On a Bed of Rice

Rating:
Summary: falls flat.
Review: Growing up asian and female, everything was made to seem taboo, that sex and eroticism were dirty things. But this anthology is proof that they need not be. There is something about the state of nakedness that makes you feel both liberated and vulnerable. And when these qualities are infused and woven into words and images, everything together is just that much more powerful. The stories ranged from haunting to humourous to just plain honest. I come back to the book again and again as some stories really hit home and others take on new meaning when read again with new eyes. There is something here for everyone with an open mind regardless of race.

Rating:
Summary: YAWN.
Review: How much longer are the intellectual elite going to keep harping on the West with words like "hegemony" and "colonialism?" Or recycle the cliches about the West being male-centered, rapacious, domineering, etc.? The irony of it all is that Western culture is the only one that seems to a) have this degree of self-reflection; b) measure itself so self-consciously against other cultures; and now, thanks to pointy headed post modern academics, c) have adolescent self doubts about its own worth. I hardly need to mention examples of "brutal hegemony" or "male-centeredness" that color Asian history. As if all those warlords and emperors sat around drinking chai and doing everything their concubines told them to do! Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the symbol in Chinese for "China" mean "center of the world?" That's rather ethnocentric, don't you think?

In any case, tiresome as the politics of this book may be, the stories themselves do little to keep the reader awake. It reads much like a stack of assignments from a creative writing class, rather than, well, creative writing. One almost suspects they all partook of the same textbook on writing. It comes out feeling rather narrow-viewed, selfish, and without a whole lot to say about anything beyond the narrator's own experience. Which is to say, it adds little to the reader's understanding of nature, the universe, and his place in it.

Indeed the stories are so self-absorbed in their Asianness, and in their often peculiar concepts of sexuality, that the enterprise of expressing these very perspectives falls flat on its face. "I'm Asian!" or "I'm gay!!!" the story or poem screams. So what? Navel-gazing never got anyone anywhere - not the reader, and certainly not the writer.

Rating:
Summary: falls flat.
Review: I think this book is overrated. There are lots of snippets in here of other works. The snippets are actually quite drab compared to the larger bodies of works that they are from. For example, there is way more erotic writing in American Knees... but this book pics a comic, stereotypical portion, instead of one that was a real meaty and full of lust. There are way more erotic reads in books that are actually whole novels... like One Hundred and One Ways, K: The art of Love, Shanghai baby... Even some honorable mentions in Troublemaker and other Saints. There were a few tantalizing morsels in this book, but some were the antithesis of eroticism, even though they were about sexuality. I commend the book for it's attempts, but I would not recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: WOW
Review: Impressive, beautiful, moving, and complete. This book speaks for itself.

Rating:
Summary: fabulous collection of literary experiences
Review: This book is not only full of well crafted literature, but it presents an unbiased collection of perspectives for anyone interested in the cultural constraints of the asian cultural influence over asian americans and their sexuality. Each piece depicts a new mindset, a newly created experience, and a different approach to the the Asian/American conflict.. Excellent collection.