Customer Reviews

Tea and Other Ayama Na Tales

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This beautifully written collection contains characters that are at once exotic and familiar, greedy and compassionate, driven and ambivalent -- the jealous sister whose angry vengeance splashes back onto her, the tour guide who struggles between his desire to be gracious and his contempt for foreigners, the daughter who must accept her father's choice for her marriage partner or defy him and leave her family forever. Woven between them are other, wiser figures whose compassion struggles upstream against a flood of blind ambition, envy, and pettiness. Through it all is the kind of magic you might find in a story from the Arabian Nights or the Brothers Grimm, a sense of adventure and passion, of the wondrous rewards and painful consequences that erupt even from the most mundane of lives ... NOTE TO AUTHOR: please write a sequel that stars the mysterious and wise Kol, as he intercedes gently into the lives of those around him -- a Cambodian version of "No. 1 Ladies'" Mma Ramotswe, perhaps.

Bluestein's short stories in Tea and Other Ayama Na Tales read like morality plays in which flawed characters struggle with what actions will lead them on the right path and bring about justice. From the McDonald's worker, Mahala, who wants to set things right for her friend, co-worker, and fellow student, Raylee, to Dali-Roo, a down-on-his-luck farmer working at a Sony factory to make ends meet, Bluestein uses scene breaks to build tension and quicken the pace for some of her more ambitious story lines. She also does an excellent job of weaving in details of her fictional South Asian location, Ayama Na, including the setting, the language, and Asian mysticism.

Readers will enjoy many of the stories in this volume, including "Skin Deep," in which a university student, Song, enters a beauty pageant and takes a year off from school. She has no talents to speak of, but eventually writes and recites three poems before the local judges and wins the competition. Once at the nationals, she concludes she needs a more dazzling talent and embarks upon a journey. She becomes an amateur ventriloquist. The scenes between Song and her mother are wrought with tension because Song is not fulfilling her destiny, and her automaton, Lulu, agrees. The final scene of this story drives the moral home and--like many of the other stories in this book--with a bang.

Each of these stories highlights the struggles facing the people of Ayama Na, which may mirror the struggles of many emerging nations today, as they strive to hold onto their traditions in the face of modernization and globalization. In many cases the modern world is juxtaposed with the cultural norms of this fictional society, and almost all of the characters are faced with a moral dilemma. From the surprise endings in "Skin Deep" and "Pineapple Wars" to quieter changes in character in "The Artist's Story," Bluestein is a gifted storyteller who will have readers examining their own lives and learning how to integrate their own cultural roots into their modern lives. These stories also help us examine larger societal issues, like providing aid to devastated nations and cities like New Orleans and China and providing assistance to developing nations. Bluestein's short story collection showcases her talents, and the book will provide fodder for book club discussion.

I really really enjoyed this book/collection. The book consists of ten unrelated stories. Well, unrelated except each takes place in the fictitious Middle Eastern country of Ayama Na. Each of the stories completely drew me in and left me changed in some small way. From the very first story "Pineapple Wars," I was compelled by this Ayama Na place with its cultural moorings shifting in a globalized world.

The range of Bluestein's imagination and research is remarkable. From "Hamburger School" with its exploration of abuse and suicide at a local McDonald's to "AIBO or Love at First Sight" with its rural location and ruminations on the love of gadgets, there is something to be learned and appreciated in each tale. "North of the Faro" has a mystical realism about it and "The Cut the Crap Machine" explores the relationship between two of Ayama Na's remaining writers. "Skin Deep" explores one young woman's beauty pageant career and "The Blanks" examines the tourist trade. I could go on and on, but you just need to read them.

Other than Ayama Na, the theme that runs through the collection is Bluestein's writing. It's impeccable. Here's a taste from "Tea," the concluding and titular story:

"The customers in this cafe don't order," Kol said.
"What are you talking about?"
"See the elderly couple over there? They own the cafe and they decide what to serve each customer who comes in."
"You're kidding, right?" Pania twisted her head and lifted a ficus branch. At a short end of the rectangular room an old woman with pure white hair stood at a sink rinsing suds from yellow mugs, which across the counter from her, seated on a three-legged mahogany stool, an elderly gentleman with a narrow gray braid that hung halfway down his knobby back read a book propped against an espresso machine.
"When they have a moment to spare, they'll observe us, and based on their observations and intuition they'll choose the appropriate beverages for us."
She stared at him, speechless.
"For example," Kol said, "if it's early morning and a patron stumbles in half asleep, they might serve an espresso with double shots of caffeine. For a cranky child, a mug of hot chocolate and a rice cake. For the agitated, a soothing green or jasmine tea. I imagine we'll be served tea, but perhaps a surprise. Regardless, they'll bring what we need."

I'm just delighted with this debut effort from Eleanor Bluestein. I hope that she continues writing. I know I'll be eagerly reading any future offerings.

This book was really captivating--I loved the little country and all its crazy characters. Some stories were funny and some were sad, but they all felt real, every one.

Tea and Other Ayama Na Tales is a remarkable new book of short stories. Each short story brims with fully developed characters that leave you wanting to know more about them at the end. Taken together, the stories show the culture of a fictional, but seemingly very real, Asian country. You can actually feel the country and it's shifting culture, with the struggle between old ways and new. The book is beautifully written and thoroughly enjoyable.

This book really has a lot of heart, a clear affection for the diversity and cultural differences that define humankind. Eleanor Bluestein's richly constructed and moving collection of short stories weaves her acceptance of humanity's follies and triumphs with the levity of the human condition.

I was immediately engaged in the daily life of the local characters in each short story and found them compelling in both their simplicity and complexity. The prose is engrossing and filled with insightful observations about human nature in a way that makes it difficult to put the book down. These resonant stories will definitely leave you wanting more from this gifted storyteller.

Move over Garcia Marquez. Eleanor Bluestein has created a new fictional land, Ayama Na, and populated it with quirky characters, including a feminist beauty queen, a rice farmer seduced by Japanese technology, and an anti-establishment artist living with a one-legged, red-headed whore. Ayama Na is, by turns, funny and sad, but always informed by the author's poignant and profound insights into human nature. Bluestein's book transcends cultural masks and rings true with the universal themes of human suffering and joy. Original and engaging. I loved it.
Elle Newmark, author of The Book of Unholy Mischief

I was lucky enough to get a copy of these short stories before they were released to the public. All I can say is: Wow! While set in the exotic land of Ayama Na, they reveal the joys and frustrations all citizens of the world endure. Just when I thought the true-to-life heartache would devastate me, the story would turn to something hilarious, but just as true-to-life! So many cogent insights into the human condition ended up giving me great energy and peace to start my work week. (Yes I read the whole book in a weekend. Couldn't put it down.) Bluestein surely will be recognized as one of the best new voices of the year.

You can take everything away, but you cannot strip people of their will to survive and thrive. "Tea & Other Ayama Na Tales" is a collection of short stories, derived from concepts of Eleanor Bluestein traveling to Southeast Asian countries and finding these countries' will to prosper, even as tradition and change clashed, and in Cambodia's case, in spite of tyranny. "Tea & Other Ayama Na Tales" is moving and inspiring, entertaining as well as educational.