5 comments about Where the Body Meets Memory: An Odyssey of Race, Sexuality and Identity.

1. Although the first half of the book is really boring, the second half makes up for the slow and banal start. The first half focuses on Japanese-American tribulations during the Pearl Harbor era, which through composition and writing style, certainly not topic, is a miserable read. The book doesn't begin to redeem itself until the author goes into his own personal struggles of sexual identity, which is great because most books that I've encountered in Asian-American issues usually goes into differences in food, domestic tribulations, or are too scholastic to enjoy on a personal level. On this point I felt it was a great read despite the first half. Though in hind sight, the first half seems integral for the continuity of which the book is based on; how history and experiences leave a residue of meaning that dissolves into reoccurring memories; these memories that keep coming back to shape our lives-these traces of identities. In this aspect it was hard for me to rate this book, which I struggled between a 3 or 4 star rating. I will say however, that it is a definite must read for any one who is familiar with Asian-American issues. Thank you David Mura for having the balls to write this book; it was worth the whole production despite the criticisms.



2. David Mura's book, as the subtitle suggests, spans some fairly heavy issues. For more than a few readers in my Asian American Literature class, this book was a little too explicit, but for anyone in search of a frank and personal account of the sansei experience, this may be it. Mura discusses the problems he inherits through his inculcation of the model minority myth, and the mantra on which he was raised: "Act like everybody else and you will BE like everybody else." The book charts Mura's dawning consciousness of his racial identity, as well as his deep addiction to promiscuity and pornography--an addiction that Mura identifies as stemming from the standards of white beauty trained in him since boyhood. His discussion of what pornography does to the male psyche are particularly interesting, and his assessment of his addiction in terms of his racial identity is not one that I have heard anywhere else.

   The book certainly met with criticism from those who would rather emphasize race unity for the fact that by the end, Mura seems to distill every aspect of his life and his identity into a race issue. However, it was equally applauded in my class for the same issues. The explicit nature of the book seemed as much a pro as a con in discussion as well. Whatever the case, this is book that sparked a great deal of controversy at my university, and generated a great deal of conversation. If you are interested in the Asian American experience, this is certainly worth the read. You will have opinions about this book, I can guarantee you that, and no matter what they are, you will find plenty of people willing to argue them with you.




3. I'm an American of Korean descent (2nd generation), born and raised in the Deep South. I bought this book two years ago, based on Mura's reputation and a sense that this book would speak to my emerging consciousness as an Asian American male. It sat on my shelf for 2 years until last week, and now I can see why. This is a painful read.

   Other reviewers have branded this book as "self absorbed" and "tedious," which to me are the characteristics of the journey towards wholeness and healing. Read it if you are Asian or love someone who is.




4. Sometimes I felt that this book did not have much relevance to me. Then Mura really foes into discussing the struggles of Asian-Americans today. Problems of fitting in, and sexual stereotypes. His description of the Asian male being this country's eunuch really hit home. He put words to very deep, very vague feelings that I have carried and that a lot of asians growing up in this society probably have as well.



5. Mr. Mura leaves much to be desired with this literary piece. At times extremely frustrating, at others poignant, Mura's vision of the world might be judged simply as lacking in any type of insight into the world that surrounds him, but incredibly intuitive at describing issues arising out of his personal emotions and relations. There is danger here, pedantic rants at the treatment of Japanese-Americans in American history and contemporary culture are presented without mention of the xenophobia and the abuse of other Asian nationalities by the "home" archipelago. And yet the occassional awareness of the absurdity of his formed cosmology saves Mr. Mura's work, the descent from the fictional renderings of the internment camps that his forefathers endured to the sexual frustration of a spoiled, egotistical privileged Asian-American from the Chicago suburbs who found love in the cornfields of Grinnell, make this a story of a relatively interesting person who has not/ will not make much of a mark on the world. While I disagree profusely with Mr. Mura's commentary on racial dynamics in middle America, I read the book from cover to cover and feel little remorse for the time spent. It is rare that Asian-American Grinnell alumnists get a chance to gain this much access into the life of a fellow student; it is unfortunate that this is our one opportunity.

