A Room Full of Mirrors: High School Reunions in Middle America [Hardcover]

Keiko Ikeda (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1999

The high school reunion occurs throughout the United States and cuts across differences in age, locality, and ethnicity. This popular event is commonly thought of as a light-hearted social occasion or an exercise in nostalgia that has little other significance in the lives of its participants. Drawing on candid personal narratives derived from reunions ranging from the fifth to the fiftieth, this pathbreaking study demonstrates, however, that for many Americans the high school reunion is a rich and often poignant experience.

Of particular interest is the fact that this ethnographic study was conducted by a Japanese anthropologist trained in the United States, who offers a comparative perspective on high schools in the two countries. High schools serve very different social purposes in Japan and the United States, and the ways people in the two countries view their high school years differ accordingly.

The author examines the American high school reunion as a dramatic scene in the construction of self and meaning in adulthood. During the high school reunion, Americans are thrown into a room full of mirrors in which they are confronted by different visions of themselves. There they see images of their high school selves filtered through the lights and shadows cast by classmates’ memories and projected against the backdrop created by the lives of those classmates in the present day. Through an analysis of the multiple reflections of self that emerge during reunions, the author shows how reunions afford people an occasion on which to reevaluate their own memories and arrive at a new understanding of self. The American high school reunion thus provides participants with a series of self-perceptions from which they can construct new narratives of their own lives.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Ikeda’s book would fit well in an undergraduate course on the anthropology of America, as a text from which to raise questions about America.” —Journal of Anthropological Research

“A Room Full of Mirrors takes on an important task in the study of American culture. As readers, we get an intimate view of two elements of high school culture [high school debate and high school reunions] that many Americans take for granted. Even in a world in which American culture sometimes seems omnipresent, some of its elements would remain a closed book if not for authors such as Ikeda.”—American Studies International

From the Inside Flap

The high school reunion occurs throughout the United States and cuts across differences in age, locality, and ethnicity. This popular event is commonly thought of as a light-hearted social occasion or an exercise in nostalgia that has little other significance in the lives of its participants. Drawing on candid personal narratives derived from reunions ranging from the fifth to the fiftieth, this pathbreaking study demonstrates, however, that for many Americans the high school reunion is a rich and often poignant experience.
Of particular interest is the fact that this ethnographic study was conducted by a Japanese anthropologist trained in the United States, who offers a comparative perspective on high schools in the two countries. High schools serve very different social purposes in Japan and the United States, and the ways people in the two countries view their high school years differ accordingly.
The author examines the American high school reunion as a dramatic scene in the construction of self and meaning in adulthood. During the high school reunion, Americans are thrown into a room full of mirrors in which they are confronted by different visions of themselves. There they see images of their high school selves filtered through the lights and shadows cast by classmates’ memories and projected against the backdrop created by the lives of those classmates in the present day. Through an analysis of the multiple reflections of self that emerge during reunions, the author shows how reunions afford people an occasion on which to reevaluate their own memories and arrive at a new understanding of self. The American high school reunion thus provides participants with a series of self-perceptions from which they can construct new narratives of their own lives.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 220 pages
• Publisher: Stanford University Press; 1 edition (January 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804734356
• ISBN-13: 978-0804734356
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,482,697 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful, fresh, and sympathetic perspective, September 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A Room Full of Mirrors: High School Reunions in Middle America (Hardcover)

Considering that the high school reunion is a ritual nearly every adult American confronts at one time or another (whether s/he attends or not), it is surprising how taken for granted the phenomenon is. This book offers the perspective of an "outsider" (a Japanese woman) who lived in the U.S. for many years and who obviously "gets" American society and culture, but who can point out aspects that Americans themselves rarely notice. What sets this book apart from typical dry academic treatises is the narratives of reunion participants of various ages, told in their own words. The stories are engrossing and sometimes even moving, and whether you like all the characters or not, you'll probably find a bit of yourself in all of them.

It's too bad the reviewer below didn't tell us by whom this "has been done better before." I've never seen anything like it, and I've looked. (Another book, by an Israeli sociologist, on American high school reunions was published almost simultaneously. I haven't seen it yet, though it would be interesting to compare.)

As for the comment that this book is "is an attempt to get tenure by publishing a dissertation"...um, isn't that one of the things scholars are *supposed* to do? Or has publishing one's dissertation been classified as an underhanded trick, and no one bothered to tell me? Besides, as the author profile in the book states, the author teaches at a Japanese university, and is therefore outside the American tenure fray. I wonder if the reviewer actually read the book. The review reads more like a cheap shot by someone who for some reason or another holds a grudge against the author.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mirrors in the Midwest, November 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: A Room Full of Mirrors: High School Reunions in Middle America (Hardcover)

As one of the "informants" whose views are represented in Dr. Ikeda's study of the meaning, organization, and affect produced by and associated with high school reunions, I was understandably a bit nervous to see how "my culture" was represented by this "outsider" to a phenomenon that most Americans take completely for granted. I was not only pleased with the way my words were used and interpreted, but with the many, many ways the author brought new insights and perspectives to my own perceptions and experiences. This is something rare, and it points to the absolute necessity of having "outsiders" look in using the ethnographic method in respectful, insightful, ethical, and compassionate ways. I happen to be an anthropologist who studies "others" and Ikeda's work has helped me look at my own work in productive ways. For the non-scholar, the book offers the opportunity for cultural and personal self-discovery as well as the valuable opportunity to see that bridges can be crossed, "difference" is a matter of perspective, and everything that seems hopelessly strange can be a mirror into our own selves. Ikeda has done what I could never have done, which is to take something I thought I knew by heart and show me that I needed her perspective to learn more about my own. I highly recommend this for every kind of reader, but particularly for American women who cannot help but see themselves at every graceful turn the author takes.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun anthropology, April 16, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: A Room Full of Mirrors: High School Reunions in Middle America (Hardcover)

This is the definitive work on that strange American ritual, the high school reunion. Informative, and even moving at times.