New to North America: Writing by U.S. Immigrants, Their Children and Grandchildren 2nd Ed.

Unless you have experienced all there is to witness and adjust to as an immigrant arriving in a new country, there is no way one can truly understand. However, this collection of essays, short stories and poetry offer readers a intimate and varied look into an immigrant's experience. I am using this text for required reading for my College Composition II classes. My course theme is "home" and these readings fit so well.

"I tell you this because when I picked these berries I never dreamed I would be speaking at a college that would someday rise up in view of where I knelt in the dirt. It was beyond my imagination, But here I am sharing with you some insights I have accrued since those days in the Strawberry fields..." Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, "A Tapestry of Hope" "One cannot escape one's ancestors, the shouting within us, and voices strewn across the drowned landscapes of our souls. We all swim that landscape together; us and the dead around us, except now the dead are not so afraid of the truth, and are tired of the silences they taught us so well." Carolyn Flynn's "The Shouting Within Us" "At that moment I understood my father more. I understood his anger and his crying; I had thought it was because of hate, but it was not. It was because of the heartbreak of my grandmother's life. Because at that time in our country, an intelligent woman became nobody, but an old woman who used to work in the banana fields. And she was not the only one; in fact, a whole generation of Taiwanese were wasted, and now nobody remembers them." Chih Hao Huang, "The Old People and the Old Story"

I found the book fasinating especially from a immigrant point of view. The hardships, aspirations and dreams so valued from previous generations and the correlations to current immigrants. There lacks an economic impact comparative to previous generations and a lack or comparison of a puritan work ethic implied or a philosophy of a new found loyalty to a country that supplies the life blood of a new age family, but the points are well made and reads as a sincere point of view from the immigrant point of view. Very well written, and gets the writers points of view across. It would be refreshing to see the socio-economic impact, positive or negative related in the collection, but this does not appear to the writers intention. I commend the writer for the boldness, honesty, and compasion throughout the collection. I would recommend this book based on the writers collection of events that translate to the concerns of all citizens. The writer is articulate in view and has taken great care of letting the reader decide what moral decisions and implications are present in our view points in the current social environment. Great Read!!!!