Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories

HISAYE YAMAMOTO received the 1986 American Book Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Before Columbus Foundation. Seventeen Syllables received the 1988 Award for Literature from the Association for Asian American Studies.

These remarkable stories are written with the proportion and craft of the mastersùthere are hints of Chekhov, Elizabeth Bowen, Katherine Mansfield, and Grace Paley. . . . Each of the fifteen short stories, written with the economy of haiku, is a treasure. (Booklist) These remarkable stories are written with the proportion and craft of the mastersùthere are hints of Chekhov, Elizabeth Bowen, Katherine Mansfield, and Grace Paley. . . . Each of the fifteen short stories, written with the economy of haiku, is a treasure. (Booklist) The writing of history and the telling of stories are in our time very different. But these stories about the daily lives of Japanese American women in and out of the World War II internment camps of the United States are history and herstory. The women are gutsy or fragileùthat is, like any of us would be caught in exile while at home. The stories are beautifully written so we feel them even more deeply. (Grace Paley) The writing of history and the telling of stories are in our time very different. But these stories about the daily lives of Japanese American women in and out of the World War II internment camps of the United States are history and herstory. The women are gutsy or fragileùthat is, like any of us would be caught in exile while at home. The stories are beautifully written so we feel them even more deeply. (Grace Paley) You can imagine my delight to learn that a collection of her work is now finally seeing the light of day. How good that feels. At last more people will be touched by the grace that flows through Hisaye YamamotoÆs pen. The world will be a better place because of it. (Joy Kogawa) You can imagine my delight to learn that a collection of her work is now finally seeing the light of day. How good that feels. At last more people will be touched by the grace that flows through Hisaye YamamotoÆs pen. The world will be a better place because of it. (Joy Kogawa) Reading Hisaye Yamamoto's Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories is like sitting down and having a good talk with someone who really remembers, someone who will open a door to her feelings and thoughts about what it has meant to be Japanese American during the last 40 years. . . . Seventeen Syllables is an excellent resource, one that keeps getting better with time. (International Examiner: The Pacific Reader) Reading Hisaye Yamamoto's Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories is like sitting down and having a good talk with someone who really remembers, someone who will open a door to her feelings and thoughts about what it has meant to be Japanese American during the last 40 years. . . . Seventeen Syllables is an excellent resource, one that keeps getting better with time. (International Examiner: The Pacific Reader)

• ContentsIntroduction ixThe High-Heeled Shoes, A Memoir 1Seventeen Syllables 8The Legend of Miss Sasagawara 20Wilshire Bus 34The Brown House 39Yoneko's Earthquake 46Morning Rain 57Epithalamium 60Las Vegas Charley 70Life Among the Oil Fields, A Memoir 86The Eskimo Connection 96My Father Can Beat Muhammad Ali 105Underground Lady 109A Day in Little Tokyo 114Reading and Writing 122Preface to the Revised and Expanded Edition 129Death Rides the Rails to Poston 131Eucalyptus 142A Fire in Fontana 150Florentine Gardens 158Selected Bibliography 173