From Publishers Weekly
Confirming the promise of his first novel, China Boy , Lee has produced another insightful, moving tale. Traditional Chinese moral strictures must coexist with a quintessentially American, military code of honor and the more elusive value systems of American civilian life as young Kai Ting, a first-generation Chinese-American, leaves his San Francisco home to become a cadet at West Point. It is the mid 1960s, and this country's military involvement in Vietnam is escalating. Kai's father and his stern, American stepmother dream of his graduating from West Point and being a "real" American. But Kai has other important parental figures--his uncle, who teaches him to revere the ancient ways; Tony Barraza, his Italian-American boxing coach; Momma La Rue, the loving, Christian mother of his African American best friend, Toussaint. To this eclectic mix Kai adds the overpowering influence of West Point, which he grows to love. Each of the moral codes this earnest young cadet tries to integrate is rigorous in itself, and he finds hardship, joy and wisdom in his heartbreaking struggle to reconcile them with each other and with his own personal shortcomings. Although his plot becomes maudlin at times, Lee fashions a generally convincing first-person narrative in Kai's voice, skillfully drawing the reader into each of his young narrator's painful dilemmas. Moreover, his evocations of West Point's grandeur and of the ancient obligations of gahng and lun (bonds and relationships) at work in Chinese-American communities are enthralling. 50,000 first printing; BOMC alternate.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Lee follows his impressive debut novel, China Boy ( LJ 11/1/91), with a solid sequel that continues the saga of Kai Ting's struggle to become an American without abandoning Chinese cultural values. Now, Kai faces the challenge of West Point. Having survived his brutal stepmother and life on San Francisco's mean streets, he finds first-year hazing insignificant, but other problems arise. Kai is required to pass engineering courses with no math ability; he is an Asian in the military at a time when America's involvement in Vietnam is deepening; and he is a man of honor faced with a cheating scandal. Lee is a born storyteller who deftly portrays life at the academy, drawing each cadet and teacher with firm, evocative strokes. Particularly fascinating is a thinly disguised portrait of Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf as a young teacher. Combining honest patriotism with Confucian values, Lee's novels defines the Chinese American male's experience.
- Andrea Caron Kempf, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, Kan.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
