Growing Up Ethnic in America: Contemporary Fiction About Learning to Be American

Author: Gillan, Maria Mazziotti

Brand: Penguin Books

Color: Multicolor

Edition: 10.2.1999

Binding: paperback

Format: Deckle Edge

Number Of Pages: 400

Release Date: 01-11-1999

Part Number: new18-20150802-a088168

Details: Product Description


Stories navigating the commplicated terrain of race in America, from acclaimed writers like Toni Morrison, E.L. Doctorow, Sandra Cisneros, Sherman Alexie, and Amy Tan

The editors who brought us
Unsettling America and
Identity Lessons have compiled a short-story anthology that focuses on themes of racial and ethnic assimilation. With humor, passion, and grace, the contributors lay bare poignant attempts at conformity and the alienation sometimes experienced by ethnic Americans. But they also tell of the strength gained through the preservation of their communities, and the realization that it was often their difference from the norm that helped them to succeed. In pieces suggesting that American identity is far from settled, these writers illustrate the diversity that is the source of both the nation's great discord and infinite promise.

"These beautiful stories radiate with the poignant, ingenious ways young people come to terms with their ethnic identities, negotiating their families, school, friends and their futures . . . This exemplary collection fulfills the editors' aims: to open dialogue and encourage the telling of difficult, adaptive or affirming life experiences." -
Publisher's Weekly


From Booklist


The stories and memoirs in this collection are great: Sherman Alexie, Amy Tan, Toni Morrison, E. L. Doctorow, Sandra Cisneros, and many more of our best writers deal directly, but never simplistically, with the conflicts of becoming American. They personalize what you lose by crossing borders, what you leave behind, what you gain, what America gains. They write with humor and poignancy, rooted in particulars that speak to everyone about dislocation, about being an outsider at school, in the neighborhood, at home. Some stories will be new to most readers; some are often anthologized. In her fine introduction, Jennifer Gillan points out that the stories show empathy without sweet nostalgia or any idealization of ethnicity. This kind of collection, with its literary quality and multiple perspectives, is the best answer to those who expect only messages with multiculturalism and who sneer "P.C." at the mention of diversity.
Hazel Rochman


Review


"These beautiful stories radiate with the poignant, ingenious ways young people come to terms with their ethnic identities, negotiating their families, school, friends and their futures . . . This exemplary collection fulfills the editors' aims: to open dialogue and encourage the telling of difficult, adaptive or affirming life experiences." -
Publisher's Weekly


About the Author


Maria Mazziotti Gillan is the director of The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College in Paterson, New Jersey. She is the author of five collections of poetry.

EAN: 9780140280630

Package Dimensions: 8.0 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches

Languages: English