Summer 2017

Chopsticks in the Land of Cotton: Lives of Mississippi Delta Chinese Grocery by John Jung, 2008

Fascinating and well researched stories of the first Chinese immigrants who migrated to the Mississippi delta to build a better life for themselves.  Initially working as sharecroppers, the Chinese moved into the more prestigious work of owning grocery stores.

This opportunity opened up to the Chinese as slavery ended requiring African Americans to purchase goods that they previously received from a commissary.  While white merchants refused to serve African Americans, the Chinese willingly stepped in.

Although they were not in the fields, Chinese grocers worked long hours from early in the morning to late at night, constantly stocking the shop & serving customers.  Grocers lived in the back of the store and the store became not only their livelihood but also their homes and where they raised their children.

To help run or open new stores, men would send for family members (or acquaintances) from China to join them.  This started a network of Chinese emigrating to the States from the Toisan region of China, where my parents are from.  It's fascinating to think how a handful of adventurous & industrious Chinese laid the foundation for the regional emigration to the United States.  How happenstance affected so many lives.

As store owners and merchants, Chinese were accorded a better social status than African Americans, but still faced discrimination.  In theaters, when they did take time off to see a move, struggled to determine whether they were to sit in the Negro or White Only seating.

Church became an entree into White society, which meant acceptance, including their children being allowed to attend the White only school, which was superior to the segregated Negro schools.

The story is fascinating as my father lived in Arkansas & worked in a grocery owned by his cousin.  The store ended up not being successful so my Dad moved north to Boston where there were jobs available.  Reading about the experience of Chinese grocers in the Mississippi delta was fascinating as I imagined how my life would have changed if my Dad's family had become successful in building a store in the South.

The Gilded Years: A Novel by Karin Tanabe, 2016 - Fascinating, the concept of 'passing' that existed where mixed race people passed as a white person to gain access to the privileges allowed Caucasians and denied Negros.

Historic fiction centers around Anita Hemmings, daughter of mulatto parents who is very light skinned and able to pass as a white woman so that she can attend Vassar College, which has not started admitting Negro students.

The discrimination she must endure and pain of not being able to openly interact with her family, who would expose that she has Negro blood in her.

Hemmings would marry another light mixed race doctor and pass for white to further progress his career.  Their children would grow up unaware of their Negro heritage.  A bit like the Americans but sadly, just a couple trying to take advantage of basic opportunities, not defeat another country in war.


The Nix by Nathan Hill, 2016
An epic novel filled with vivid stories from growing up in a small town to having your life literally consumed by video games to the camaraderie and dangers of fighting in Iraq.

The story of Faye Andresen-Anderson & her son Samuel Andresen-Anderson start with a curse, or nisee, the Norwegian word Faye's dad uses to describe it.

Samuel's childhood is haunted by the mother who left him and his father.  He befriends Bishop and falls in love with his twin Bethany.

As an adult, Samuel remains an unfinished man, finding success with a story depicting his childhood friends's dark secret, leading to a college teaching job.

Unfilled & lost, Samuel spends his nights playing Elfscape.  After reconnecting with his mother after over two decades and not receiving any answers, Samuel reaches out to his Elfscape friends to meet in real life, breaking a cardinal rule.

Pwnage, a legendary elf player, answers the calls and meets up with Samuel, where he imparts advice gleaned from his hours/days playing video games.  Determine if a situation is an Enemy, Obstacle, Puzzle, or Trap and plan next steps accordingly.

Samuel decides he has a puzzle to solve as he needs to find out what happened to her mother when she was a college student in Chicago during the anti-Vietnam protests.  Bewildered by her fellow free-spirited students, Faye does not fit in with the other students.  She is befriended by an outspoken & free woman Alice, who introduces her to Sebastian, who publishes an anti-establishment paper.

Events spiral a bit unbelievably with Office Charles Brown, but the stories along the way are engaging and vivid.  Having always loved covers (judging books by them despite the age old adage), the cover for the Nix had me looking at it in appreciate quite a few times after I had finished the novel.