j***@gmail.com
2020-05-25 15:22:44 UTC
A preface to discussing the work of "Jamie Ford". It has in truth often been observed that although in America there is quite definitely and "pointedly" a Southern literature dealing with the unique quiddities of that *pais*, and a "literature of the city" dealing with the vertigo of the lives of people like John Wray's characters, there is not really (for "dialectological" reasons) a Northern literature of the sort attempted by Jeffrey Lent.
Perhaps strangely there is definitely a *Canadian* literature, but the Blakean pronunciamentos of the "Christian Brothers" of thr Northern US effectively do not lend themselves to recording in literary format. (In fact it is the Saul Bellow of *The Adventures of Augie March* who came closest to doing this.)
Furthermore, there is *in practical fact* actually almost *no* "Western literature* dealing with the modern lives of people past the Continental Divide as they understand them; this is a reflection of the sociology of the US. One understands Bukowski's LA well enough; what there is is "regionalist" writing.
In line with this we might consider "Jamie Ford's Seattle", centered in the city's International District. That's what it's called; the ID is not called after a "particular" Asian group, as all Seattleites realize. I will consider two works in particular by Mr. Ford:
*Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet* may have been a serious attempt to tell the "real story" of the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII, a series of events which was largely without loss of human life but definitely cast a pall over American life. Asians well-established in the Western US were relocated to campgrounds in the Rocky Mountain states for years; severe restrictions were placed on their ability to own property.
The novel deals with Asian life in the Western US during and after the internment; the period before is covered in *Songs of Willow Frost*, a novel about a young "orphan" named William who is really the son of a movie actress. Interestingly enough that novel may very totally parallel the early life of William Naito, a peominent figure in Portland, Oregon's civic life for decades.
Perhaps strangely there is definitely a *Canadian* literature, but the Blakean pronunciamentos of the "Christian Brothers" of thr Northern US effectively do not lend themselves to recording in literary format. (In fact it is the Saul Bellow of *The Adventures of Augie March* who came closest to doing this.)
Furthermore, there is *in practical fact* actually almost *no* "Western literature* dealing with the modern lives of people past the Continental Divide as they understand them; this is a reflection of the sociology of the US. One understands Bukowski's LA well enough; what there is is "regionalist" writing.
In line with this we might consider "Jamie Ford's Seattle", centered in the city's International District. That's what it's called; the ID is not called after a "particular" Asian group, as all Seattleites realize. I will consider two works in particular by Mr. Ford:
*Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet* may have been a serious attempt to tell the "real story" of the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII, a series of events which was largely without loss of human life but definitely cast a pall over American life. Asians well-established in the Western US were relocated to campgrounds in the Rocky Mountain states for years; severe restrictions were placed on their ability to own property.
The novel deals with Asian life in the Western US during and after the internment; the period before is covered in *Songs of Willow Frost*, a novel about a young "orphan" named William who is really the son of a movie actress. Interestingly enough that novel may very totally parallel the early life of William Naito, a peominent figure in Portland, Oregon's civic life for decades.