5 comments about The Limits of Hope: An Adoptive Mother's Story.

1. This book was very interesting. The author seems ot have a big heart, yet is very weeary about the girls she adopts. They came from a disturbing background. But sometimes love isn't enough. The trials and tribulations that this family went through ,according to the author, were tough. However, she is very honest and tells the story of how much she has tried to do all that she can to help these girls in their life.
   It is a great read for those considering adoption or foster parenting.



2. In many ways the authors eperiences are scary in their simularity to mine. My wife and I adopted two little girls, age 4-5 at the time, from the county after taking months of parenting classes and being given access to all the information that the county had available.... Still we had no realistic idea of how difficult it was going to be and how radically our lives would change. It was like trying to heard cats, they were extreamly impulsive, rebellous and raged at us for everything wrong in their lives, often including physical abuse of us and our house. A few years later we had an unexpected biological child who is in most ways just the opposite of J n L and things really got lively, runnaway, theft, drug and alchol use. At about age 14 we borrowed enough to send the eldest from a mental hospital to a behavior modification program in Utah. She spent about 1.5 years there, it did not make her a "model Child" but did change the direction of her life. Upon her return she made a serious suicide attempt and my wife, declaring she had had enough, took the youngest child and left me with the two adoptive teenagers.
   At about this time my mother in law loaned us a copy of "The Limits of Hope", it was a real eye opener for me because her eperiences were so simular to ours. I did not reach the conclusion that a group home would be better for them, we had tried that with the oldest, she just ran away at will from them like she did us, but it did help me to understand that it is not realistic to expect them to be like their younger sister and to try a different direction. I lifted the thousand and one rules, complete with rewards and punishments, that we had imposed in a failed attempt to provide "structure" and just settled for open communication and letting them suffer the consiaquences of their own actions. I have had to bail both of them out at one time or another, wound up home schooling them both but the anger level has gradually subsided as they learn to take charge of their own lives. The eldest is now a sophmore in college and the youngest.....I still have hope, limited of course.
   So, while I reached some different conclusions than the author, the book came to me at a critical time in my life and helped me understand that I needed to see my adoptive children as they are, not as I/we wished them to be. And, it helped me admit to myself and them that I did feel differently about them than I do about their sister and give up the romatic notion that we can treat all of them the same and expect the same results.



3. The girls who were adopted were not yet 3 and 4 years old, so it is easy to see how optimistic the author was being to readily adopt them. I can't see how the mother giving up a career to sit at home with her kids would be any more helpful to these girls. (She had 3 biological children in the same age range who faired well with her working part time). If anything, it enlightens readers to just much the first few years of life can impact the character and psyche of a child. In this case, the differences between the biological children and the adopted girls were huge. However, in my personal experience, children being reared from birth by the same parents can also have have huge differences in their behaviors.
   I feel that the author was just being brutally honest in her assessments of these two girls. I would recommend this book to anyone, but would hope it didn't dissuade anyone from pursuing adopting an older child. Just remember that, unlike many wards of the court who have physical limitations clearly outlined, some children have suffered abuse that may not be clear for months or even years. It is a commitment, to say the least. Also, the time frame is relevant. In current times, these children are studied and tested, and their histories are reported openly before adoption is considered. I know this, because I have looked into adopting an older child.



