Cultures as well as generations clash in the funny and heartbreaking short stories that mark David Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction and the Ploughshares Award, Pangs of Love explores the bizarre contradictions inherent in assimilation.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In this notable debut collection of 11 stories, Louie paces off the perimeters of alienation as he portrays a series of characters emotionally imprisoned and isolated, many by their attitudes toward their Asian backgrounds. The protagonist of "Displacement" (included in The Best American Short Stories 1989 ) is Mrs. Chow, a formerly aristocratic immigrant to America who now must work as nursemaid to a disagreeable old lady. In "Bottle of Beaujolais," a story involving an otter in the window of a sushi bar, the narrator who is his keeper muses about controlling the otter's environment: "I was the north wind, the cumulonimbus, the offshore breeze, the ozone layer." Later, he succumbs to an obsession with an unknown woman who frequently passes the restaurant window, and the results are chaotic and surreal. The title story is a powerful portrait of a family splintered by generational differences of culture and sexual orientation. The narrator works for a company that makes almost magical-sounding flavors and fragrances. When he rages over his mother's simpleminded pleasure in watching Johnny Carson although she speaks no English after 40 years in America, he concludes, "What I need is a spray that smells of mankind's worst fears, something on the order of canned Hiroshima, a mist of organic putrefaction, that I'll spritz whenever the audience laughs. That'll teach her." Louie transmutes rage and bitterness into an impressive matrix of plot and character conveyed in biting prose.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Library Journal
Critics tend to lump together all the writings of Asian Americans and simply report that their major themes concern "Asians alienated by an unwelcoming culture." Louie shows how wrong this stereotype is. In many of his stories, the emphasis is on the universal themes of human loss, suffering, forgiveness, healing, and compassion, with Asian characters used to play out the drama. When he uses the familiar themes associated with Asian American literature, he gives them an elegant twist by using the differences in generations, not the differences in cultures, to create feelings of alienation and anxiety. Louie thus demonstrates that he has made the successful jump from writing Asian American literature to writing American literature, a jump many Asian American writers fail to accomplish. Rec* ommended.
- Glenn Masuchika, Chamin* ade Univ., Honolulu
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
- Glenn Masuchika, Chamin* ade Univ., Honolulu
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great stories -- out of print,
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This review is from: Pangs Of Love (Hardcover)
Autobiographical fiction of the best sort. The descriptions of familiar family members (and friends and lovers) are clever, funny, and totally humane. Louie is sympathetic, respectful, and wise -- and very hip, too. Great stories which you must snatch from whatever remainder table you spot them on!
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