Global Authors: Voices From Asia and the Middle East

Many writers from the Indian subcontinent have made their home in the United States in recent years. Bharati Mukherjee (1940- ) has written an acclaimed story collection, The Middleman and Other Stories (1988); her novel Jasmine (1989) tells the story of an illegal immigrant woman. Mukherjee was raised in Calcutta; her novel The Holder of the World (1993) imagines passionate adventures in 17th-century India for characters in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Leave It to Me (1997) follows the nomadic struggles of a girl abandoned in India who seeks her roots. Mukherjee's haunting story "The Management of Grief" (1988), about the aftermath of a terrorist bombing of a plane, has taken on new resonance since September 11, 2001.

Indian-born Meena Alexander (1951- ), of Syrian heritage, was raised in North Africa; she reflects on her experience in her memoir Fault Lines (1993). Poet and story writer Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (1956- ), born in India, has written the sensuous, women-centered novels The Mistress of Spices (1997) and Sister of My Heart (1999), as well as story collections including The Unknown Errors of Our Lives (2001).

Jhumpa Lahiri (1967- ) focuses on the younger generation's conflicts and assimilation in Interpreter of Maladies: Stories of Bengal, Boston, and Beyond (1999) and her novel The Namesake (2003). Lahiri draws on her experience: Her Bengali parents were raised in India, and she was born in London but raised in the United States.

Southeast Asian-American authors, especially those from Korea and the Philippines, have found strong voices in the last decade. Among recent Korean-American writers, pre-eminent is Chang-rae Lee (1965- ). Born in Seoul, Korea, Lee's remarkable novel Native Speaker (1995) interweaves public ideals, betrayal, and private despair. His moving second novel, A Gesture Life (1999), explores the long shadow of a wartime atrocity -- the Japanese use of Korean "comfort women."

Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951-1982), born in Korea, blends photographs, videos, and historical documents in her experimental Dictee (l982) to memorialize the suffering of Koreans under Japanese occupying forces. Malaysian-American poet Shirley Geok-lin Lim, of ethnic Chinese descent, has written a challenging memoir, Among the White Moon Faces (l996). Her autobiographical novel is Joss and Gold (2001), while her stories are collected in Two Dreams (l997).

Philippines-born writers include Bienvenido Santos (1911-1996), author of the poetic novel Scent of Apples (1979), and Jessica Hagedorn (l949- ), whose surrealistic pop culture novels are Dogeaters (l990) and The Gangster of Love (1996). In very different ways, they both are responding to the poignant autobiographical novel of Filipino-American migrant laborer Carlos Bulosan (1913-1956), America Is in the Heart (1946).

Noted Vietnamese-American filmmaker and social theorist Trinh Minh-Ha (1952- ) combines storytelling and theory in her feminist work Woman, Native, Other (1989). From China, Ha Jin (1956- ) has authored the novel Waiting (1999), a sad tale of an 18-year separation whose realistic style, typical of Chinese fiction, strikes American ears as fresh and original.

The newest voices come from the Arab-American community. Lebanese-born Joseph Geha (1944- ) has set his stories in Through and Through (1990) in Toledo, Ohio; Jordanian-American Diana Abu-Jaber (1959- ), born in New York, has written the novel Arabian Jazz (1993).

Poet and playwright Elmaz Abinader (1954- ), is author of a memoir, Children of the Roojme: A Family's Journey From Lebanon (1991). In "Just Off Main Street" (2002), Abinader has written of her bicultural childhood in 1960s small-town Pennsylvania: "...my family scenes filled me with joy and belonging, but I knew none of it could be shared on the other side of that door."

American literature has traversed an extended, winding path from pre-colonial days to contemporary times. Society, history, technology all have had telling impact on it. Ultimately, though, there is a constant -- humanity, with all its radiance and its malevolence, its tradition and its promise.

Date: 2015-02-03; view: 850