Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers — Lois-Ann Yamanaka

MOVE OVER HOLDEN CAULFIELD! In her debut novel, Lois-Ann Yamanaka introduces the world to Lovey Nariyoshi, who comes of age in a working-class Japanese American family in Hilo, Hawaii. Lovey longs to live in a "haole" (white) neighborhood and speak English like a perfect little American with "straight blond hair and long Miss America legs and lots of boobs" a la Barbie the doll. But instead she is "a female Huck Finn with attitude -- and a family" (Islands). including a father, by turns tender and cruel, who brings home the wild meat rather than the bacon: a mother who sends her to Singer sewing classes and turns her into a Toni "home permanent wave monster"; a little sister who can't understand why Lovey "no can just be you"; a best friend who's a boy but acts like a girl; and a dog named Spam. And when Lovey talks, "the words always come out like home" -- in the rich rhythms of Hawaiian Creole English.

Whether you grew up in the fifties or the eighties, in New York. Nebraska, or California. Lovey Nariyoshi will steal your heart.