"No-No Boy has the honor of being among the first of what has become an entire literary canon of Asian American literature,” writes novelist Ruth Ozeki in her new foreword. First published in 1957, No-No Boy was virtually ignored by a public eager to put World War II and the Japanese internment behind them. It was not until the mid-1970s that a new generation of Japanese American writers and scholars recognized the novel’s importance and popularized it as one of literature’s most powerful testaments to the Asian American experience.
No-No Boy tells the story of Ichiro Yamada, a fictional version of the real-life “no-no boys.” Yamada answered “no” twice in a compulsory government questionnaire as to whether he would serve in the armed forces and swear loyalty to the United States. Unwilling to pledge himself to the country that interned him and his family, Ichiro earns two years in prison and the hostility of his family and community when he returns home to Seattle. As Ozeki writes, Ichiro’s “obsessive, tormented” voice subverts Japanese postwar “model-minority” stereotypes, showing a fractured community and one man’s “threnody of guilt, rage, and blame as he tries to negotiate his reentry into a shattered world.”
The first edition of No-No Boy since 1979 presents this important work to new generations of readers.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Asian American readers will appreciate the sensitivity and integrity with which the late John Okada wrote about his own group. He heralded the beginning of an authentic Japanese American literature.
Author: Gordon Hirabayashi Source: Pacific AffairsNisei will recognize the authenticity of the idioms Okada’s characters use, as well as his descriptions of the familiar Issei and Nisei mannerisms that make them come alive.
Author: Bill Hosokawa Source: Pacific Citizen[This new edition] brings Okada's groundbreaking work to a new generation . . . an internee and enlisted man himself, [Okada] wrote in a raw, brutal stream of consciousness that echoes the pain and intergenerational conflict faced by those struggling to reconcile their heritage to the concept of an American dream.
Author: Nancy Powell Source: Shelf AwarenessIt is both an important document of Japanese American and Pacific Northwest history and a compelling novel.
Author: Emily Lutenski Source: Pacific Northwest QuarterlyReading No-No Boy, this week, it no longer seemed bound to its past; it felt like a prophecy, a cosmic tragedy, a message in a bottle that arrives a half century later.
Author: Hua Hsu Source: Page-TurnerJohn Okada was born in Seattle in 1923. He served in the U.S. Army in World War II, attended the University of Washington and Columbia University, and died of a heart attack at the age of 47. No-No Boy is his only published novel.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780295994048
Book Description Seller Inventory # KL-TM0I-SLAX
Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # ABLIING23Feb2215580094585
Book Description Condition: New. Book is in NEW condition. Seller Inventory # 0295994045-2-1
Book Description Condition: New. New! This book is in the same immaculate condition as when it was published. Seller Inventory # 353-0295994045-new
Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # I-9780295994048
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. "No-No Boy has the honor of being among the first of what has become an entire literary canon of Asian American literature," writes novelist Ruth Ozeki in her new foreword. First published in 1957, No-No Boy was virtually ignored by a public eager to put World War II and the Japanese internment behind them. It was not until the mid-1970s that a new generation of Japanese American writers and scholars recognized the novel's importance and popularized it as one of literature's most powerful testaments to the Asian American experience. No-No Boy tells the story of Ichiro Yamada, a fictional version of the real-life "no-no boys." Yamada answered "no" twice in a compulsory government questionnaire as to whether he would serve in the armed forces and swear loyalty to the United States. Unwilling to pledge himself to the country that interned him and his family, Ichiro earns two years in prison and the hostility of his family and community when he returns home to Seattle. As Ozeki writes, Ichiro's "obsessive, tormented" voice subverts Japanese postwar "model-minority" stereotypes, showing a fractured community and one man's "threnody of guilt, rage, and blame as he tries to negotiate his reentry into a shattered world."The first edition of No-No Boy since 1979 presents this important work to new generations of readers. Yamada answered "no" twice in a compulsory government questionnaire as to whether he would serve in the armed forces and swear loyalty to the United States. This book tells the story of Ichiro Yamada, a fictional version of the real-life "no-no boys." Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780295994048
Book Description paperback. Condition: New. Language: ENG. Seller Inventory # 9780295994048
Book Description Paperback or Softback. Condition: New. No-No Boy 0.7. Book. Seller Inventory # BBS-9780295994048
Book Description Trade Paperback. Condition: New. New!. Seller Inventory # 629045