This book is quite similar to another novel by T C Boyle, The Tortilla Curtain in that it is about a culture clash between American and illegal immigrants. But I thought this book had more depth, more interesting characters and showed more imagination than the other book.

In this case, the illegal is Hiro, a 20 year old Japanese cook who jumps off a ship, thinking he is arriving in mainland USA, but actually ending up on Tupelo Island, Georgia. Here he encounters locals not used to foreigners and an artists colony and through a series of misunderstandings becomes a wanted man.

The book has some great comic moments at times being almost a farce, there are some witty observations in there, particularly regarding the writers at the artists retreat and Boyle has a great turn of phrase. But there is a serious side to the book about the lack of understanding and mistrust between cultures that gives it a serious side and a certain poignancy.

It isn't a life-changing book by any means, but it is an enjoyable read. ( )

Boyle is one of my favorites. He is kooky. If you haven't read a Boyle novel yet, track down The Tortilla Curtain. It should be a modern classic. It should be read by high school students. East Is East is kind of the Asian version of The Tortilla Curtain. There are a lot of similar things happening between them. East Is East is definitely worth it, but I think if you haven't read Boyle yet, The Tortilla Curtain shouldn't be missed! ( )

Having an American father (a hippie who came to Japan to learn the koto), Hiro has been scorned and insulted as a gaijin throughout his childhood. Driven out of merchant navy school, he has been able to achieve nothing better in life than the lowly status of third-class cook on a freighter. After a dispute about a recipe lands him in the ship's lock-up, he decides to make a new life for himself in America. Unfortunately, the ship is sailing along the coast of Georgia at the time, and Hiro swims ashore to find himself stranded on an island in the most obscure corner of the deep South.

Hiro is baffled to find that instead of Brotherly Love, he is greeted at every step with fear and suspicion. More and more isolated, his only solace is Mishima's commentary on The way of the samurai. Then Ruth, lowliest resident of the island's exclusive retreat for writers and artists, starts to take pity on him.

As often with Boyle, this book shows us ordinary, civilised and not especially successful people pushed into extreme situations and coping in surprising ways. The overweight, not very bright ship's cook becomes a samurai warrior; the eternal creative writing student puts down her glamorous rival and scores a lucrative book deal; the failed biologist discovers the elusive albino pygmy sunfish. In the process, of course we get to laugh at Japanese views of America, American views of Japan, rednecks, writers, avant-garde music, writers, writers (oh, did I mention writers....?).

I seem to have had this book sitting on my shelves for 12 years before reading beyond the second chapter, and judging by the number of copies and absence of reviews on LT so far, I'm not the only one. Which is a bit unfair to Boyle: it's not his best book, and it's rather too similar in its themes to The tortilla curtain, but it does have quite a bit of entertainment value, and did make me wonder whether it isn't about time to re-read Mishima... ( )