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MASSACHUSETTS REVIEWS: The Poetics of Refraction in House A By Jennifer S. Cheng

December 1, 2016 - By Floyd Cheung

House A. By Jennifer S. Cheng
(Omnidawn Publishing, 2016)

Longing for home recurs as a theme in Asian American literature. Works by both immigrant and US-born writers, especially older ones, often focus on links to a distant Asian homeland or the desire to feel at home in America. Separation from an Asian homeland can follow from voluntary immigration or forced migration, opportunity or war, among other forces. Once in the United States, Asian Americans can feel at a loss on account of blatant racism as well as subtler notions of cultural citizenship. Who among us—first generation or fifth—hasn’t heard the imperative to “go back...

OUR AMERICA: Those Who Don’t Know their History. . .

November 30, 2016 - By Igiaba Scego

New York, Chinatown, early 1900s. (Photo: Byron Company, Library of Congress)

AFTER THE US ELECTIONS and the resounding victory of Donald Trump, the word “fascism” has been trotted out widely in public discussions. Even during his campaign the new President-elect was associated from time to time with the figures of both Benito Mussolini and Adoph Hitler. Some writers, especially in Italy, also compared him to ex-Prime Minister (also billionaire) Silvio Berlusconi (even though, we should recall, the Italian leader did distance himself from the American). Some analysts labored further, defining Trump as a right-wing Hugo Chávez, a KKK caudillo.  Each of these pairings have something in common: they all explain the Trump phenomenon...

OUR AMERICA: Dissent

November 29, 2016 - By Anonymous

The exercise of power and the capacity for its abuse takes many forms. It is not confined to Donald Trump.

In the current moment, it is frighteningly evident that individuals poised to hold positions of power within our government will likely exercise that power abusively. But, in our grief over the election and its aftermath, we should also maintain a constant watchfulness for abuses of power on the part of those holding any and all positions of institutional authority, whether within a corporation, a university, or a department.

Rather than positioning ourselves as victims – and turning to someone else in a position of institutional authority to “rescue” us...

OUR AMERICA: Greater America

November 28, 2016 - By Ulvija Tanović

Across our Facebook newsfeeds, we Balkanites like to accuse each other of a particular form of navel-gazing that verges on conspiracy theory. We often fall prey to seeing our relatively unimportant little region, down at the unfashionable end of Europe, as the belly button of the world. It’s a defence mechanism at heart. Because the world actually won’t give us the time of day, unless we’re spectacularly slaughtering each other; in times of relative, unspectacular peace, we try to infiltrate world affairs by posing as jaded know-it-alls, sages who’ve seen it all before. A sort of grand, historical “been there, done...

Our America: What The Orange Man Showed Us

November 22, 2016 - By Pedja Jurišić

“Relax,” I told my friends, one evening after Donald Trump emerged as the Republican nominee for the presidency. “Make popcorn, then sit back and enjoy the collapse of the Republican party.”

“How could we have been so wrong?” many of us have been asking ever since.

The simplest answer is that we thought Americans were better than all the vile, poisonous shallows embodied in Trump’s ludicrous figure. And that was true for even those of us who don’t regard the United States as particularly good—at home or abroad.

So what does that Tuesday...