Morningside Heights: New York Stories
This collection of short stories chronicles the life of a Japanese American born and raised on the edge of Harlem after his family moved to New York following internment during World War II. Set largely in the neighborhood near Columbia University, it provides a unique perspective of a multicultural community in transition, navigating the issues of identity, death, the Vietnam War, drugs, military duty, and coming of age as a minority in a time of turmoil.
These well-crafted tales are told in Tsujimoto’s poetic combination of New York street and elevated diction, reflecting the life of a high school dropout who eventually finds his way to college and a more fulfilling adult life.
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September 23rd, 2009 at 8:43 am
I've often been asked how much of my writing in "Morningside Heights" is fiction and how much is autobiography. But they never tell me what parts or events, of which stories, they have in mind. Is this person real? did this actually take place? Maybe they wonder about certain "facts" or the "truth" behind certain racy parts. I don't quite know what they want. I call them all stories, meaning fictions, becasue of the way they have been rendered. Does this explanation help?
September 23rd, 2009 at 10:11 am
Joe, I was one of the last pre-publication readers of the book, since I had the opportunity to help proof for Bamboo Ridge. As I read the stories for the first time, and then a second time, I just lost myself in them, and the autobiographical question never truly mattered. It was the real world, and it was a fictional world, both at once, and that was just fine. I love stories that have a strong sense of place, and these stories have it. It's a book filled with passion and poetry.
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Thanks, Michael--"a strong sense of place" is probably what I lack (among other things) in my new writing. I'll remember that. Wonder if rereading my own stories will help. I know this is highly hypothetical, but do you think that there are narrative stragtegies found acceptable in a short work that (excepting James Joyce) would not be "endured," say, in a novel?
September 23rd, 2009 at 1:30 pm
I do agree that it would help to reread your own stories. Each has a very particular time and place, especially in the New York stories, which have street names and names of schools and bars, as well as historical references. I'm not sure what narrative strategies you're referring to. The fiction writer enjoys a healthy amount of freedom in how he tells his story, but you want to bring the reader along with you. Sharing a story with a reader you trust is one way to find out.