Customer Reviews

East Is East (Contemporary American Fiction)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There are some highly comedic scenes in this novel of a young seaman of Japanese-American parentage who finds himself in the midst of a Georgia swamp after jumping ship, but the reader is soon aware that it is the aura of impending doom which makes this story compelling. The tension increases chapter by chapter as we watch helplessly as ironic misunderstandings and prejudices bring about an inevitable tragic ending. The prejudice goes both ways; the Japanese-American seaman has as many skewed views of the Americans he finds on the Georgia Island as they do of him. This is really two stories in one as the writers' colony and the shallow, self-important people who inhabit it are a story unto themselves. The author's vivid descriptions of the Georgia swamplands are actually uncomfortable to read; one starts scratching at imaginary bug-bites while turning pages. The sad fact is that young Hiro Tanaka is not at home anywhere; as a gaijin, or half-breed, he has no place in Japanese society, and the welcome he thought he would find in America - the melting pot - is far from what he had dreamed. Boyle is a gifted writer, and East is East is as good as anything else he has written.

T.C. Boyle is a wonderful writer, but his view of humanity certainly is a dark one. Yes, the characters--except for Hiro Tanaka--are shallow, but I kept wanting them to be something better than they were. If the book were filled with nothing more than shallow characters, then it wouldn't be such a gripping read. But they have moments of promise. The fact that they don't live up to these moments is what makes Boyle's worldview so depressing and what leaves such a bad taste in my mouth at the end. But that's arguing with Boyle as a philospher--as a writer, he's superb.

Boyle takes a special glee in the debunking of romantic myths, institutions and characters. In THE ROAD TO WELLVILLE it's the Kellog cereal empire. In WATER MUSIC it's the British exploration of Africa. Still, his attitude towards his fellow man seems a bit warmer in THE ROAD TO WELLVILLE (though not in WATER MUSIC). Both of these are great novels as well.

East Is East had been billed to me as one of the finer books by one of the finer writers in America today. I have a great weakness for stories about writers, and as this book featured a writers' colony as its center stage, I chose it over some of T.C. Boyle's better known novels and collections of short stories.

At it's heart, this story proposes the anti-American dream as reality. A young man, Hiro Tanaka, jumps ship off a Japanese steamer and swims ashore on an island off the coast of Georgia. Instead of discovering a land where people reach out to embrace him, he discovers a land where he is a wanted fugitive and the only people who reach out to help are really trying to help themselves. As a "half-breed" born of a Japanese mother and an American father, Hiro had always seen America as the City of Brotherly Love where no one would care what kind of blood he had flowing through his veins. But in very little time he learns that America can be as vicious and unwelcoming as its inhabitants, and that the American Dream is nothing short of a sham.

At times, Boyle is so wrapped up in setting off literary fireworks that he seems to get sidetracked from his plot; however, the fireworks can be amazing at times, so it's hard to hold this against him. His characterizations are wonderful, and the story hardly ever loses its pace. I wouldn't call this the greatest contemporary American novel I've come across, but it's a damn good one.

Hiro Tanaka, a twenty-year-old devotee of Yukio Mishima and Jocho, thinks of himself as a samurai, even though he is half American. Anxious to leave Japan to discover his unknown father, he takes a job in the kitchen of a Japanese freighter, where he has to defend himself against racial slurs during his trip to the U.S. Jumping overboard to escape, he swims ashore to swampy Tupelo Island, off the coast of Georgia, hoping eventually to make his way to the City of Brotherly Love.

Tupelo is the site of Thanatopsis, an artists' colony similar to the McDowell Colony, and Ruth Dershowitz, a writer in residence there, refuses to believe the stories circulated by the ship and by INS that Hiro is a dangerous criminal and potential murderer. When she discovers him, she begins feeding him and protecting him against the yahoos who are trying to apprehend him.

Boyle uses this absurd scenario to create farce-like humor, satirizing the characters' inherent prejudices and their unrealistic goals and expectations. Hiro must protect himself against INS, a trigger-happy lunatic assisting INS, a posse of rednecks engaged in the chase, and even some of the residents of Thantopsis, the name of which is a black-humored reference to the Greek word for "death." Ruth, who is having an affair with the wealthy son of the founder of Thanatopsis, sees Hiro as the possible subject for a story, and she is outraged when a movie star-like writer, who once studied with her, arrives to steal Ruth's thunder by flirting with the men, giving a reading that the residents love, and sneering at Ruth.

Boyle's dark humor is delicious, and his pointed satire of the writers' colony, in particular, is priceless--the egos, the homage expected by established writers, the ceremony of the readings, the ritual of "silent table" vs. the "convivial table" at breakfast, the esoteric nature of some of the research subjects, and even the goofing off by the "artists." Hiro's only exposure to American society--the residents of Thanatopsis, the wealthy benefactors who have built compounds on the island, the impoverished rednecks and blacks who live off the land, and the INS and police officers who chase and arrest him--is obviously skewed, and his miscommunications and misunderstandings, even with Ruth, are both poignant and hilarious.