4. It is impossible not to be disturbed and deeply moved by the inescapable trauma the two abused girls caused the author's family (and the inescapable trauma the children had been exposed to prior to adoption). Those of us who have not experienced such a situation think it harsh for the author to challenge the notion that a stable home environment is always the best answer for abused or neglected children. Not having walked in the author's shoes, we may be quick to say that Ms. Loux's family wasn't the right family to cope with the two seemingly incorrigible girls. I am unwilling to make that judgment, but I do wonder whether Ms. Loux and her husband, who had full time careers, should have ventured into adopting older children who can be presumed to have suffered damage. The children must, in essence, have been raised by babysitters or other caretakers rather than by Ms. Loux. I am also wondering how much time Ms. Loux spent with her children's school teachers and whether there was adequate therapeutic intervention for the children and the family as a whole. All this would have required ongoing attention by Ms. Loux, and it is difficult to see whether a dual career family can meet the needs of abused children. Yet, I observed a neighbor who had adopted a seven-year old girl from a severely abusive home, and the adoptive parents did everything imaginable, including full-time care by the adoptive mother, to rescue this little girl. We tried to help too. Still, the girl went down an unstoppable path of self-destruction that included pregnancies, drug use, prostitution and ultimately lingering in prison with AIDS. This adoptive mother does not go so far as Ms. Loux in saying that 'her daughters have earned respect for their lifestyles and choices...She (Margey) keeps all the money she makes from prostitution to buy drugs.' To respect this life style must surely be the limits of hope for this adoptive couple. It is sad all the way around, but this book should not keep other prospective parents from adopting older children. Each situation is different.
   Gisela Gasper Fitzgerald, ADOPTION: An Open, Semi-Open or Closed Practice?



5. This book is very disturbing. It is certainly disturbing in the way it was intended to be, as it details the problems experienced by a fatally idealistic family and their two adopted daughters who came from a background of abuse and neglect. One must, of course, condemn the fact that the family was kept in ignorance of the girls' problems. This is explained as a product of the time, in which everyone involved in adoption is described as believing that a loving family is all that is needed to heal even the most severely abused. Now such secrecy would be criminal; 30 years ago it is still an indication of inexcusable ignorance on the part of all the adults involved in the process. The truly disturbing aspect of the book for me, however, is the attitude of its author, the girls' adoptive mother. Although she claims her daughters and the rest of the family were abused by the system, she seems not to see the significance of her own failures. She admits much that must be painful to admit; for example, she sees in retrospect that the two newcomers were always seen as separate in important ways from her already-formed family of two parents and three children. Does she understand how truly awful that must have been for the girls, how lonely it must have been always on the outside, how terrifying to encounter expectations they couldn't possibly live up to? The insensitivity of the mother to her daughters' problems is mind-boggling, never mind that it happened 30 years ago. With all allowances for the difficulties she encountered trying to parent these troubled children--and I would not try to minimize that--she still falls short in understanding that they are the true victims. Instead one has a sense that too much of her rage is on her own behalf: rage that *she* didn't get the support she needed, rage that the girls turned out to be much for difficult for *her* than she expected. It is quite painful to read her monotonous detailing of the girls' delinquent and self-destructive behavior, not only for the obvious reasons, but especially because of the eager tone in which she recounts the outrages and how difficult it was for her to deal with them. She has yet to reach the point where she understands that, whatever her sufferings, those of the girls have been worse, because the destruction is of them, because they entered the family with various handicaps and with no resources to deal with these, and because they were the children and she was the adult. I guess I cannot contradict her claim to love them deeply, but I would like to see her gain a better understanding of their pain and see how her own must take a back seat to theirs. Of course she has been cheated of a normal mother-daughter relationship with them, but life has cheated them of much, much more.

1 comments about Dream Notes.

1. German philosopher and cultural critic Theodor W. Adorno wrote down his dreams throughout his life. Dream Notes is an unvarnished, as-is selection of Adorno's writings concerning his dreams, spanning the final twenty-five years of his life. No attempts are made to "interpret" Adorno's dreams, or force a connection between them and the events of his life, or to psychoanalyze them. They are simply offered for the reader to evaluate as he or she sees fit. An editorial foreword, an afterword by Jan Philipp Reemtsma, and an index round out this one-of-a-kind collection. Especially recommended for students and scholars seeking an extra dimension of insight and understanding into Adorno's works and ideas.

