Customer Reviews

Where the Body Meets Memory: An Odyssey of Race, Sexuality and Identity

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David Mura's book, as the subtitle suggests, spans some fairly heavy issues. For more than a few readers in my Asian American Literature class, this book was a little too explicit, but for anyone in search of a frank and personal account of the sansei experience, this may be it. Mura discusses the problems he inherits through his inculcation of the model minority myth, and the mantra on which he was raised: "Act like everybody else and you will BE like everybody else." The book charts Mura's dawning consciousness of his racial identity, as well as his deep addiction to promiscuity and pornography--an addiction that Mura identifies as stemming from the standards of white beauty trained in him since boyhood. His discussion of what pornography does to the male psyche are particularly interesting, and his assessment of his addiction in terms of his racial identity is not one that I have heard anywhere else.

The book certainly met with criticism from those who would rather emphasize race unity for the fact that by the end, Mura seems to distill every aspect of his life and his identity into a race issue. However, it was equally applauded in my class for the same issues. The explicit nature of the book seemed as much a pro as a con in discussion as well. Whatever the case, this is book that sparked a great deal of controversy at my university, and generated a great deal of conversation. If you are interested in the Asian American experience, this is certainly worth the read. You will have opinions about this book, I can guarantee you that, and no matter what they are, you will find plenty of people willing to argue them with you.

I'm an American of Korean descent (2nd generation), born and raised in the Deep South. I bought this book two years ago, based on Mura's reputation and a sense that this book would speak to my emerging consciousness as an Asian American male. It sat on my shelf for 2 years until last week, and now I can see why. This is a painful read.

Other reviewers have branded this book as "self absorbed" and "tedious," which to me are the characteristics of the journey towards wholeness and healing. Read it if you are Asian or love someone who is.

Sometimes I felt that this book did not have much relevance to me. Then Mura really foes into discussing the struggles of Asian-Americans today. Problems of fitting in, and sexual stereotypes. His description of the Asian male being this country's eunuch really hit home. He put words to very deep, very vague feelings that I have carried and that a lot of asians growing up in this society probably have as well.

Which means he opens himself up to be criticized for being a (reformed) porn-meister, internalized racist, disaffected tourist, and all-around vanity plate/jerk. So read this book (or better yet his earlier "A Male Grief") because David Mura is an extremely talented writer and he's gifting us with his openness. This is what it's like for him and we gain such insight of the Asian-American experience from that.

Mr. Mura leaves much to be desired with this literary piece. At times extremely frustrating, at others poignant, Mura's vision of the world might be judged simply as lacking in any type of insight into the world that surrounds him, but incredibly intuitive at describing issues arising out of his personal emotions and relations. There is danger here, pedantic rants at the treatment of Japanese-Americans in American history and contemporary culture are presented without mention of the xenophobia and the abuse of other Asian nationalities by the "home" archipelago. And yet the occassional awareness of the absurdity of his formed cosmology saves Mr. Mura's work, the descent from the fictional renderings of the internment camps that his forefathers endured to the sexual frustration of a spoiled, egotistical privileged Asian-American from the Chicago suburbs who found love in the cornfields of Grinnell, make this a story of a relatively interesting person who has not/ will not make much of a mark on the world. While I disagree profusely with Mr. Mura's commentary on racial dynamics in middle America, I read the book from cover to cover and feel little remorse for the time spent. It is rare that Asian-American Grinnell alumnists get a chance to gain this much access into the life of a fellow student; it is unfortunate that this is our one opportunity.