Rating: 
Summary: Funny, Beautifully Written, Ulitmately Dark
Review: T.C. Boyle is a wonderful writer, but his view of humanity certainly is a dark one. Yes, the characters--except for Hiro Tanaka--are shallow, but I kept wanting them to be something better than they were. If the book were filled with nothing more than shallow characters, then it wouldn't be such a gripping read. But they have moments of promise. The fact that they don't live up to these moments is what makes Boyle's worldview so depressing and what leaves such a bad taste in my mouth at the end. But that's arguing with Boyle as a philospher--as a writer, he's superb.Boyle takes a special glee in the debunking of romantic myths, institutions and characters. In THE ROAD TO WELLVILLE it's the Kellog cereal empire. In WATER MUSIC it's the British exploration of Africa. Still, his attitude towards his fellow man seems a bit warmer in THE ROAD TO WELLVILLE (though not in WATER MUSIC). Both of these are great novels as well.
Rating:
Summary: An good novel, but not nearly as good as Boyle's other books
Review: T.C. Boyle's books are always a joy to read, because of the author's expert use of the language. East is East, however, doesn't quite match up to the rest of the Opus. The quirky realism the author usually displays doesn't shine in this novel, and it's characters appear more as satirical caricatures than merely unusual people. The novel is better than works by most other authors, but not as good as it's own author's other work.
Rating:
Summary: Tragedy + Improbability + Boyle = Comedy!
Review: T.C. Boyle, or whatever name he chooses to attach to his writing, is more fun to read than any other American author I can think of. His prose is not for those who seek an author who is economical with his writing, rather, every word, every sentence, is an adventure to be savored. Beneath all the literary pyrotechnics however, Boyle raises real issues in all of his work. In this book, as in many others, he paints a savage portrait of America and the American dream. IN East is East, its America as perceived by a Japanese half-breed seaman who jumps ship and lands smack dab in a swamp (both literally and figuratively) of American excess and shallowness. THe book alternates between its portrayal of the poor seaman and the colony of artists he lands in, where he is mistaken for all sorts of figures, including an artist and an arsonist/murderer. WE follow his misadventures as one of the writer/artists hides him from the law that seeks him while she also tries desperately to find the fame, fortune and recogniton she feels she is so entitled too. One misunderstanding and one funny scene after another builds up to a tragedy and farce of epic proportions as Boyle rips apart every misconception Americans and foreigners have of one another, what they do, and how they live. AS in some of the author's other books, especially Tortilla Curtain, his dual structure alternates between the two main characters. In East is East, its the Japenese seaman and the hack female writer in residence at the artists colony who winds up using him (in more than one way!) to write a story. The danger in any dual structure is that we will be more sympathetic to one story over the other. Boyle hints at where his sympathies lie by naming the seaman Hiro (Hero?), but I was not swayed. The weakness of Boyle's farce is that he so lambasts all the characters that he ends up denying any dignity to any of them. But still, of all of BOyle's books, this one is the most fun to read, but should probably not be taken as seriously as some of his other work. Just enjoy the author's unparalled use of the English language and the brilliant ways he skewers nearly everyone in the book. Can't wait for the next one, due out in September 2000!
Rating: 
Summary: Clever but rather shallow with a title that is bothersome
Review: The book is clever. The characters are shallow. The title "East is East" is bothersome. Kipling's words "East is East and West is West and Never the Twain shall meet" are well know. The author would be well advised to read a few more lines of Kipling's "Ballad of East and West".----------"East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet -- till earth and sky stand presently before God's judgement seat -- but there is neither East nor West, border nor breed nor birth --- When two strong men stand face to face though they come from the ends of the earth".
Rating: 
Summary: A very good read.
