Trained in the way of the Samurai, dreaming of the City of Brotherly Love, Hiro Tanaka impetuously jumps ship off the coast of Georgia - only to wash up on a barrier island populated by rednecks, descendants of black slaves, and a colony of crazed artists. Terrifying one islander - literally - to death, and fleeing not only from the Immigration Agents but also an elderly lady convinced he is Seiji Ozawa, Tanaka is unwittingly caught up in a hilarious and irretievably complicated spider's web of misunderstandings. His sole refuge on the island, the manipulative and ambiguous novelist Ruth Dershowitz, only draws him in ever deeper "Hilarious. A talented entertainer with a beady eye for the absurdities of culture shock." - "Guardian". "Boyle has a fine descriptive eye and peoples the novel with wonderfully absurd characters." - "Time Out".
East is East
and over 1.5 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Learn more. |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Review
'A high-adrenalin story packed with more wit and invention in a single paragraph than many a respected English novel' INDEPENDENT
About the Author
T. Corahessan Boyle is the author of three collections of short stories - Descent of Man, Greasy Lake and If the River was Whiskey - and three novels - Water Music, Budding Prospects and World's End, which won the 1988 PEN/Faulkner Award. Born in New York's Hudson Valley, he now lives in Los Angeles.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Hiro Tanaka, a twenty-year-old devotee of Yukio Mishima and Jocho, thinks of himself as a samurai, even though he is half American. Anxious to leave Japan to discover his unknown father, he takes a job in the kitchen of a Japanese freighter, where he has to defend himself against racial slurs during his trip to the U.S. Jumping overboard to escape, he swims ashore to swampy Tupelo Island, off the coast of Georgia, hoping eventually to make his way to the City of Brotherly Love.
Tupelo is the site of Thanatopsis, an artists' colony similar to the McDowell Colony, and Ruth Dershowitz, a writer in residence there, refuses to believe the stories circulated by the ship and by INS that Hiro is a dangerous criminal and potential murderer. When she discovers him, she begins feeding him and protecting him against the yahoos who are trying to apprehend him.
Boyle uses this absurd scenario to create farce-like humor, satirizing the characters' inherent prejudices and their unrealistic goals and expectations. Hiro must protect himself against INS, a trigger-happy lunatic assisting INS, a posse of rednecks engaged in the chase, and even some of the residents of Thantopsis, the name of which is a black-humored reference to the Greek word for "death." Ruth, who is having an affair with the wealthy son of the founder of Thanatopsis, sees Hiro as the possible subject for a story, and she is outraged when a movie star-like writer, who once studied with her, arrives to steal Ruth's thunder by flirting with the men, giving a reading that the residents love, and sneering at Ruth.
Boyle's dark humor is delicious, and his pointed satire of the writers' colony, in particular, is priceless--the egos, the homage expected by established writers, the ceremony of the readings, the ritual of "silent table" vs. the "convivial table" at breakfast, the esoteric nature of some of the research subjects, and even the goofing off by the "artists." Hiro's only exposure to American society--the residents of Thanatopsis, the wealthy benefactors who have built compounds on the island, the impoverished rednecks and blacks who live off the land, and the INS and police officers who chase and arrest him--is obviously skewed, and his miscommunications and misunderstandings, even with Ruth, are both poignant and hilarious.
Filled with unexpected plot twists, brilliant and unique imagery, and ironies which evolve from the conflict between romantic dreams and sometimes harsh reality, the novel looks sharply at the characters' lives and inherent values and offers a sardonic wink. Mary Whipple
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.9 out of 5 stars
29 reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A thought-provoking read
27 Mar 2001
By Judith Bradley
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
There are some highly comedic scenes in this novel of a young seaman of Japanese-American parentage who finds himself in the midst of a Georgia swamp after jumping ship, but the reader is soon aware that it is the aura of impending doom which makes this story compelling. The tension increases chapter by chapter as we watch helplessly as ironic misunderstandings and prejudices bring about an inevitable tragic ending. The prejudice goes both ways; the Japanese-American seaman has as many skewed views of the Americans he finds on the Georgia Island as they do of him. This is really two stories in one as the writers' colony and the shallow, self-important people who inhabit it are a story unto themselves. The author's vivid descriptions of the Georgia swamplands are actually uncomfortable to read; one starts scratching at imaginary bug-bites while turning pages. The sad fact is that young Hiro Tanaka is not at home anywhere; as a gaijin, or half-breed, he has no place in Japanese society, and the welcome he thought he would find in America - the melting pot - is far from what he had dreamed. Boyle is a gifted writer, and East is East is as good as anything else he has written.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Funny, Beautifully Written, Ulitmately Dark
18 Dec 1999
By Christopher Weaver
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
T.C. Boyle is a wonderful writer, but his view of humanity certainly is a dark one. Yes, the characters--except for Hiro Tanaka--are shallow, but I kept wanting them to be something better than they were. If the book were filled with nothing more than shallow characters, then it wouldn't be such a gripping read. But they have moments of promise. The fact that they don't live up to these moments is what makes Boyle's worldview so depressing and what leaves such a bad taste in my mouth at the end. But that's arguing with Boyle as a philospher--as a writer, he's superb.
Boyle takes a special glee in the debunking of romantic myths, institutions and characters. In THE ROAD TO WELLVILLE it's the Kellog cereal empire. In WATER MUSIC it's the British exploration of Africa. Still, his attitude towards his fellow man seems a bit warmer in THE ROAD TO WELLVILLE (though not in WATER MUSIC). Both of these are great novels as well.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
America as an Alligator Pit
2 Jan 2002
By Jason Baer
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
East Is East had been billed to me as one of the finer books by one of the finer writers in America today. I have a great weakness for stories about writers, and as this book featured a writers' colony as its center stage, I chose it over some of T.C. Boyle's better known novels and collections of short stories.
At it's heart, this story proposes the anti-American dream as reality. A young man, Hiro Tanaka, jumps ship off a Japanese steamer and swims ashore on an island off the coast of Georgia. Instead of discovering a land where people reach out to embrace him, he discovers a land where he is a wanted fugitive and the only people who reach out to help are really trying to help themselves. As a "half-breed" born of a Japanese mother and an American father, Hiro had always seen America as the City of Brotherly Love where no one would care what kind of blood he had flowing through his veins. But in very little time he learns that America can be as vicious and unwelcoming as its inhabitants, and that the American Dream is nothing short of a sham.
At times, Boyle is so wrapped up in setting off literary fireworks that he seems to get sidetracked from his plot; however, the fireworks can be amazing at times, so it's hard to hold this against him. His characterizations are wonderful, and the story hardly ever loses its pace. I wouldn't call this the greatest contemporary American novel I've come across, but it's a damn good one.
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 29 reviews
3.9 out of 5 stars
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
