| The Island of Bicycle Dancers Contributor(s): Adachi, Jiro (Author) |
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ISBN: 0312312466 ISBN-13: 9780312312466 Publisher: Picador USA OUR PRICE: $17.10 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: February 2005 * Not available - Not in print at this time *Annotation: "I was dazzled.... One of the most exciting new voices I have read."--Amy Tan This is the coming-of-age story of twenty-year old Yurika Song, a Korean-Japanese woman who comes from Japan to New York City for a summer to work with her Korean relatives and improve her English. Yurika's friends back home have always joked that she is half-sushi/half kim-chi. But cross-Asian ethnicities turn out to be far less jarring than her entree into New York life in the guise of bicycle messengers and the street culture in which they thrive. On one level this is a tale of mistaken love--Yurika falls hard for an attractive, but dangerous, Puerto Rican bicycle messenger nicknamed "Bone." But on another, deeper level, our heroine finds freedom in this new language, which to her "is like a huge octopus, very clever and sometimes hard to catch." "A first novel that shows both daring and skill...Richly and gracefully drawn characters and keen ear for street language show Adachi's great promise."--"Booklist" "A classic immigrant's saga of newcomers taking up the American Dream that has been rejected by natives.... Raw."--"Kirkus Reviews" "[An] energetic debut...portrays badass messengers and Yurika's linguistic struggles with equal facility."--"Publishers Weekly" Born and raised in New York City to a Japanese father and Hungarian mother, Jiro Adachi earned his B.A. from Columbia University and a M.F.A. from Colorado State University. He lives with his wife and daughter in New York City, where he teaches writing at The New School University. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction |
| Dewey: FIC |
| LCCN: 2003066681 |
| Physical Information: 0.65" H x 5.52" W x 8.5" (0.69 lbs) 233 pages |
| Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - Japanese - Ethnic Orientation - Korean |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This is the coming-of-age story of twenty-year old Yurika Song, a Korean-Japanese woman who comes from Japan to New York City for a summer to work with her Korean relatives and improve her English. Yurika's friends back home have always joked that she is half-sushi/half kim-chi. But cross-Asian ethnicities turn out to be far less jarring than her entree into New York life in the guise of bicycle messengers and the street culture in which they thrive. On one level this is a tale of mistaken love--Yurika falls hard for an attractive, but dangerous, Puerto Rican bicycle messenger nicknamed "Bone." But on another, deeper level, our heroine finds freedom in this new language, which to her "is like a huge octopus, very clever and sometimes hard to catch." |
Contributor Bio(s): Adachi, Jiro: - Born and raised in New York City to a Japanese father and Hungarian mother, Jiro Adachi's first language was not exactly broken English-more like malleable English. Mr. Adachi drew on both his experiences as a bike messenger and a teacher of English as a Foreign Language for this novel's portrait of bike boys and immigrants in New York. He lives with his wife and daughter in New York City. |