Review: The other reviews here just about cover it. T.C. Boyle is very talented
Rating:
Summary: A Cross-cultural Carnival Ride
Review: The principal story line of this novel is as improbable as a summer snowflake. Its unlikely concatenation of events is at times so bizarre and unexpected that one might suspect its author of attempting to birth a new genre: coincidental science fiction. There is a Keystone Kops quality to the behavior of most of the characters involved. They zoom about wildly, make implausible decisions, and generally bump about and into one another with such abandon that they soon begin to resemble slightly sub-human crash cars in some monstrously manipulated demolition derby. Nearly everyone here is two-dimensional at best, a kind of slapstick army of cardboard manikins which are pretty in the frontal view but only an eighth of an inch thick when viewed from any angle. Nearly every one of them is as unattractive as a Kansas twister on that longed-for picnic day. Eek! A hundred pages into the narrative, the reader might begin to despair of ever encountering anyone in this book whose personal waters are anything deeper than those of a child's poorly-filled wading pool. And yet...that's the point! In "East is East" T. Coraghessan Boyle has painted a devastating portrait of people whose humanity is thinner and more slippery than a sheet of greased plastic wrap. Some of them are meaner than the proverbial rattler left intentionally in a waiting baby carriage, chessycat grins stretched across their faces like pretty ribbons on packages containing time bombs, lethal poisons, viral strains. This novel is clever. It makes scathing denunciations of just abot everyone immured within its pages, made of pure asbestos to contain the firey topics inside. For such a light and farcical book, it offers any number of serious subjects for reflection. But most of all it is entertaining as all get-out, a jolting ride on a particularly malevolent roller coaster. How can you not read it?
Rating:
Summary: Not nearly as good as the reviews led me to believe
Review: The story revolves around a young Japanese/American "half breed" who flees from Japan to find himself in America. He's hoping to find acceptance in the great melting pot of America. Unfortunately he lands in redneck Georgia and is met with contempt and racism from the minute he washes ashore.
It's all down hill from there for Hiro in his attempts to make it to the city of brotherly love.
This book was given to me by a friend with assurances that I would love it. How wrong he was. I found the writing to be tedious and over done. Much of the time I spent reading I was thinking "who cares?". While the characters were well developed much of the book was spent on details that didn't seem to matter to the story.
I would have just stopped reading it about 1/2 way through if I didn't have a hang up on not finishing a book I start. My recommendations on this book are to spend your money elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Not nearly as good as the reviews led me to believe
Review: The story revolves around a young Japanese/American "half breed" who flees from Japan to find himself in America. He's hoping to find acceptance in the great melting pot of America. Unfortunately he lands in redneck Georgia and is met with contempt and racism from the minute he washes ashore.
It's all down hill from there for Hiro in his attempts to make it to the city of brotherly love.
This book was given to me by a friend with assurances that I would love it. How wrong he was. I found the writing to be tedious and over done. Much of the time I spent reading I was thinking "who cares?". While the characters were well developed much of the book was spent on details that didn't seem to matter to the story.
I would have just stopped reading it about 1/2 way through if I didn't have a hang up on not finishing a book I start. My recommendations on this book are to spend your money elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: A thought-provoking read
Review: There are some highly comedic scenes in this novel of a young seaman of Japanese-American parentage who finds himself in the midst of a Georgia swamp after jumping ship, but the reader is soon aware that it is the aura of impending doom which makes this story compelling. The tension increases chapter by chapter as we watch helplessly as ironic misunderstandings and prejudices bring about an inevitable tragic ending. The prejudice goes both ways; the Japanese-American seaman has as many skewed views of the Americans he finds on the Georgia Island as they do of him. This is really two stories in one as the writers' colony and the shallow, self-important people who inhabit it are a story unto themselves. The author's vivid descriptions of the Georgia swamplands are actually uncomfortable to read; one starts scratching at imaginary bug-bites while turning pages. The sad fact is that young Hiro Tanaka is not at home anywhere; as a gaijin, or half-breed, he has no place in Japanese society, and the welcome he thought he would find in America - the melting pot - is far from what he had dreamed. Boyle is a gifted writer, and East is East is as good as anything else he has written.
Rating:
Summary: Master of Fiction
Review: There is no doubt in my mind that TC Boyle reigns as the master of fiction. Here he sets up a unique story of a young japanese seaman who jumps ship and lands square in the muck of a Georgia swamp. He has no idea where he is and the people he meets has no idea what he is. But, everyone gets very excited and the story takes off in many directions at once. His experiences on the run are delightful and tragic. No one can put it together like Mr. Boyle. His books have yet to let me down.
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