Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories brings together nineteen stories that span Hisaye Yamamoto's forty-year career. It was her first book to be published in the United States. Yamamoto's themes include the cultural conflicts between the first generation, the Issei, and their children, the Nisei; coping with prejudice; and the World War II internment of Japanese Americans.
In addition to the contents of the original volume, this edition brings back into print the following works:
- Death Rides the Rails to Poston
- Eucalyptus
- A Fire in Fontana
- Florentine Gardens
Contents
Introduction ix
The High-Heeled Shoes, A Memoir 1
Seventeen Syllables 8
The Legend of Miss Sasagawara 20
Wilshire Bus 34
The Brown House 39
Yoneko's Earthquake 46
Morning Rain 57
Epithalamium 60
Las Vegas Charley 70
Life Among the Oil Fields, A Memoir 86
The Eskimo Connection 96
My Father Can Beat Muhammad Ali 105
Underground Lady 109
A Day in Little Tokyo 114
Reading and Writing 122
Preface to the Revised and Expanded Edition 129
Death Rides the Rails to Poston 131
Eucalyptus 142
A Fire in Fontana 150
Florentine Gardens 158
Selected Bibliography 173
