156 pp. May 1994
paper, ISBN 978-0-8248-1677-3, $15.99
cloth, ISBN 978-0-8248-1647-6, $21.99
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Keywords: |
literature
Hawaii
Asian American studies
textbook |
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Five Years on a Rock
by Milton Murayama
Winner of the 1995 Ka Palapala Po‘okela Award for Excellence in Literature
“In Five Years On A Rock, we meet again the Oyama family of Milton Murayama’s classic, All I Asking for Is My Body. but this time the story is told by Sawa Oyama, the mother, whose moving story begins when she obediently leaves Japan for Hawaii as a picture bride. She plans to return from the ‘rock’ in five years, but encounters Odyssean obstacles . . . Sawa is sustained by her obaban, by those ingrained values from her home rock, and by her own remarkable spirit. This is Murayama’s tribute to his mother and all those immigrant women who more than paid their dues. Five Years On A Rock is a masterpiece.’ —Hisaye Yamamoto, author of Seventeen Syllables
“A good story not bogged down with explanations or descriptions; characters who come alive and step off the page to become people we have known; themes that explode stereotypes, educating and stirring the reader to new insights; lucid and concise prose spiced with fresh turns of phrase. These are Murayama’s favorite things. As expected, his new book, Five Years on a Rock, has them all in ample measure.” —Mânoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing
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