Diaspora, Memory and Identity: A Search for Home. Vijay Agnew, editor. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005; x + 308 pages; ISBN 0-8020-9374-4; $29.95 (paper).
In Diaspora, Memory and Identity, editor Vijay Agnew exam ines how mem ory figures prominently in Canadian diasporic subjectivities. The book is located in a larger body of fem inist literature interested in the role of gender in m em ory work. Two chapters stand out in the opening section. Sugim an analyzes how three generations of wom en rem em ber Japanese Canadian internment during W orld W ar Two. She argues that as a sociological concept, m em ory is situated as part of larger projects of domination that silence certain groups, while constructing official stories around

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national and global events. Her interviews with women highlight the poignant experiences of internment, and the equally poignant memories of gendered, racialized traum a. Similarly, Kadar exam ines wom en's Holocaust memories, arguing persuasively that the presence of trauma disrupts conventional "heroic" narratives. Thus, forms of remembering such as concentration cam p lists, Rom a songs of lament and recipe books are "gendered wounding events" that do not fit within the confines of conventional narratives of trauma and memory.
Part two, "History and Identity," exam ines how displaced subjects negotiate "home" in host countries that are often hostile. Dunlop interweaves her poetry with an autobiographical account of her hybrid Indian-Canadian identity. This interweaving nicely illustrates Kadar's point: while not necessarily traumatic, immigration is similarly fracturing, requiring subjects to construct new autobiographical form s that fall outside conventional narrative structures. Similarly, Matsuoka and Sorenson use a "ghostly sociology" to exam ine how Canadian Eritrean im m igrants, m any of whom do not intend to return hom e, still identify strongly with hom eland politics. Of particular interest are subjects' memories of fleeing war: as in both Sugim an's and Kadar's subjects, there is a gendered aspect to wom en's experiences (i.e., rape and its lingering stigma, sexual violence, caring for children during flight). Living with these "ghosts" positions Eritrean identity outside the standard development discourse that dom inates western cultural understandings of selfhood. Traumatic events such as war and m igration interrupt the stability of identity work, and the ability to maintain m em ory in its supposedly proper place, the past.
Part three, "Community and Home," looks at im m igrants' day-to-day experiences of identity and memory. For example, James analyzes the "double consciousness" of a male second generation CaribbeanCanadian youth, who feels Trinidadian and

yet is also perfectly comfortable in his Canadian context. Some of the section’s other chapters, along with the concluding chapter by Babbitt, are more theoretically focused. Hua scrutinizes the conceptual usefulness of mem ory, identity and diaspora while Moghissi looks at gender as a crucial methodological issue when studying certain diasporic comm unities. Babbitt's concluding chapter engages with the broader philosophical concerns around memory, selfhood and ethics that drive researchers working in these areas.
The volum e offers detailed, diverse accounts of the links between identity, m em ory and diaspora in everyday experience. My main criticism is that, thematically, some of the chapters do not fit together well. Sugiman and Kadar's chapters would have worked better with Matsuoka and Sorenson's chapter on Eritrean im m igrants. Similarly, Agnew's chapters were worthy of a separate section (including Dunlop's piece) on how the colonial past affects present diasporic m em ory. It also would have been helpful for the editor to provide a link between the more theoretical pieces.
Overall, however, this book is an excellent resource: accessible to both academic and non-academic audiences, and useful for courses on feminist theory, critical race/postcolonial studies, migration studies and the broader area of selfhood/subjectivity.
Mythili Rajiva Saint Mary’s University