Items related to Potential Weapons

Potential Weapons - Softcover

Lieu, Jocelyn

 
9781555973971: Potential Weapons
Softcover
ISBN 10: 1555973973 ISBN 13: 9781555973971
Publisher: Graywolf Pr, 2004

Synopsis

First to fade were the names, then the faces, until she
couldn't be sure the people once called family ever really
existed. Sometimes, when she wandered through Chinatown, she wondered whether this middle-aged man or that young mother with the sullen girl was related to her. Relatives. Strangers. There was no way to know.

In this vivid, elegantly written debut, Jocelyn Lieu explores the risks of self-discovery. The characters in Potential Weapons lead bi-cultural lives, their ethnicity not obvious at first glance. What are you anyway? someone asks. But it is only when cultures clash, when memory is forced into the present moment, that this question can begin to be answered.
In the title story, Abi, a young Chinese American woman, attends a Klan rally, in protest, with her white mother. Once there, they are stripped of all "potential weapons," including her mother's cane. Diana visits the home of her lover's parents, Holocaust survivors: the mystery of cultural difference and the haunting music of Gulf War TV coverage permeate the encounter. Through a chance meeting in New York's Chinatown, Mar discovers her estranged Aunt Pearl, who turns out to be the family's most intriguing secret, a link to a past colored by the struggle to survive.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author

Jocelyn Lieu is a graduate of the M.F.A. Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. She currently teaches creative writing at Parsons School of Design.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
Graywolf Pr
Publication date
2004
Language
English
ISBN 10 
1555973973
ISBN 13 
9781555973971
Binding
Paperback
Number of pages
160