Phoenix Eyes and Other Stories (The Scott and Laurie Oki Series in Asian American Studies)
Leong comments ironically on the Asian-American experience in this impressionistic, uneven collection of 14 stories. In a first section, "Leaving," the effects of hybrid culture are foregrounded in five stories about new immigrants. "Bodhi Leaves," the first of the group, tells of a Vietnamese monk relocated to a temple in Orange County, N.J., whose search for an artist capable of painting a traditional many-leaved Bodhi tree distracts him from the difficulties of adjusting to a new country. The second section, "Samsara," consists of stories with sexual themes. Notable here is "Hemispheres," which is set in the academic/avant-garde interface with which Leong, the editor of Amerasia Journal and a filmmaker himself, must be familiar. The narrator, Bryan, works for the Los Angeles Film Institute. The week that he decides he is sexually out of serviceAwhich, for him, means no more boyfriendsAhe gets messages from three different women, all of whom are looking for sperm donations. The last section, "Paradise," contains the title story, which is a long account of life in the hung kung syan, a trans-Pacific call boy service. Terence, who has "phoenix eyes"Aeyes of "longing and lust"Agoes to Taiwan after college with his lover. When he and his lover fall out, Terence is picked up by P., a handsome jet-setter with gigolo connections, and given an education in seduction. Circular in form, the story starts and ends with P.'s funeral. Some of Leong's stories are slight, but the best of them exploit the stresses of sexual desire and family relationships, and probe the cultural forces shaping the immigrant experience. (July)Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.