One Asian Eye : Growing Up Eurasian in America

Rating:
Summary: A Hidden Gem
Review: One Asian Eye is a quick and enjoyable read about a Korean-Italian girl raised in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. The stories of her life are broken into compact chapters that read like their own short stories. The reader puts the pieces, these chapters, together to understand how she grew up. I liked this approach because I think we all remember our lives in snippets rather than a complete linear account. This book will appeal to readers who like a conversational writing style, and who avoid long, over-descriptive prose.

One thing that is interesting is it shatters some people's notions of what it is like to grow up in Ohio. This is not the farmer's daughter story. The author grew up in an urban area that was not racially tolerant. You will read about school busing and violence in schools.

Another cool thing is we get to hear the voice of a Generation X author. Too many people think of Generation X as slackers. Giovanetti, the younger sibling of baby boomers, tells her side of this generation's story with dealing with race and class issues.

Probably the best thing about the book is its freshness. Too many books about race, class and gender are 'whoa is me' tales. The book shows a range of emotions. The intersection of topics means it will appeal to wide scope of readers, so it is a good buy.

Rating:
Summary: Vividly pictures very real personal challenges
Review: One Asian Eye: Growing Up Eurasian in America is the true-life memoir of an Italian/Korean woman and her effort to find a place for herself in midwestern America. From being a latchkey child at age three due to economic necessity, her conflicts with bullies including slur-flinging children and backstabbing secretaries vandalizing her office workplace, to witnessing the cutthroat office politics of a savings and loan firm ("If they think I'm going to teach that college bitch everything I know just so she can take my job, they've got another thing coming" says the woman assigned to train her), to the heavy burderns of family responsibility and duty, One Asian Eye vividly pictures very real personal challenges, and vividly renders the particular difficulties of maintaining Asian culture and heritage in a predominantly non-Asian society. A remarkable true testimony of a strong and principled woman; the vivid illustration of struggling with self-centered and racist individuals, as surely as the kindness and compassion of the well-intentioned, makes One Asian Eye highly recommended, unforgettable reading. This is one memoir that once picked up, cannot be put down.