In tight economic times, saving money is a priority. With that in mind, Schema Magazine's regular column, Books to Borrow, is a guide to recent releases and some accidental finds to borrow (or avoid) from your local public library.

In this release:
Soucouyant, by David Chariandy
Eating Stories: A Chinese and Aboriginal Potluck, Edited by Brandy Liên Worrall.
The Joy of Getting Along with the Chinese, by Fred Schneiter

Soucouyant
David Chariandy | Arsenal Pulp Press, c2007. | ISBN: 9781551522265 | Text by Shaena Kobayashi

"During our lives, we struggle to forget... And forgetting can sometimes be the most creative and life-sustaining thing that we could ever accomplish."

Soucouyant, David Chariandy's dynamically lyrical and poetic first novel, addresses the universal human desire of escaping our personal histories while still tightly holding on to those selected memories that we believe are beautiful.

Set in a rickety house in a "good neighbourhood" near the Scarborough Bluffs, the story follows a son's return to his mother, Adele, who is suffering from dementia. She believes that a soucouyant--a malevolent, female spirit that peppers Caribbean folklore--possessed her as a child and is triggering the resurfacing of traumatic and long-forgotten memories. Fittingly, the story drifts from the present to the past; Adele's son once again takes on the role of caregiver while bearing the responsibility of remembering his family's past, including the details of his mother's difficult childhood in Trinidad during World War II and her journey to 1960s Canada, a country that was still unsure how to deal with the new reality of multicultural immigration.

The memories--witty, haunting and sometimes heartbreaking--Chariandy imbeds throughout this story are vivid and painted with passion and vibrancy. The novel touches on themes that are deeply moving: the fleeting nature of memory itself and our complex understanding of mortality.

Eating Stories: A Chinese and Aboriginal Potluck
Editor, Brandy Liên Worrall | Chinese Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia, c2007 | Text by Shaena Kobayashi

Whether we're taking out or eating in, there is one universal truth that can't be denied: we all love food.

The Chinese Canadian Historical Society has produced an anthology featuring twenty-three Chinese Canadian and Aboriginal writers called, Eating Stories: A Chinese and Aboriginal Potluck. This collection focuses on food and family and appeals to all the senses with its witty anecdotes and over 170 photos (after all, no book of food is complete without pictures) and 37 recipes. This brilliant collection of food writing and memory is an informal perspective on Canadian history and highlights each writer's ability to relate the hidden stories in our everyday dining. Eating Stories provides not only a glimpse, but admission to a lively and tasty meal.

The Joy of Getting Along with the Chinese
By Fred Schneiter | Heian International, Inc. c1994 | Text by Jason H.Y. Lee

At the risk of betraying just how green I am to writing media reviews, I must openly admit that I committed the cardinal sin of literary criticism: I judged this book by its cover.

But honestly, with a name like The Joy of Getting Along With the Chinese, how could one not? The title pigeonholes an entire history, culture, identity, and people into a single concept of "Chinese," and fits this concept into a paradigm typically reserved for topics like yoga or floral arrangement. As well, my first impression was not made any rosier when seeing the table of contents sport such tag lines as "Seeing the World through Almond Eyes," "Mr. Wong is Rarely Wrong: The Care and Feeding of Guests," and "How to Read Chopsticks; Chinese Do ... So Should You."

And come on, the first illustration you see in this book is a devilish caricature of a slant-eyed warrior from some bygone dynasty manhandling a foreigner. Not to mention the ubiquitous "Chinese" fortune cookie on the cover. Without hesitation, I was ready to ironically laud this book as a textbook example of how the typical Eurocentric writer projects the "other" as one monolithic and mystifying people. Well, leave it to Fred Schneiter to make me feel like a presumptuous ass before I even make it past his prologue.

Schneiter hits the nail squarely on the head when he declares, "Have you noticed how all books about China seem to tilt either toward the theme of The Wonderful Chinese or The Wily Chinese?" It is precisely this non-threatening and culturally sensitive incisiveness that makes Schneiter an unexpected breath of fresh air. He is wise to limit the scope of his book to being simply "some small contribution toward the realization of our largely untapped mutualities." By doing so, he buries the stereotype I envisioned of the North American backpacker who is granted license to pontificate on "the Orient" after one extended visit. As a final word, I suggest that one reads this book not as a Rough Guide to China, but rather as a general interest book that offers contemporary generalizations about the Chinese, in contrast to outdated ones, that always presents an air of self-aware humour to the nuances and idiosyncrasies of both Chinese and North American culture.

+ Email books[at]schemamag.ca with your suggestions or reviews of "ethnic cool" books in your local library.