A Cab Called Reliable : A Novel About Growing Up In America

Rating:
Summary: How did she do it?
Review: "A Cab Called Reliable..." did the job of telling a story of culture, tradition, and growing up in a way few authors can do. Instaid of falling into the "coming of age" novel trap, Patti Kim made it into a beautifully disturbing tale that carries the reader gently through the tumultious world of Ahn Joo, a young Korean American growing up in modern-day Virginia. One can only hope it never ends, as Kim tells the tale so wonderfully, yet somethign so stark was never so poetic and as wonderfully written. Patti Kim deserves a few more book deals, just so more and more people can read her flowing prose and twisting story lines.

Rating:
Summary: Good book!
Review: After reading Chang-rae Lee, this book is a breath of fresh air. The writing style is impressionistic and not a tightly written narrative and prose, and that allows for you to get much closer to what Ahn-Joo's interior and emotional world is like, things which of course don't come neatly packaged. I feel that her ability to get in touch with this painful interiority is what enables and inspires her to survive and strive. She is able to capture the interminable sadness of her father's life and what is a common Korean drama of mourning the legacy of abusive and repressed Korean fathers. The stilted writing of Chang-rae Lee's writing reflects the dilemma of his repressed characters but it also seems to close the door to trying to figure out a way that they might transcend being repressed, afraid and self-hating. Somehow Patti Kim achieves that.

I think it's wonderful that she has found the strength to tell her story in a way that isn't contrived. What is really frustrating about Asian American literature is NOT that it's just a way to mourn the difficulties of growing up in a white culture (a very white-centric view), but rather that any Asian American is trying to use the dominant culture's literature and point of view to express their own point of view. This poses frustrating paradoxes but Patti Kim does a great job of weaving in lots of different ways of describing her life.

If a lot of Asian American literature sounds like a lot of whining about white culture then please come up with a better way to express the Asian American point of view in the absence of any distinctive "Asian American Culture" outside of white culture. Maybe this "whining" is a way of feeling one's place out in in the dark: the emotional and psychological side of what it means to belong to both a dominant culture and ethnic subculture, both of which you can never really put your finger on except for the fact that both often hurt you and make you feel permanently rejected by other people who don't understand. An Asian American writer is further burdened with the responsibility of speaking for all of those voices that never get heard, especially from all the people who live incredibly painful and stunted lives because of the immigrant process and barely know how to stand up for themselves. It means that the literature (and many second-generation lives) have the burden of trying to make up for all of that, and of course nothing is ever going to be comprehensive enough or able to capture the immense sense of loss and muteness of millions of immigrants.

What I love about this book is that the narrator seems to stay true to herself and how she feels and what she sees. You can actually feel her submerging at times to her father's stories and imagining an entire Korea she only knows through him and she becomes obsessed with trying to make sense of them. The same thing seems to happen with her father and how she tries to interpret American culture that only she can really grasp, even if tenuously: the only way he can make sense of it is to work ridiculously hard and hope his daughter's life will make sense of it for him--which it can't. But either way, it seems she's trying to write a personal landscape that makes more sense to her and that's what seems vital, rather than mourning that she'll never fit in.

Rating:
Summary: Good book!
Review: After reading Chang-rae Lee, this book is a breath of fresh air. The writing style is impressionistic and not a tightly written narrative and prose, and that allows for you to get much closer to what Ahn-Joo's interior and emotional world is like, things which of course don't come neatly packaged. I feel that her ability to get in touch with this painful interiority is what enables and inspires her to survive and strive. She is able to capture the interminable sadness of her father's life and what is a common Korean drama of mourning the legacy of abusive and repressed Korean fathers. The stilted writing of Chang-rae Lee's writing reflects the dilemma of his repressed characters but it also seems to close the door to trying to figure out a way that they might transcend being repressed, afraid and self-hating. Somehow Patti Kim achieves that.

I think it's wonderful that she has found the strength to tell her story in a way that isn't contrived. What is really frustrating about Asian American literature is NOT that it's just a way to mourn the difficulties of growing up in a white culture (a very white-centric view), but rather that any Asian American is trying to use the dominant culture's literature and point of view to express their own point of view. This poses frustrating paradoxes but Patti Kim does a great job of weaving in lots of different ways of describing her life.

If a lot of Asian American literature sounds like a lot of whining about white culture then please come up with a better way to express the Asian American point of view in the absence of any distinctive "Asian American Culture" outside of white culture. Maybe this "whining" is a way of feeling one's place out in in the dark: the emotional and psychological side of what it means to belong to both a dominant culture and ethnic subculture, both of which you can never really put your finger on except for the fact that both often hurt you and make you feel permanently rejected by other people who don't understand. An Asian American writer is further burdened with the responsibility of speaking for all of those voices that never get heard, especially from all the people who live incredibly painful and stunted lives because of the immigrant process and barely know how to stand up for themselves. It means that the literature (and many second-generation lives) have the burden of trying to make up for all of that, and of course nothing is ever going to be comprehensive enough or able to capture the immense sense of loss and muteness of millions of immigrants.

What I love about this book is that the narrator seems to stay true to herself and how she feels and what she sees. You can actually feel her submerging at times to her father's stories and imagining an entire Korea she only knows through him and she becomes obsessed with trying to make sense of them. The same thing seems to happen with her father and how she tries to interpret American culture that only she can really grasp, even if tenuously: the only way he can make sense of it is to work ridiculously hard and hope his daughter's life will make sense of it for him--which it can't. But either way, it seems she's trying to write a personal landscape that makes more sense to her and that's what seems vital, rather than mourning that she'll never fit in.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, excellent, excellent
Review: Growing up in Maryland, I knew Patti in the years before she wrote the book and I knew that she'd do an awesome job. The book is full of feeling and the style is beautifully mastered. The story is very real and heart-twanging. You'll laugh, cry, and never put the book down until the very last page. I congratulate an awesome woman for writing a masterpiece. I'm not at all surprised.