Filled with unexpected plot twists, brilliant and unique imagery, and ironies which evolve from the conflict between romantic dreams and sometimes harsh reality, the novel looks sharply at the characters' lives and inherent values and offers a sardonic wink. n Mary Whipple

Short story virtuoso TC Boyle weaves a wild tale about Hiro Tanaka, a half-Japanese half-American sailor who jumps ship from a Japanese freighter and makes it barely alive onto the Georgia coast. Fleeing the racism and time in the ship's brig off Japan, Tanaka arrives on a swampy island inhabited by the descendants of slaves, lower class whites, and the self-obsessed denizens of an artist colony.

What ensues is at times hysterical: mistaken identity, self-delusion, pride, jealousy, hyperbole, and deceit. Tanaka, whose hippy mother became pregnant from a relationship with an American "barbarian", is taunted mercilessly as a "gaijin", though he was born and raised in Japan. He dreams of a place of half-castes and mixed-bloods, where he won't stand out. What he finds in America is misunderstanding and betrayal.

In "East is East," T.C. Boyle shows what amazing things writers can do with sentences. I have never read another novel with better point-of-view characterization. Forget you readers out there; if you're a writer, you HAVE TO read this book. Yes, the plot is entertaining, but watch how he gets inside the heads of his characters and portrays them from the inside out. Whenever I'm feeling down about my own writing, I pull this novel off the shelf and read from it. One of the most original novels I've ever read.

What happens when a would-be samurai jumps ship and finds himself stranded on an isolated island off the coast of Georgia? In the hands of T.C. Boyle, this scenario leads to a steady stream of mayhem, and an amusing romp that explores the challenges created by cross-cultural misunderstandings. Virtually every character in this story has preconceptions that color their responses to the situation, often with tragic consequences.

Hiro Tanaka, the wayward sailor, is running from his past, hoping to reach an almost mythical "City of Brotherly Love" where he will finally find his place in the world. Following the advice of Mishima, he charges ahead, without any regard to the consequences. Unfortunately, this path only serves to further complicate his troubles.

Ruth Dershowitz is struggling author, living in an artist colony on the island, and desparate to establish herself as a writer. Self-absorbed and insecure, she tries to find validation in the social order at the colony. When Hiro stumbles into her life, she find both inspiration and trouble. How she copes with both will define her future.

With its complex story and shifting points-of-view, this book provides an entertaining read. While in hindsight the ending seems wholly appropriate and fitting, it still manages to remain a surprise.

Quite simply, one of the finest examples of character writing there is. Boyle takes an absurd situation (a native Japanese man washed ashore in a Georgian swamp) and turns it into a compulsive page-turner. His dialogue, use of characters and acerbic wit are an absolute joy. The scene in the shop with the Japanese 'hero' showing a commendable grasp of the English language (seemingly gained entirely from Clint Eastwood movies) had me crying with laughter (and got me some strange looks from other folks on the London Underground at the time). Although the lunacy of the situation is reminicent of Boyle's short stories, readers familiar with his novels will recognise the style and attention to detail he pays his characters. This book should be required reading for anybody interested in writing their own fiction. You won't find a better example of modern storytelling anywhere.

T.C. Boyle, or whatever name he chooses to attach to his writing, is more fun to read than any other American author I can think of. His prose is not for those who seek an author who is economical with his writing, rather, every word, every sentence, is an adventure to be savored. Beneath all the literary pyrotechnics however, Boyle raises real issues in all of his work. In this book, as in many others, he paints a savage portrait of America and the American dream. IN East is East, its America as perceived by a Japanese half-breed seaman who jumps ship and lands smack dab in a swamp (both literally and figuratively) of American excess and shallowness. THe book alternates between its portrayal of the poor seaman and the colony of artists he lands in, where he is mistaken for all sorts of figures, including an artist and an arsonist/murderer. WE follow his misadventures as one of the writer/artists hides him from the law that seeks him while she also tries desperately to find the fame, fortune and recogniton she feels she is so entitled too. One misunderstanding and one funny scene after another builds up to a tragedy and farce of epic proportions as Boyle rips apart every misconception Americans and foreigners have of one another, what they do, and how they live. AS in some of the author's other books, especially Tortilla Curtain, his dual structure alternates between the two main characters. In East is East, its the Japenese seaman and the hack female writer in residence at the artists colony who winds up using him (in more than one way!) to write a story. The danger in any dual structure is that we will be more sympathetic to one story over the other. Boyle hints at where his sympathies lie by naming the seaman Hiro (Hero?), but I was not swayed. The weakness of Boyle's farce is that he so lambasts all the characters that he ends up denying any dignity to any of them. But still, of all of BOyle's books, this one is the most fun to read, but should probably not be taken as seriously as some of his other work. Just enjoy the author's unparalled use of the English language and the brilliant ways he skewers nearly everyone in the book. Can't wait for the next one, due out in September 2000!

My feelings about this book are based on hearing a two-audiotape abridgment, and that is always a major caveat. Nevertheless, I've heard plenty of abridged versions of books on tape that have propelled me toward the whole book. This one repelled me. The characters are tired cliches, the situations aren't terribly original, and the writing (the expressions used, the occasional metaphor) is sub-par. The main character, Hiro Tanaka, is oddly inconsistent. (I suppose you could say that about a lot of people, but why waste your time reading about them.) The fact that much of the action occurs in the artists' colony on a Georgian island is particularly a source of displeasure. Please, authors, stop writing about yourselves and your craft and your trade! Two points off just for that. Don't buy this book without giving it a good look-over first. A word to the wise...