Growing up Ethnic in America : Contemporary Fiction about Learning to Be American

by Gillan, Maria Mazziotti; Gillan, Jennifer

• ISBN13: 9780140280630
• ISBN10: 0140280634
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781101640203
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-11-01
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
• More Book Details

Summary

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.

Author Biography

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.

Table of Contents

Introduction	ix
PERFORMING
The Writer in the Family	3	(15)
E. L. Doctorow
Rules of the Game	18	(14)
Amy Tan
Looking for Work	32	(7)
Gary Soto
The Best Deal in America	39	(6)
Bebe Moore Campbell
The Day the Cisco Kid Shot John Wayne	45	(19)
Nash Candelaria
The New Negro	64	(4)
Darryl Pinckney
A Half-Breed's Dream Vacation	68	(8)
Tiffany Midge
Americanism	76	(7)
Kathryn Nocerino
Railroad Standard Time	83	(10)
Frank Chin
CROSSING
American History	93	(10)
Judith Ortiz Cofer
The Red Convertible	103	(12)
Louise Erdrich
from The Bluest Eye	115	(7)
Toni Morrison
Killing the Bees	122	(14)
Lynne Sharon Schwartz
Drowning	136	(13)
Mary Bucci Bush
Magic	149	(7)
Liz Rosenberg
The Cossacks of Connecticut	156	(13)
Daniel Asa Rose
Mericans	169	(6)
Sandra Cisneros
NEGOTIATING
What Means Switch	175	(22)
Gish Jen
Myrna and Me	197	(3)
Laura Boss
Dinner with Father	200	(5)
Bruce A. Jacobs
Brandy Cake	205	(22)
Beena Kamlani
Drowning Kittens	227	(11)
Enid Dame
Portrait of the Lone Survivor	238	(4)
Diane Glancy
Holy Toledo	242	(18)
Joseph Geha
Carlton Fredericks and My Mother	260	(8)
Maria Mazziotti Gillan
Honey Boy	268	(19)
Afaa Michael Weaver
BRIDGING
This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona	287	(15)
Sherman Alexie
from Mama's Girl	302	(5)
Veronica Chambers
from Recollections of My Life as a Woman	307	(5)
Diane di Prima
Red Velvet Dress	312	(8)
Naomi Shihab Nye
Grandpa's ``Chicaudies''	320	(6)
Fred L. Gardaphe
Thanksgiving in a Monsoonless Land	326	(16)
Roshni Rustomji
To Change in a Good Way	342	(7)
Simon J. Ortiz
The Moths	349	(7)
Helena Maria Viramontes
Talking to the Dead	356	(13)
Sylvia A. Watanabe
Contributors	369	(6)
Index	375