{"id":9418,"date":"2010-06-18T17:19:50","date_gmt":"2010-06-18T21:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/?p=9418"},"modified":"2019-06-07T12:23:06","modified_gmt":"2019-06-07T16:23:06","slug":"i-hotel-by-karen-tei-yamashita","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/i-hotel-by-karen-tei-yamashita\/","title":{"rendered":"I Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita [in Library Journal]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2010\/06\/I-Hotel.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-29007\" src=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2010\/06\/I-Hotel.jpg\" alt=\"I Hotel\" width=\"601\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><strong>*STARRED REVIEW<\/strong><br \/>\nComprising 10 novellas that took 10 years to craft, this is Yamashita\u2019s (<em>Circle K Cycles<\/em>) magnum opus. Year by year, the novellas mark a decade\u2019s worth of tumultuous Asian Pacific American (APA) history, from 1968, when ethnic studies was painfully birthed in San Francisco, to 1977, when San Francisco\u2019s I-Hotel \u2013 long a pivotal symbol of APA activism \u2013 fell to demolition crews.<\/p>\n<p>At first reading, this work is a sprawling narrative filled with multiple perspectives about California\u2019s Asian Americans. But dig just slightly deeper, and it proves to be a magnificent, gripping exercise in distinguishing the fake from the real: S.I. Hayakawa was indeed San Francisco State University\u2019s acting president in 1968, while Mo Akagi is a composite for activists Richard Aoki and Mo Nishida. Yamashita even directly (shockingly, hysterically!) addresses the legendary \u201cfake vs. real\u201d debate still agitating Asian American literary circles, with side-by-side cartoon drawings of opposing APA icons Maxine Hong Kingston and <a href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/1995\/02\/01\/author-profile-searching-for-frank-chin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Frank Chin<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Verdict<\/strong>: Even without any background in APA history, readers will find Yamashita\u2019s tome intriguing. Complementary texts that might intensify an already superb literary experience include Hong Kingston\u2019s <em><a href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/1997\/03\/01\/the-woman-warrior-memoirs-of-a-childhood-among-ghosts-by-maxine-hong-kingston\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Woman Warrior<\/a><\/em>, Chin (together with Jeffery Paul Chan, Lawson Fusao Inada, and Shawn Wong) <em><a href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/1997\/03\/01\/aiiieeeee-an-anthology-of-asian-american-writers-edited-by-frank-chin-jeffery-paul-chan-lawson-fusao-inada-and-shawn-wong\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Aiiieeeee!<\/a><\/em> and <em><a href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/1997\/03\/01\/the-big-aiiieeeee-an-anthology-of-chinese-american-and-japanese-american-literature-edited-by-jeffery-paul-chan-frank-chin-lawson-fusao-inada-and-shawn-wong\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Big Aiiieeeee!<\/a><\/em>, Estella Habal\u2019s <em><a href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/san-franciscos-international-hotel-mobilizing-the-filipino-american-community-in-the-anti-eviction-movement-by-estella-habal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">San Francisco\u2019s International Hotel<\/a><\/em>, and David \u00a0Henry Hwang\u2019s play script <em><a href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/2009\/12\/02\/yellow-face-by-david-henry-hwang-foreword-by-frank-rich\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Yellow Face<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Review<\/strong>: &#8220;Fiction,&#8221; <em>Library Journal<\/em>, June 15, 2010<\/p>\n<p><strong>Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n<p><strong>Published<\/strong>: 2010<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>*STARRED REVIEW Comprising 10 novellas that took 10 years to craft, this is Yamashita\u2019s (Circle K Cycles) magnum opus. Year by year, the novellas mark a decade\u2019s worth of tumultuous Asian Pacific American (APA) history, from 1968, when ethnic studies was painfully birthed in San&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[121,5,6,426,27,6535,137],"tags":[6608,22,58,10,11,24,3031,51,3032,70,571,28,29],"class_list":["post-9418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-absolute-favorites","category-adult-readers","category-fiction","category-japanese-american","category-pan-asian-pacific-american","category-repost","category-southeast-asian-american","tag-bookdragon","tag-civil-rights","tag-coming-of-age","tag-family","tag-friendship","tag-historical","tag-i-hotel","tag-identity","tag-karen-tei-yamashita","tag-library-journal","tag-personal-transformation","tag-politics","tag-race-racism"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>I Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita [in Library Journal] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/i-hotel-by-karen-tei-yamashita\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita [in Library Journal] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"*STARRED REVIEW Comprising 10 novellas that took 10 years to craft, this is Yamashita\u2019s (Circle K Cycles) magnum opus. Year by year, the novellas mark a decade\u2019s worth of tumultuous Asian Pacific American (APA) history, from 1968, when ethnic studies was painfully birthed in San...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/i-hotel-by-karen-tei-yamashita\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-06-18T21:19:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-06-07T16:23:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2010\/06\/I-Hotel.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmithsonianAPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"I Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita [in Library Journal] - BookDragon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/i-hotel-by-karen-tei-yamashita\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"I Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita [in Library Journal] - BookDragon","og_description":"*STARRED REVIEW Comprising 10 novellas that took 10 years to craft, this is Yamashita\u2019s (Circle K Cycles) magnum opus. 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