Description
Book SynopsisGary Pak has emerged as one of the most important Asian Hawaiian writers of our time. In this new collection, Pak expertly crafts a memorable cast of Hawai''i''s Korean Americans, Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, and Native Hawaiians, amplifying our cross-cultural understanding of Hawaiian life today.
The nine short stories in Language of the Geckos and Other Stories paint an array of locals caught up in failed dreams of financial success and romantic fulfillment. Many of these stories deal with issues particular to Native Hawaiian perspectives, while others take slice-of-life glimpses at characters alienated in the land of their birth. Pak''s sure narrative voice shifts deftly between his actors, shading the nuanced voices and interior lives of housewives, mechanics, cabdrivers, aging hippies, and desperate bargirls. Most of these characters speak in the lingua franca of the islands, a highly developed Creole that is commonly called Pidgin English. Also strong
Trade Review
"Pak’s vivid, sometimes shocking imagery and his emotionally complex characters drive home the underlying themes of the nine stories in this slim volume—unfulfilled dreams, failed, lives, and the loss of hope . . . forcing readers to confront a very different Hawai'i—paradise only to some."
* Booklist *
"Pak’s accessible prose and compassion for his characters vivify the dilemmas of people hobbled by limited means or racial hierarchies."
* Publishers Weekly *
"Magical realism, Hawaiian-style."
* Los Angeles Times *
Table of ContentsLiving with Spirits, Writing as Activism: A Preface
A House of Mirrors
Language of the Geckos
Rebirth
Hae Soon's Song
An Angel for Guy Matsuzaki
The Guest
My Friend Kammy
Ishamel Reed or Me
A Memory for Martin
