Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers

MOVE OVER HOLDEN CAULFIELD! In her debut novel, Lois-Ann Yamanaka introduces the world to Lovey Nariyoshi, who comes of age in a working-class Japanese American family in Hilo, Hawaii. Lovey longs to live in a "haole" (white) neighborhood and speak English like a perfect little American with "straight blond hair and long Miss America legs and lots of boobs" a la Barbie the doll. But instead she is "a female Huck Finn with attitude—and a family" (Islands). including a father, by turns tender and cruel, who brings home the wild meat rather than the bacon: a mother who sends her to Singer sewing classes and turns her into a Toni "home permanent wave monster"; a little sister who can't understand why Lovey "no can just be you"; a best friend who's a boy but acts like a girl; and a dog named Spam. And when Lovey talks, "the words always come out like home"—in the rich rhythms of Hawaiian Creole English.

Whether you grew up in the fifties or the eighties, in New York. Nebraska, or California. Lovey Nariyoshi will steal your heart.