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Marc Aronson's response to my question
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From: Ginny Kruse <gmkruse>
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 1996 12:05:00 -600
Marc Aronson responded to my question about Kyoko Mori's novels set in contemporary with the following comments. Although he addressed the message to me, he has indicated I may forward it to the CCBC-NET community...
Forwarded Mail received from: Ginny Kruse
Date: 03/11/1996 07:54 am (Monday) Subject: German YA -Reply
Ginny,
Sure, though I fear I'm taking up too much of your time. Just last week a good friend of mine whose father was Indian (as in India) - Guyanese interviewed Kyoko for the Asian American Writers journal -- that is not the title, I can find that out for you. Marina was guest editing an issue. She had read ONE BIRD, and I had also read to her some sentences in a new Korean coming of age novel I'm editing (it will be called THE LONG SEASON OF RAIN, a first novel by Helen Kim). Marina made a fascinating observation: the East Asian writers' work is, in a word, composed. There is a kind of ultimate calm even in dramatic moments, as the author regards all the details of a scene as she evokes it. Indian writers, on the other hand, are much more sprawling, much more lavish and loose, think of MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN. I had noticed in working with Kyoko how precise and concrete she is. No matter what she is describing, she sees the world very practically, in physical details. That always gives the physical a kind of spiritual, emotional presence. This is not mystical. It is just that a pot, a bird, a tree, a dress is so specific, so vivid, so concrete that it assumes the importance Western writers might give to love, or anger, or desire. Before I ever read Kyoko's work this is what I was drawn to in classical Japanese writers like Kawabata. The great thrill for me in finding her was someone who had that sensibility on the highest level of poetry and craft, and yet had a story to tell to teenage readers. That was a great gift, for which I am endlessly grateful. Helen's writing has its own qualities, which we can discuss when you have a chance to read her novel. There is a similar precision, but it is about the very finely?librated emotional relationships in a traditional Korean family.
What Marina and Kyoko have in common is an interest in inbetweeness. Marina's mother is Russian Jewish, Kyoko's life is now in America. The homelessness, and yet also doubled-visioned perspective, that both experience is very interesting to me. Perhaps because both of my parents were immigrants, I have a strong affinity for the sense of being in distinct worlds simultaneously. But of that, more anon.
Marc
gmkruse at mail.soemadison.wisc.edu
75664.3110 at compuserve.com Received: from arl-img-4.compuserve.com [198.4.7.4] by mail.soemadison.wisc.edu Received: by arl-img-4.compuserve.com (8.6.10/5.950515)
id IAA11342; Mon, 11 Mar 1996 08:55:50 00 Date: 11 Mar 96 08:54:08 EST From: "Marc Aronson (14)" To: "\"Ginny Kruse\"" Subject: German YA -Reply Message-ID:
-
Received on Mon 11 Mar 1996 12:05:00 PM CST
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 1996 12:05:00 -600
Marc Aronson responded to my question about Kyoko Mori's novels set in contemporary with the following comments. Although he addressed the message to me, he has indicated I may forward it to the CCBC-NET community...
Forwarded Mail received from: Ginny Kruse
Date: 03/11/1996 07:54 am (Monday) Subject: German YA -Reply
Ginny,
Sure, though I fear I'm taking up too much of your time. Just last week a good friend of mine whose father was Indian (as in India) - Guyanese interviewed Kyoko for the Asian American Writers journal -- that is not the title, I can find that out for you. Marina was guest editing an issue. She had read ONE BIRD, and I had also read to her some sentences in a new Korean coming of age novel I'm editing (it will be called THE LONG SEASON OF RAIN, a first novel by Helen Kim). Marina made a fascinating observation: the East Asian writers' work is, in a word, composed. There is a kind of ultimate calm even in dramatic moments, as the author regards all the details of a scene as she evokes it. Indian writers, on the other hand, are much more sprawling, much more lavish and loose, think of MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN. I had noticed in working with Kyoko how precise and concrete she is. No matter what she is describing, she sees the world very practically, in physical details. That always gives the physical a kind of spiritual, emotional presence. This is not mystical. It is just that a pot, a bird, a tree, a dress is so specific, so vivid, so concrete that it assumes the importance Western writers might give to love, or anger, or desire. Before I ever read Kyoko's work this is what I was drawn to in classical Japanese writers like Kawabata. The great thrill for me in finding her was someone who had that sensibility on the highest level of poetry and craft, and yet had a story to tell to teenage readers. That was a great gift, for which I am endlessly grateful. Helen's writing has its own qualities, which we can discuss when you have a chance to read her novel. There is a similar precision, but it is about the very finely?librated emotional relationships in a traditional Korean family.
What Marina and Kyoko have in common is an interest in inbetweeness. Marina's mother is Russian Jewish, Kyoko's life is now in America. The homelessness, and yet also doubled-visioned perspective, that both experience is very interesting to me. Perhaps because both of my parents were immigrants, I have a strong affinity for the sense of being in distinct worlds simultaneously. But of that, more anon.
Marc
gmkruse at mail.soemadison.wisc.edu
75664.3110 at compuserve.com Received: from arl-img-4.compuserve.com [198.4.7.4] by mail.soemadison.wisc.edu Received: by arl-img-4.compuserve.com (8.6.10/5.950515)
id IAA11342; Mon, 11 Mar 1996 08:55:50 00 Date: 11 Mar 96 08:54:08 EST From: "Marc Aronson (14)" To: "\"Ginny Kruse\"" Subject: German YA -Reply Message-ID:
-
Received on Mon 11 Mar 1996 12:05:00 PM CST