Rating:
Summary: SANGUINELY SENSATIONAL
Review: Perfect for those looking for something that straddles the line between light, romantic reading and soul invoking literature. Patti Kim's first novel, "A Cab Called Reliable", offers a bit of both, and will certainly leave readers yearning for her next published work. This short, coming of age novel tells the struggle of a young girl trying to find herself, her heritage, and her family.

Our spirited, slighted protagonist, young Ahn Joo, is left alone; her only semblance of guidance coming from a cantankerous, alcoholic father, who is more concerned with the stickiness of his rice than the well being of his family. Tragically, this sweet, innocent girl is deserted not out of circumstances beyond anyone's control, but because the mother she reveres couldn't take it any more and simply left, taking Ahn's favored younger brother. What follows is the story of a confused, prepubescent girl forced to manage something a grown woman was not capable of. At the tender age of 9, Ahn Joo is not only expected to figure out how to become a successful, independent young woman; she is also is sidled with the task of raising a father, and making him into productive, member of American society. She does both beautifully, though not without any growing pains. Undergoing the trials and tribulations of maturing, Ahn Joo uncovers disturbing secrets of her ancestry, perplexing mysteries about herself - what she is supposed to be, and unnerving ideas regarding life in general. The only one she can count on to resolve and make sense of these countless predicaments is herself. All this while Ahn Joo constantly searches for a mother's love and acceptance that she sadly never finds. Remarkably, instead of using these numerous maladies that have plagued her life as an excuse not to prosper, she has the tremendous ability to turn them inward and develop her exceptional talent as a writer.

Some have criticized that this novel does not portray the average asian-American household in an avuncular light, or that it as not as ethnic as the typical Asian-American novel; but typicality is over-rated. `A Cab Called Reliable is real. Certainly the characters in this novel do not fulfill the average American's typecast of the generic immigrant Asian, but that makes this wonderful work all the more interesting and much more endearing. The author has the ability to appeal to multiple nationalities, transcend the hurdles of racism and relate to all readers, no matter what provenience they possess.

Upon reading this novel, one can't help but catch the eccentric, lively spirit and optimism of Ahn Joo. With it's completion, you may be a little stronger, a bit wiser and more ready to tackle your greatest obstacles. The reader will have renewed faith in the ideal that patience and perseverance can heed astounding results, even if it doesn't bestow the story book endings you set out to find.

Rating:
Summary: beautifully written
Review: the content is real, moving, touching, emotional, humorous, and takes you back in time and yet it pulls you in and out. patti kim really has done something interesting-- the writing is beautiful and playful prose that reflect some of the thought process and creativity that flows from the protagonist (ahn joo)'s head.

and i really liked it that this book doesn't have to be a "korean-american book" since the story seems to transcend that cultural realm into something more human: of growing up, coming to terms with your reality and wants, of relationships with people in your life, etc.

Rating:
Summary: no model minorities here
Review: The main character, Ahn Joo, writes a short story in middle school which wins first place. In it, she lists phrases that her Korean mother, who has abandoned her, says to her as a child--sharp, mean, and brutally vicious words. Afterwards, a classmate whispers to her that it was way too dark, depressing, weird. In a sense, so is this novel.

This is not a book for children, although the protagonist is a child. But it really is a portrait of a dysfunctional immigrant family with lots of sexual, mental and physical abuse. At times, Kim almost goes overboard with the listing and the descriptions, but she always pulls back a little and you find it to be a pretty engaging read, and short enough to not get bogged down in despair.

She apparently wrote this for a college literary journal, and it does have that morose, over-obsessive quality to it; but make no bones about it, this novel somehow pulls it off despte being bleak, bleak, bleak. I think she portrays the alcoholic father, especially toward the end, with some sympathy and affection as he struggles to carve out a living and a home for the two. I actually enjoyed reading how he manages to save money and keep trying to work his [backside] off for the two of them. And the mother's psycho behavior is explained with a little twist at the end, a perfectly dark explanation for all this dysfunction.

In the end, I would say it was a very well-written and interesting read. Unfortunately, it points more toward the author's own neurosis and mental health than anything else--you wonder if any of this is autobiographical b/c it's so spare and brutal--and what major issues she must have undergone to come up with someting so utterly dreadful and dysfunctional. The child is definitely gonna need counseling since she's a bit cuckoo already. But it does have power and it is different from your average Asian American fare. For bold, fearless venturers, it's a short detour through immigrant hell.

Rating:
Summary: no model minorities here
Review: Yes, I remember that I read this years ago just because I was living in Washington DC at the time and found this book somehow falimiar simply because where it was set. But I did have no further impression than that this was a book meant to be for a kid/young adults and would hardly entertaine mature audiences. I kept on believing it until I saw those raving reviews on this. Are they really talking about the same book? Was I missing something or they are overrating? I gave two stars because it could have been totally acceptable if it was marketed for kids. This writing does not meet the standard of novel. The trouble in this work was that it relied too much on the foreigness of Korean culture that even the author did not seem to know enough to write about. Consequently, the whole story appeared to be unconvincing, imbalanced and UNRELIABLE.