Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers: A Novel

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a strong connection to the Hawaiian Islands and a strong curiosity to read the stories by Hawaiian authors. I'm not so much interested in the exoticism of the islands as I am the real, true life stories. So when author Lavina Ludlow (novel forthcoming from Casperian Books) suggested the work of Lois-Ann Yamanaka, I was more than willing to dive in.Now, when authors are new to me, I do not search out any reviews or biographical information before hand as I don't want to color my perception of their work, positively or negatively. So when I looked at the list of Yamanaka's work, this novel was the first listed and so I went with it. And am I glad I did.Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers is set in and about Hilo, Hawai'i (the big Island) in the 1970s. Our lead is the appealing Lovey (interestingly, one letter shy of Lovely), a relatively plain girl from a working class Hawai'i. As the blurb says, her Hawai'i is not the Hawai'i of picture post cards. Her family are barely surviving financially, unable to afford the comforts that the haole (white) islanders and many of those with whom Lovey goes to school have. This instills in Lovey a somewhat covetous personality. Like all children, she wants to fit in, be smart and popular and have the coolest things. And her attempts to fit in always seem to backfire, reminding her of her "place" in life.While Lovey is our main character, most all of her interactions within the novel take place with her friend Jerry, a young man with a seemingly unending positive outlook and as much of an outcast as Lovey. Likewise, her father, a nisei (second generation Japanese American), is an important part of their life, their relationship at times wonderfully close and at other times strained by Lovey's desire to be more than who she is.At its heart, this novel is a coming-of-age book, the journey of a young girl who is just beginning to grow up and realize what really is important in life. But what this story also is is the story of a young woman and the men in her life...Jerry and her father. While her mother, grandmother, aunty and sister are indeed in her life, the focus always returns to Jerry or her father. While I would have enjoyed seeing more of Lovey's relationship with the women in her life, the richness of her interactions with the men in her life is outstanding and full. One (especially one of the male gender) comes away with a strong understanding of the bond between father and daughter. And blessedly, Yamanaka makes that relationship utterly realistic.Lovey's relationship with Jerry is wonderfully imbued with a strong sense of what friendship is. As in reality, sometimes the two can't stand one another. They fight and get jealous of one another, but in the end, they always end up together. Truly wonderful.One of the things about Jerry that was missing for me is the implication that Jerry was gay. The blurb indicates that Jerry is effeminate, implying homosexuality. I didn't particularly see this to be true. Yes, he does play Barbies with Lovey, his interest are a bit off the beaten path compared to other boys, and both he and Lovey are constantly call derogatory names for gays by the "cool kids," but he never read as particularly effeminate or gay to me. In some respects, I would have like to have seen that dealt with more, but when I came away from the novel I realized that whether Jerry was or wasn't gay didn't matter. Because it didn't matter to Lovey. The only thing that mattered was their friendship. I walked away finding that refreshing.In this novel, Yamanaka touches on a lot of issues. Classism. Racism. The loss of cultural heritage and homeland. But she deals with hem subtly and always in context of the story. We absolutely feel for Lovey when she is made fun of. We get angry at her when she picks on others from a different cultural background. Our heart aches when her father tells how his own father never saw Japan again before he died. It is all beautifully done.Yamanaka also captures the spirit of the island. She doesn't do this by describing details of the locales, but rather by the use of Hawaiian Creole (pidgin) in the dialog and the prose. The result is a vivid portrayal of time and place that feels like home for us non-Hawaiian readers, yet is different enough so that we know we aren't in our own home. Likewise, Yamanaka brings emotional truth to the story, a universality that draws us to each of the characters. In the end, while we know we aren't a teen Japanese American girl, we understand and can empathize with all she is going through.For those readers who grew up in the 70s, there is a lot here that will let you take a stroll down memory lane and which helps to provide the emotional connection to the characters. Yamanaka gets all the details right, from Bobby Sherman to wax coke bottle candies.Perhaps the best thing about this novel is that while Lovey is covetous of those around her, her life is allowing her to build something more precious than the right clothes or the right tape recorder...she's building memories that will last forever.I can not imaging coming-of-age novels getting any better than this and I can not recommend this book more strongly.

The "misfit coming of age" genre of novel has a long pedigree. This time, the story is of a girl from a working class Japanese family trying to navigate the race and class divisions of 1970's Hilo, Hawaii. This is not the happy Hawaii most tourists see. The story is by turns funny, poignant, cruel, and hopeful. Just what the genre calls for. The author's unique addition here is the use of the Hawaiian creole (often called, inaccurately, pidgin) in the dialogue, which gives the voices in this tale an authenticity that is very rich. If the story itself is not terribly original, it is still a lively and interesting read and illuminates aspects of Hawaiian life that are invisible to most Americans.

Yamanaka does an amazing job of story telling while conveying the essence of Hawaiian people in the book. This is fictional story of a young girl named Lovey that belongs to a working class family in Hawaii. Most of the book is about her adventures with her friend Jerry, but touches on sensitive subjects such as the power of western influences, poverty, and family. Lovey doesn’t belong to what people would call “traditional” family, but Yamanaka uses Lovey’s family to derail that perception. Lovey’s family might not seem perfect with her mother always yelling, and her father trying to raise Lovey as the son he never had, but it showing that there is no such thing as perfect. Families across cultures are very different in the way they speak and interact with their family members and Yamanaka does an amazing job at conveying this message. I liked to read the dynamics of the family as the tone of Lovey’s mom reminded me a lot of my family growing up, and how others might have also negatively stereotyped us as not “traditional,” or too aggressive. Such an amazing read.

Born and raised in Hilo myself (although a decade later than the book's setting), the story of Lovey Nariyoshi brought back both my own fond memories and reminded me of the struggles of growing up local in Hawaii. I find that movie makers often produce movies of being the "haole victim" in Hawaii (ie newcomers to the islands are bullied, treated unfairly, etc.). This book illustrates that the exact opposite is also very real in the islands (ie local people scrutinized for use of pidgin, lower social status than weathier white people, poverty, etc.). It is a book that I can finally truly say I can relate to. I highly recommend this book to anyone from or living in the islands!

Lois-Ann Yamanaka's "Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers" is a book thats not only informative but teaches great life lessons. Lovey is a great character that shows many issues that we deal in current contemporary society. This book is very informative on the trials and tribulations of such sensitive topics such as discriminations against culture, language, sexual orientation, and interpersonal conflicts. This book shows and compels the reading public to think twice of how American Media and cultured have essentially changed and shaped other cultures in the world. Coming from an ethnic culture I can relate to Lovey, as a diverse individual I've experienced this first hand an reading this book brought my eyes to fruition that much of the discriminations that happen in the U.S. happen abroad.

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