Title Mongrel : Essays, Diatribes, Pranks

Rating:
Summary: Uneven, but Unpretentious Wisdom
Review: I found that this "best of" collection lacked some connecting tissue as evidenced by the weaker pieces embedded among more memorable and noteworthy essays. Yet the book delivered what it promised: the insightful, humorous perspective of a class and race conscious social commentator. A young writer (in both age and publication track record), Chin is a talent to watch. Once he begins to move away from sexuality-centered writing, I think he will discover a wealth of ingenuity and thought in his own work.

Rating:
Summary: A wondrous, devious little book, full of itself, yes, but
Review: Mongrel is a wondrous, devious little book, full of itself, yes, but also full of innovative insights about being a diasporic Chinese in white America and a contrarian gay in a politically correct Bay Area in love with it self too much. I especially like his wry take on Singapore as a homey mall (his first home), and on his trip through the whitey south on a shoestring poet's budget. Justin Chin is a legend in Hawai'i, where I write and teach, and now I see why; and he should send Morgan Blair an inscribed copy of his book so she (one of his teachers)can see that he remembers her amid the postmodern muck of it all.