5 comments about Kindness of Strangers.

1. This book was so entertaining. I couldn't put it down. I kept wondering what would happen on the next leg of his trip and if he would make it or not to his final destination. I would even go back and read parts aloud to my husband, who is not a reader, and he was hooked also.



2. Uplifting, There are good people out there, and the most generous sometimes have the least.



3. in light of recent events this book shed a ray of light on the dimming light of humanity in our world. A man leaves home with only identification and hitch hikes across the country relying only on the "kindness of strangers." Although he clearly points out that were he not male and caucasion the outcome could have been much different, the story is still heart warming. I have recommended this to sooo many friends and all have thanked me profusely for helping them search their hearts and souls with out being battered with questions of faith.



4. I have purchased numerous copies of this book to give to friends. After recently rediscovering book and reading for 5th time I was checking amazon to see if Mike McIntyre has any other titles. I felt compeled to write a review. In light of the recent World Trade center attack I really need something that confirmed my belief that good people are all around us. It really lifted me out of my gloom. A++++



5. What a godawful story about the scum and dregs of humanity as experienced by one hitch hiker. Even worse, the book was neither entertaining nor particularly well written. Don't waste your time or money on this book.

3 comments about West of the Thirties: Discoveries Among the Navajo and Hopi.

1. This was a book that I stumbled upon quite by accident, looking at a shelf of books on Southwestern History. It is a treasure. Written in the 1990's, about his time in New Mexico and Arizona during the 1930's, Hall takes you right there with him, transporting you to another time and place. Especially worth reading are the sections describing his friendship with Indian Trader Lorenzo Hubbell--something you don't find many books about. All in all, an excellent book, filled with interesting bits of history, and a very entertaining read. Highly recommended.



2. This book is another serendipitious gem that I purchased for a song - one dollar - in a book sale, mistaking the title for a fictional novel about the urban West Thirties of Manhattan, rather than the historical account of life in the desert southwest of the 1930's that it actually is. Call me shallow - somehow the colorful cover art depicting a native American trading post caught my eye without my realizing the true nature, and value, of the book. That is, until I happily read it. I'm thankful to the universe for placing it in my hands.
   
   West of the Thirties is a moving, albeit too brief, memoir of American anthropologist Edward T. Hall's youthful years working with the Navajo and Hopi in the four corners region of Arizona & New Mexico north of Winslow, Arizona during the difficult days of the Great Depression. His recollections are evocative of a past that is now gone, so it's a window into a people, place, culture and time that has been overrun and swallowed up by modernity. What's more, this memoir proves worthy of a slow, meditative read for the compassionate sagacity with which Hall recalls the Navajo & Hopi, as well as the traders and the Federal administrators of New Deal programs that didn't always have wisdom or heart behind their rationales, and the nuggets of common sense with which Hall evidently lived and lives his life.
   
   This is a book that I dog-eared for the sagacious passages that stuck in my heart and mind as subtle rejoinders for how I can be a better person. Some of those nuggets were:
   
   From the Introduction, page xxix: "The Navajo and the Hopis also had stories to tell, their own personal stories...In telling me their stories, people were explaining themselves as products of their past."
   
   From page 54: "...if you worked with, instead of against, nature, things simply went better."
   
   From page 70: "It had been taken for granted not only that our system was the best and the most sensible one in the world, but that we had a right to impose it on anyone in our power. I now know...that it isn't just my own culture, but all cultures that act in these ways."
   
   From page 85: "...white society certainly had failed to use what was there before us, just waiting...to be applied. Identifying the talents of the unusual...has never been the strong point of American culture."
   
   From page 98: "When there is harmony, things go right; in its absence, things go wrong."
   
