Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers [Hardcover]

Lois-Ann Yamanaka (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1996

Growing up in Hilo, Hawaii, in a family caught in the cultural gap between East and West, young Lovey Nariyoshi creates her own identity amid a world of pop culture and media that ignores the realities of the Japanese-American character. A first novel. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a fresh, distinctive and authentic voice, Yamanaka's starkly realistic debut novel, a series of linked vignettes, chronicles the coming-of-age of Lovey Nariyoshi, who grows up in a blue-collar, uneducated Japanese family in Hilo, Hawaii. Lovey's pidgin English is sprinkled with so much unfamiliar island vernacular that a glossary would be helpful; while her language is crude and ungrammatical, it is also darkly comical, with an underlying poetic lilt. Lovey considers herself ugly; she can't master standard English so she's in the "dumb" class; her family often call her stupid. Her only true friend is an effeminate boy, Jerry, with whom she shares some ill-fated adventures?including stealing money to buy new Barbie dolls. The music, movies and celebrity icons of American pop culture pervade Hawaiian society, and Yamanaki makes clear that self-hatred, shame and the desire to be "haole" is characteristic of many mixed-ethnic people there. Lovey yearns for the haole life?a clean, neat house, with no cheap, secondhand furniture. Her father, however, wants to toughen up Lovey and her sister, Calhoon, to the fact that they're poor and will never rise. He makes them witness the slaughter of pet animals raised for food, deliberately runs over a cat to show Lovey that she must learn to survive in a brutal world. The onset of puberty is cruel to Lovey; besides suffering from the knowledge that she will never be popular, she briefly comes under the influence of a religious fanatic who convinces her that the apocalypse is at hand; starts a fire that burns her sister; experiences the suicide of an adored friend; and faces a devastating blow when her father is injured in a hunting accident. But, though Yamanaki pitilessly portrays the poverty of pocketbook, intellect and spirit in Lovey's environment, she also displays?especially in the moving denouement?the bonds of love and understanding that can create poignant, epiphanic moments of reconciliation. Author tour
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In her debut novel, the author presents the history of a Japanese American family living in Hawaii in the 1970s. The narrator, Lovey Nariyoshi, tells her story of growing up in a white ("haole") culture that keeps her family segregated. "No japs on TV," observes Lovey, "except Mrs. Livingston and Kay-to." This engrossing novel is strongly woven together, with chapters that swing from the heartfelt, childhood memories of Lovey's father, Hubert, to the fiendish behavior of her neighbors. Hawaiian Creole is dispersed effectively with English, further corroborating the fervent characters and their stories. By focusing decisively on her own distinct culture, the author successfully uncovers the damaging restrictions of American culture at large. This commanding novel should delight and haunt every reader. Unconditionally recommended for every library collection.?David A. Berona, Westbrook Coll. Lib., Portland, Me.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 277 pages
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux; 1st edition (January 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374290202
• ISBN-13: 978-0374290207
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,308,502 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book with Broad Cross-Over Appeal, June 14, 2000

By 

A. G. McFarlane "AGMcF" (Baltimore, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers (Harvest American Writing) (Paperback)

I just bought this book in Hawaii yesterday and read it all the way back to Baltimore with Israel Kamakawiwo'le (Bradda IZ) live-in-concert CD playing on my portable CD player. The combination brought Yanamaka's beautiful, poignant and powerful dialogue alive for me. This book resonated for me in so many ways -- as an African American tourist in an island where there was complex commingling and separation of the ethnic groups as well as a heirarchical order to the society based on ethnic origin and appearance. I also identified with the book as a daughter of Jamaican immigrants who carefully spoke in "correct" English to their children but spoke Jamaican patois (the equivalent of Lovey's pidgin, Creole Hawaiian) with each other and with family members. I picked up early on that how you sound and how you look affects your standing in society and now speak perfect English but mourn my inability to speak patois. So I empathize with Lovey's despair of every being able to speak perfect haole English.

But what probably got me the most was Yanamaka's hauntingly detailed description of Lovey's rapture with Shirley Temple's Heidi. It resonated strongly with my childhood love of Shirley's perfect ringlets, cherubic smile, and her love for Grandpa and her finding her father in that hospital ward in London.

If you had an awkward adolescence (particularly in the 1970s) and struggled to fit in while struggling to be yourself, this is the book for you.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Growing up poor in Hawaii, November 22, 1998

By 

Linda Linguvic (New York City) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers (Hardcover)

Lois Ann Yamanaka's voice is forceful, vibrant and original, and her female heroine, Lovey Nariyoski, a 12-year old with something to say, grabs our attention as well as our hearts, as she describes the details of her life and her working class family. She yearns to be a "Haole" (white) and live in a house that uses bendable straws for every drink. She is embarrassed when she first gets her period. She watches as her father kills animals for food or skins and her descriptions of the details of their slaughter are straightforward and unflinching.

All of the dialogue is in pidgin. I didn't understand every word, but the language was necessary to get the flavor of the islands. I suspect that many of the chapters were originally written as short pieces because then tend to be complete in themselves, and basically tell the story of growing up poor in Hawaii.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Enjoyable Quick Read, March 2, 2006

By 

R. Potter (Fairbanks, AK United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers: A Novel (Paperback)

With very endearing characters, Lois-Ann Yamanaka has written an enjoyable, heartfelt coming of age story. This book is a wonderful way to pass a rainy (or snowy), cold weekend. However, I have to admit that I don't necessarily find 'Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers' a must-read, but it is perfect if you're looking for some 'light' reading.