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Comprende i nomi: Irwin Tang, ed. Irwin A. Tang

Fonte dell'immagine: Irwin A. Tang

Opere di Irwin A. Tang

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When Invisible Children Sing (2006) — Autore — 88 copie

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In the final story of Austin writer Irwin Tang’s new collection, the narrator wonders, “I write stories that are so solipsistic, the only true audience is myself, and I am disgusted and fascinated at what? At myself.” While all eight of the stories contained in the volume essentially are about Tang, and his transforming journey toward understanding what it means to be both Asian and American, simply summarizing it so dryly fails to capture the sheer wit and humor with which he relates the trails and epiphanies of his characters. What might otherwise be a self-indulgent read is more than redeemed by Tang’s considerable proficiency at storytelling and weaving of motifs that draw from such unlikely and diverse sources as Marvel comics to Run DMC, 16 Candles to Roots.
Part fiction, part autobiography, How I Became A Black Man and Other Metamorphoses is informed, as the title suggests, by equal parts Kafka and Ellison. While Tang is much more consistently successful with the latter, the results, while somewhat uneven, are always original. The unorthodox double blending of the modern and the Kafkaesque, and Chinese and black, is commendable if for no other reason than for its ambitiousness, and while some of the transitions from one style to the other can be jarring, the yield is nothing if not unique. The stories all contain the overall theme of metamorphosis, but this alone is not always enough to justify the disparity in subject matter. However, given how relatively underrepresented the Chinese cultural experience is in American Literature, this is unquestionably a welcome addition to the genre. And just as Ellison painted the black man’s struggle for equality as the quintessential American struggle, Tang sees the Asian-American family’s struggle for identity as one in the same. Tang is able to write family scenes realistically enough so that their central conflicts become universally recognizable, by filling them with culturally-specific details like cooking recipes and the nuances of language. When a mother tries to motivate her son to go to his first school dance by informing him, “If you try hard enough, you will succeed,” the son’s reaction is, “that is so corny, it should be on a poster of a koala bear or something.” This is one of Tang’s greatest gifts, his ability to write about himself, but rendered in such a way that his problems - peer acceptance, parental pressures, relationships, menial jobs - feel so familiar, it becomes almost incidental that he’s speaking about his Chinese-American upbringing.
Another of the joys of Metamorphoses is Tang’s ear for dialogue – both his Asian and African-American characters’ speech not only rings true, it’s often downright hilarious. His use of names is inspired, such as the character of ‘Tex,’ who’s a busboy at his parents’ Chinese restaurant and who’s constantly being ‘hailed’ by his Chinese mother as, “Taxiiiii!” Tang is a skilled wordsmith, and he demonstrates a curious affinity for linguistics the way he breaks down words and phrases and rearranges them to reveal similarities and puns.
The weakest links of the collection are those that are highly abstract and philosophical towards the end, when he experiments with such dangerous conceits as narrating a story from the perspective of what at one point turns out to be a Barbie convertible. The author is at his best when portraying families interacting, and the typical intergenerational conflicts that arise between parents and children are further compounded by the cultural gap often present in immigrant households. Tang excels at finding the humor beneath the translation in such situations as well, with misquoted English colloquialisms by traditional Chinese leading to great comic moments.
While occasionally an Afro-Asiatic book, the true focus is made clear in the end with the meticulous chronicling of the author’s Chinese ancestors; clearly, this volume, among other things, seeks to spotlight the sacrifice of the many people with similar stories like the Tangs. It’s a rare book where Chinese customs intermingle seamlessly with pop culture elements to paint a portrait of an Asian-American/sometime-African-American from Texas. Most would agree that becoming both Asian and American are not mutually exclusive objectives, but after reading Irwin Tang’s stories, you won’t make the mistake of thinking they’re easily-won.
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
AndyGately | Dec 11, 2006 |

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5
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Utenti
40
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4.0
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1
ISBN
7