   From page 103: "For a Navajo, the world is of a piece. Nothing can be seen as unconnected. ...we of European descent...are only dimly edging toward an understanding of our part in the whole. To a Navajo, such an understanding is second nature, and we see it in their approach to the land."
   
   From page 166: "In our journey through life, one of the first pieces of baggage to get rid of is being judgemental of others, to say nothing of putting them down."
   
   From page 173: "...it should be clear that the human species would be well advised to assign only those who are wise and kind to conduct the difficult and sensitive business of intercultural relations, particularly when dealing with people who are less powerful, politically.
   
   I would have liked the book to be longer - I eagerly wanted more of Hall's easy prose and warm recollections. The book also seems to provide more insight into the Navajo than the Hopi, and it seems to finish up in too much of a hurry, tying up stories without a more complete summation. But it's a book that fills in gaps which we don't see in wayside exhibits, popular films, or geotourism destination maps. This is a book that I'll want to return to again and again for reminders that there is dignity in all of us, the greatest of all being treating others with dignity.



3. This captivating memoir vividly describes life in Santa Fe and the surrounding territory before all the changes that came with World War II. The author, a well-known anthropologist, had a fascinating childhood growing up on Canyon Road and attending Los Alamos Boys School before it became the site of the Manhattan Project. Reading about his adventures on the Hopi and Navajo reservations made me wish I could turn back the clock and visit those lands when they were still so remote and untouched. A beautiful, moving book by a man fully engaged with life.

4 comments about Blackberry Winter: My Earlier Years.

1. This is a wonderful book to read for those interested in Mead's personality. I was surprised to read how innocent, delicate, loving, stubborn, and calculated this woman was. As she goes back through her life, she realizes how perfectly it all seemed to fit. She also seemed to realize, as she wrote this book, how much she always knew exactly what she wanted to do at each crossroad in her life. Margaret Mead tells us her story, from her perspective and it is a breath of fresh air.
   
   Yes, this book is a must for future anthropologists. She walks us through the many struggles in the field (I found her insights on language learning of great value) and sets the picture for an age where American anthropology was teeming with its most famous characters even today. Mead paints a unique picture of the personalities of Boaz, Benedict and her three husbands.
   
   Mead became something only the slightest fraction of us wannabe anthropologists could ever become. For those wanting fame and respect (come on admit it we all do at least a bit). There are few clues in this book to how Mead managed this. The book is nothing more than a beautiful account of being human. However, with her timing at a particular point in American history, her confidence and perhaps a splash of luck Mead became and remains an icon.



2. This book provides Mead's accounts of the people and events that most affected her thought and research. About half the book is devoted to her life before she began her career as an anthropologist. We meet her parents, Edward Mead and Emily Fogg Mead. Edward was an economics professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Emily divided her time between managing the household and pursuing her doctoral studies in the social sciences. Edward's mother, Martha Ramsay Mead, a former schoolteacher and principal, also lived with the family and was the primary director of their home schooling. Margaret describes her relationship with each of her parents and with her grandmother and siblings in turn. We learn how the family moved every season from one domicile to another, and how this shaped Margaret's concept of "home". Margaret also discusses how Edward related to his academic work and colleagues (such as when he organized a group to guarantee Scott Nearing's salary for a year after his dismissal). Margaret describes her schooling in detail, from the approach to learning that her grandmother and mother instilled with their home schooling efforts, to the various traditional schools that she attended and the social lessons she learned from them. She also discusses her college years and friends.
   
   The second part of the book describes Mead's adult and professional life. She explains her relationships with all three of her husbands, and how in the case of Reo Fortune and Gregory Bateson, they collaborated together in their fieldwork. She also relates how she came to work with Franz Boas, and how he directed her research early in her career. She tells us about how she came to know Ruth Benedict, and how she considered Benedict one of her closest colleagues and friends. The last part of the book, covering Margaret's experiences as a mother and grandmother, is not as detailed, but does provide some personal observations.
   
