A rather good character study by Tomine of Ben Tanaka, a young Japanese-American man who is, frankly, a bit of a dick. His various girlfriends (and his friends who are girls, who tend to be into girls themselves) all try to make him aware of his shortcomings (the title of the book is also of course a double entendre on Ben’s nervousness about the size of his own dick, which feeds into his behaving like one). Tomine manages to show us Ben’s failure to listen and still make him, if not sympathetic, at least comprehensible, and shows a convincing picture of what it’s like to be an Asian-American in California. Definitely worth picking up.
From the Heart of Europe
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Names on here are a joke – I know no more about you than you do about me so what’s the point? Hardly a worthwhile critism.
No, I don’t deny that Para 1 opened fire & there were innocent people killed in a tragic event in our history…but that was an established given before the Saville inquiry & was not the Saville inquiry’s objective.
I agree with you that the events of that day were probably the most politically significant – although not the bloodiest in terms of loss of life – & so like I said the outcome of the report was of great political significance itself…& only the very naive would refuse to see that it was pre-determined. So let’s say that everything that happened on that day occurred in the way you believe it did…the Saville report does not legitimate the victims families claims it robs it of any credibility it had – don’t you see that?
Hundreds of people gave evidence, few without a particular interest in the outcome & all speaking about an event over thirty years ago. An event which causes such high emotion & controversy to this day & at the time was a confusing mess. Many testimonies were utterly conflicting & even after 12 years it was impossible to establish exactly what happened. If this had been any other investigation about any other event the whole thing would’ve collapsed before it got started due to the period of time that had passed & the unreliability of the witness testimonies. It is only that it was an exercise in giving Tony Blair what he wanted that it was undertaken – it was secure his sell to the nationalist community into the peace process. The price they paid was the credibility of their cause…what? do you think the British government wouldn’t play such a trick?
You infer much about my own political ‘bias’ from my comment & so I will clarify that for you – as far as “Bloody Sunday” goes I think its probably best to apply the old method of getting to the truth…listen to both sides & somewhere in the grey murky area inbetween you will find the truth.
As for who I am? I’m Northern Irish & a combination of Ulster-Scots & Irish Catholic & I hate to see my fellow countrymen not being honest with each other. The fact is that Bloody Sunday was a tragic mess which wasn’t as black & white as some would like to make it.