Name Me Nobody (Paperback)

by Lois-ann Yamanaka (Author) "I have a feeling that my obsession with names started with my mother, Roxanne Kaya..." (more)
Key Phrases: Uncle Charlie, Coach Kaaina, Hilo Astros (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Named after Emmylou Harris because her mother used to "do it" to the Profile album, 14-year-old Emi-Lou Kaya feels like a nobody in her Hawaiian town: "I'm not smart enough to be a nerd. I'm not stink enough to be a turd. I fall somewhere right below the band geeks and right above the zeroes." Abandoned by her mother at age three, Emi-Lou hasn't a clue as to who her father might be, and on top of all this, she is overweight. (The popular Japanese girls at school call her Emi-lump, Emi-oink, or Emi-fat.) Her only salvation is the strength of the hard-as-nails but loving grandmother who raised her, and the feisty spirit of her best friend Yvonne. It is Yvonne who renames the dynamic duo Von and Louie, and who puts Emi-Lou on a strict weight-loss regimen. ("Von always says she's the tough outward and I'm the tough inward.") But Emi-Lou starts to worry about losing her touchstone when Von begins spending a little too much time with Babes, an older girl from the softball team. Rumors abound that her soul sister is a "butchie," and when Emi-Lou suspects it's true, she becomes desperate to get Von back to "normal" and back to her role as best friend.

With dialogue that sparks with the rhythms of pidgin (Hawaiian Creole English), this compelling novel explores sexuality, racism, and the troubled waters of establishing one's own identity. Lois-Ann Yamanaka, author of the equally funny and insightful Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers, creates in Emi-Lou a character as complex and lovely as the Hawaiian landscape itself. (Ages 13 and older) --Brangien Davis --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly
Heavily dosed with Hawaiian dialect, Yamanaka's (Heads by Harry) first book for younger readers is rich in atmosphere and bold in its themes, but slow-moving and demanding. Emi-lou, the ninth-grader narrator, describes herself as "a nobody bastard girl"Aher mother has run off to California long ago, leaving Emi-Lou with her grandmother. At school, Emi-Lou is ridiculed because of her weight and also because her best friend Von is thought to be a lesbian ("Sometimes the Jap-girls call me Emi-loser. Sometimes they call me Emi-lez"). With Von's help (in the form of shoplifted diet pills, diuretics and laxatives) Emi-lou sheds some pounds, but her problems increase. Von gets sexually involved with an older, tougher girl on their softball team, and Emi-Lou is both jealous of Von's attention and appalled that Von is turning out to be a "butchie." Meanwhile, a couple of boys act interested in Emi-Lou, but other girls nastily tell her that the boys have ulterior motives. Yamanaka gets all the details right, but her precision is a pitfall; Emi-Lou's analysis of every exchange, while painfully realistic, brings the pacing to a crawl. Readers may lose patience with the heroine, especially with the amount of time she takes to accept Von and to wise up to her suitors. Mature teens may prefer Yamanaka's novels for adults, also with Hawaiian settings and coming-of-age themes. Ages 13-up. (June)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion Book CH (July 10, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786814667
• ISBN-13: 978-0786814664
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #643,915 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Tale of an Adolescent's Troubles, August 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Name Me Nobody (Hardcover)

Name Me Nobody by Lois-Ann Yamanaka was one of the few books I couldn't put down. Being through the adolescent trauma of weight problems, school, and boys, I knew exactly where Emi-lou was coming from. As a child Emi-lou, dubbed Louie by her best friend Von, was abandoned by her mother and left to be taken care of by her grandmother. Emi-lou must put up with many hardships, mostly about her being over-weight. It seems as though whenever she does something wrong, her weight is blamed. Everything begins to change once she and Von go to play for the Hilo Astros, a woman's softball team. Emi-lou begins to realize the meaning of family, friendship, and love. She also finds that bonds between two people that truly care about each other can be torn but not completely broken.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing, for young AND old!, December 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Name Me Nobody (Hardcover)

I've so far read most of Yamanaka's work and liked it all! The subject material is hard and sometimes painfully honest but well worth the read. At 26, I think this book can be appreciated by all ages, and really isnt a "young adult" book. It is much like her other novels, only a little less harsh in the subject matter. (In her other books the author often depicts some explicit and painful to read scenes involving the characters or animals that may not be the best images for children)Yamanaka has a knack for describing the peoples of Hawaii with a unique feel in all her books. This book, like Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers etc., can be appreciated by audiences of any age who want to have a good, cant-put-it-down type of experience. I recommend it for anyone who likes this interest group!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Complications marred what might have been a good book., January 16, 2003

By	Meaghan Good "meggilyweggily" (Venedocia, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I liked the story in "Name Me Nobody". Everyone knows the tales about girls who lose their best friends when their friend finds a boyfriend. "Name Me Nobody" puts a twist on the old familiar theme: Emi-Lou lost her best friend Von to Von's GIRLFRIEND. This is original and I like originality. Five points for that.

However, the book was very hard to follow. The huge cast of characters, many of them going by several names, frustrated me and I didn't know what was going on half the time. For instance, there's Genevieve and Viva. They're the same person. I think. But I'm not sure. I think the author could have tried harder to make the book clear and easy to follow. Minus one point for that.

Another thing that annoyed me was the language. The pidgin English did add to the authenticity of the story, which is set in Hawaii. But many times the characters inserted Japanese words into their speech and I could only guess as to what the Japanese meant. This would not have been a problem had their been a glossary enclosed, like in John Marsden's books where everyone speaks Aussie. But "Name Me Nobody" had no glossary, so the language just kept me guessing. Minus one point for hard to understand.

It was a good book, but these flaws annoyed me and I'm not inclined to buy it, or even check it out from the library again.