   For me, the most interesting aspects of this book were Mead's own interpretation of her motivations and accomplishments. She was a firm believer in both the value and necessity of studying cultures very different from her own. On the first page of the text, she tells us "I have spent most of my life studying the lives of other peoples, faraway peoples, so that Americans might better understand themselves." Later she notes, "to clear one's mind of presuppositions is a very hard thing to do and, without years of practice, all but impossible when one is working in one's own culture or in another that is very close to it." In summing up her work, she states, "I went to Samoa-as, later, I went to the other societies on which I have worked-to find out more about human beings, human beings like ourselves in everything except their culture. Through the accidents of history, these cultures had developed so differently from ours that knowledge of them could shed a kind of light upon us, upon our potentialities and our limitations, that was unique." Some anthropologists today have a different approach, believing that since one cannot understand a foreign culture completely, it is better to stick to observing one's own culture. There is still much validity, however, in Mead's point that you can't know what is natural or unnatural, innate or learned behaviors, unless you are aware of the wide range of possibilities exhibited by the myriad cultures of the world.



3. This book is a must read for a future Anthroplogists.
   It clearly brings together all her theories and it is a
   heartfelt view on a extremly successful and inspiring
   person in this field. I truly enjoyed her book and her
   views on culture and the future of Anthropology. I became a big
   fan of hers and will continue reading the rest of her books.
   If you are only slightly interested in Cultural Anthropolgy
   then I suggest you read her books. They are easy to read and
   very insightful about culture.
   It is worth every penny spend.



4. This autobiography is especially interesting for its insight into the professional life of a woman scholar in the 1920's and 1930's in a then new field of inquiry, although Mead did not encounter the extreme levels of resistance that make heroes and role models. Greek societies at her first college seem to have been far more repressive and damaging than were her graduate programs or employers. The professional rivalries are interesting. The book is especially strong in its depiction of Mead's parents, whose contrasting traits we can easily see influencing the daughter's ideas and character. Mead seems to be a keen observer of them, frank about their strengths and weaknesses, as dispassionate as she was in describing people in New Guinea. Mead is far less interested in or detailed about her three husbands. In fact, the autobiography seems oddly reticent, considering that its author was open minded, professionally interested in the sexual habits of other peoples, and unintimidated. She was able to ask Pacific Islanders what positions they preferred for intercourse, but unable in the autobiography to give a sense of the life of her marriages. We learn in detail what she packed for a trip, but only discover in passing that a divorce occurred. This book rewards readers more with cultural history than with a sense of the author's emotional life.

4 comments about Bronx Primitive: Portraits in a Childhood.

1. This book is a warm, witty and intricate look at the author's childhood and teenage years in the Bronx. The prose sucks you in, and you are given enough detail so that you feel that you are right there with the author.
   
   However, if you want to give it as a gift to a young bookworm, be forewarned that it contains graphic sexual content, including a blow-by-blow description of the male and female anatomy, and several descriptions of sexual (and physical) abuse.



2. Kate Simon's little book will doubtless become a classic of the genre: memoir, coming of age, the immigrant experience, sexual awakening, life on the stoops in the Bronx...
   Told unsentimentally and with a refreshingly straightforward style, Simon manages to convey both the sense and the essence of her unusual childhood to her readers.



3. The frank portrayal of Simon's relationship with her father in this book is refreshing, as are many of the stories about daily life as a girl growing up Jewish in the Bronx after WWI. However, the parts dealing with sexual advances of older man and, in general, older people's sexual opportunism with younger people were things I found really disturbing. Simon tells these anecdotes well and evenly, but as a reader, I felt frustrated and helpless reading so much about the way the taboos of sexuality trapped kids into silence about their victimization.



