heritage and his own sexual history. The motifs are connected because Mura, as a Sansei (third-generation Japanese American), is fascinated by "whiteness." The Japanese half of his "doubled" existence is evoked by images of government internment camps that held his grandparents and other Issei (first-generation Japanese Americans), as well as scenes from his own childhood reverberating with "shouts of chink and/gook." The erotic side of Mura surfaces in disturbing poems about voyeurism and pornography-and in a complex pair of long poems entitled "The Affair I and It," where a man and a woman discover the strange linkage of sex and self. Mura ends this poignant book with a poem to his daughter, Samantha, child of two races and a living symbol of "unbroken/joy." Highly recommended.
Daniel L. Guillory, Dept. of English, Millikin Univ., Decatur, Ill.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

The powerful poems of Mura's impressive second collection possess a brutality beneath the sweetness of their language. In his first book, Mura explored cultural, social, and political issues with an objective eye; here he turns the focus inward and expertly examines the boundaries of his identity as a sexual Japanese man. Race and eroticism twine around each other in many poems, and Mura refuses to shy away from the shadowy parts of himself. He elegantly confesses his experiences inside an X-rated film booth and of "touching himself" so much when he was 12 that his father asked him to read a medical pamphlet about it. In the longest sequence here, "The Affair," he presents a wrenching adultery involving an Asian American man and a married Caucasian woman; Mura plunges beneath the surface of mere betrayal to comment on race, identity, sex, and pain. Intelligent and passionate, Mura bares his soul and amazes his readers with the beauty and darkness in his work. Elizabeth Gunderson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Anchor (December 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038547461X
• ISBN-13: 978-0385474610
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #105,910 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #15 in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > Asian American

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