4. Good fortune was with me when I happened upon this book last year. It is now one of my all-time favorites and I went on to read the two books that chronologically follow this one. My only complaint is that Ms. Simon died before she had the chance to tell us every minute detail about her unextraordinary, extraordinary life. A Jewish immigrant household in the Bronx shaped Kate's wonderful and unique personality. She shares her childhood - engrossing tales of urban fairy tale embedded in the real world of poverty -with the aplomb of a grand story-teller. If only I could have met her. She is the baudy humorous glamorous grandmother we all wish was our own.

No comments about The Cambridge Companion to Durkheim (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy).

4 comments about C. Wright Mills: Letters and Autobiographical Writings.

1. Having regarded "Sociological Imagination" one of the few most exciting books written in the field, this one greatly disappointed me.



2. No one has written with more verve and authority about the awesome and frightening capabilities of man than the late C. Wright Mills, a prominent and controversial sociologist who wrote such memorable tomes as "White Collar", an exploration of the emerging American Middle class in the early 1950s, and The Power Elite", a provocative examination of the nature of power, privilege, and status in the United States, and how each of these three critical elements of power and property in this country are irrevocably connected to each other. At last look, both books were still in print and are still used in both undergraduate and graduate sociology courses throughout the world. After fifty years, that in and of itself is powerful testimony to his enduring value as a scholar and an original thinker.

   Here Mills focuses memorably on the qualities and uses of the sociological perspective in modern life, how such a scientifically based way of looking at, interpreting, and interacting with the larger world invests its user with a better, more accurate, and quite instrumental picture of what is happening meaningfully around him. For Mills, the key to understanding the value in such a perspective is in appreciating that one can only understand the motives, behavior, and actions of others by locating them within a wider and more meaningful context that connects their personal biographies with the large social circumstances that surround, direct, and propel them at any given historical moment. For Mills, for example, trying to understand the reasoning behind the sometimes desperate actions of Jews in Nazi Germany without appreciating the horrifyingly unique existential circumstances they found themselves in is hopelessly anachronistic and limited.

   On the other hand, one invested with such an appreciation for how biography and history interact to create the meaningful social circumstances of any situation finds himself better able to understand the fact that when in a country of one hundred million employed, one man's singular lack of employment might be due to his persoanl deficiencies or lack of a work ethic, and be laid at his feet as a personal trouble, it is also true that when twenty million individuals out of that one hundred million figure suddenly find themselves so disposed and unemployed, that situation is due to something beyond the control of those many individuals and is best described in socioeconomic terms as a social problem to be laid at the feet of the government and industry to resolve. To Mills, it is critical to understand the inherant differences between personal troubles on the one hand, which an individual has the responsibity to resolve and overcome, and social ills, which are beyond both his ken or control. Indeed, according to Mills, increasingly in the 20th century one finds himself trapped by social circumstance into dilemmas he is absolutely unable to resolve without significant help from the wider social community.

   Thus, for both psychological as well as social reasons, a person using the sociological perspective, or invested with what he called the "sociological imagination", is more able to think and act critically in accordance with the evidence both outside his door and beyond himself. Fifty years later, such a recognition of "what's what" and "who's who" based on the ability to judge the information within the social environment is as valuable as ever. This is a wonderful book, written in a very accessible and entertaining style, meant both for an intellectual audience and for the scholastic community as well. While it may not be for "everyman", any person wanting to better understand and more fully appreciate how individual biography and social history meaningfully interact to create the realities we live in will enjoy and appreciate this legendary sociological critique and invitation to the pleasures of a sociological perspective by one of its most remarkable proponents some half century ago.




3. A customer review on this site states that the editors have changed the word "men" to "people" in the letters. As the publisher, we would like to place this statement in its proper context.

   The unmarked edits only occurred in the Tovarich letters, those that were written to an imaginary Russian correspondent. Mills "made it clear [to his agent] that he wanted the Tovarich writings to be edited before they were published . . . his marginal comments included these instructions: 'very good, use it,' 'can't use this,' 'cut somewhat.'" And so, unlike for the rest of the letters, the editors "did not mark deletions with ellipses and occasionally changed the location of paragraphs, shortened a heading, or relaced a heading with a phrase that Mills had written in the text. Although we usually left the original references to men, boys, women, and girls in these essays, we occasionally changed 'men' to 'people.'"

   In the rest of the letters, the only editorial changes were spelling corrections and occasional deletions (the latter are always marked with brackets).




4. I have been eagerly awating the publication of these glimpses into Mills' 'personal' life. The book is organized, for the most part, chronologically. Its contents are mostly letters written by this most influental radical intellectuall of the cold war period. The letters (and autobiographical writings disguised as letters) reveal Mills to be as intense, focused, and dedicated to his social analysis as I, a student of his work, have imagined him to be. The writings are beautifully composed; Mills was indeed both a scientist AND an artist. His musings are inspiring for any student, scholar, or critical minded person who wants an insight into Mills "private" reflections. This book could also serve as a wonderful guide to a study of Mills' life-work, as we are given insight into his concerns and struggles during his writing process. I do have a complaint...his daughters, who have no doubt taken painstaking efforts to compose this work, have been so bold as to alter the language of his personal writings... "we occasionally changed 'men' to 'people'" (p. xiv). I think we are wise enough to realize that Mills language is a reflection of the social and historical context in which he lived...Regardless, we are lucky to have this invaluable resource that provides endless reflections into the life and though of C. Wright Mills. END

3 comments about Talking to High Monks in the Snow: An Asian American Odyssey.

1. Traveling always brings a new dimension to yourself. This is an odyssey of a Sansei(the third generation of Japanese-American) woman, who has been wondering about who she is and where she belongs.
   Like Amy Tan's "The Opposite of Fate", she wrotes about her background (her immigrant grandparents, Nisei-Kibei parents, sister and herself) and her identity crisis.
   After growing up, she went on a trip to Asia (Japan, China, and Nepal) and met nice local people, and found some family secrets and her new Asian identity. Eventually, she comes to feel more comfortable to be Asian-American.
   I recently happened to take this book while traveling in Seattle. I'm so glad to find such an amazing book.



2. I would suggest that you read this only after reading The Strangeness of Beauty, which is a wonderfully written novel.



3. I was reading "Growing Up Asian American" and had it for over a year. Recently I have been wanting to hear more from other Asian Americans and so, resumed reading the excerpts authors shared. I read Ms. Minatoya's story and was disappointed that there wasn't more! So the next day I went and bought Talking to High Monks in the Snow. And I have just finished reading it. It's one of those books that I come across infrequently, the kind that I absolutely MUST get to the last page before I go to sleep. Because of school I longed for the moments when I could sit and enjoy my newfound treasure, on trains, breaks, at home. Ms. Minatoya is subtle in her writing but it sure hits you when you're through with the sentence. I felt the pangs of pain and embarassment and degradation when she did. It brought back sad memories. The great thing though is that she isn't sappy and she doesn't want my pity just because I relate to her. Ms. Minatoya is eloquently matter-of-fact. With each section of her book, I was amazed more and more. I wished I went to all the places she has been to, Boston, Japan, China, Nepal, and done the things she has. Actually, I admire her because she was and probably still is BOLD and DETERMINED. She has gone to all these countries and actually lived and worked there, not just visit as a tourist. She has taught and communicated deeply with people in these countries. Thanks to Ms. Minatoya, I have this urge to start a club at my college. A reading and discussional group for Asian Americans and non-Asians. I feel that many in my school and city do not appreciate our rich heritage as much as I wish they did. A club that will teach and show through discussions, reading, and debate, the sincere, talented, proud people such as Ms. Minatoya. Talking to High Monks in the Snow is a truly wonderful book for Asians and non-Asians alike. Before I read it for the second time...Thanks Amazon for letting me share my thoughts!

   Debbie Yeung