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"Rozhon, Jon"
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Fictional and historical narrative strategies in the writings of R. M. Koster
This dissertation concerns R.M. Koster's first three novels, The Tinieblas Trilogy, a fourth novel entitled Carmichael's Dog, and his non-fictional account of Panamanian history, In The Time of The Tyrants. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to acquaint readers with Koster's writing, to describe how plots unfold and characters develop; second, to examine the various narrative strategies at work in the texts, the ways Koster constructs through language his \"fictional\" Latin American Republic of Tinieblas and his \"non-fictional' history of Panama. The dissertation demonstrates how Koster's narrative strategies in these writings serve to undermine stable, singular textual interpretation.
Dissertation
The Ash Garden. Dennis Bock
After the Columbia lecture, Anton Böll meets documentary filmmaker Emiko Amai, a Hiroshima survivor. [Dennis Bock] delivers her story in the first person (as opposed to the third-person narrator that describes Anton Böll). Emiko has lived the nightmare that Böll can only remark upon. She has felt the white heat of the explosion, experienced the loss of both parents and her brother, persevered through months of hospitalization and countless skin grafts. She leaves Japan almost a decade after the bombing as one of twenty-five young Hiroshima girls taken to New York for advanced cosmetic surgery. Emiko stays in America after the operations, finishes high school, attends university, and then learns about films. The inner strength she develops as a youth to deal with her unique, intense emotional pain is remarkable, as Emiko herself says: \"I recollect those times now with a nostalgic sense of pride and warmth for a young woman whose sense of adventure and fascination for the world had not been diminished, despite her circumstances...that young woman does not exist anymore.\" Thus, this filmmaker who asks Anton Böll for an interview regarding his part in the war is a complex woman who brings much more than simple objectivity to her Hiroshima documentary.
Book Review
The Water of Possibility
\"Earth As I Know It\" is the way Sayuri Kato refers to the fictional dimension where she initially resides (p. 146). More specifically, the locale is a stiflingly small Canadian prairie town called Ganola and an old house within it (p. 3). The Katos have moved to Ganola from a larger city so that father Jun can work as a nurse and mother Kimi can find some peace to write horror novels. Needless to say, the adolescent daughter, Sayuri, disapproves of the move; she leaves behind in the city (Calgary, judging by the place names) her \"favorite Vietnamese restaurant, the Memorial Park Library, the Lindsay Park pool. Her friends...\" (p. 1). Besides these problems, Sayuri is plagued by unwanted puberty, parents who cause her embarrassment, and a younger brother, Keiichi, who annoyingly and constantly picks at his nose.
Book Review
Bullets on the Water: Canadian Refugee Stories
Today refugee stories remain untold in many individual cases, and reasons for this would seem obvious: what need is there to recount the most traumatic experiences in life? Why dwell on the past when the here and now presents its own set of difficulties? However, Ivaylo Grouev, the editor of Bullets on the Water: Refugee Stories, has interviewed many recent immigrants to Canada and included several of their narratives in this book. He claims noble intentions, calling Bullets on the Water a \"public awareness project\" and \"a small but legitimate effort toward making Canada a more unprejudiced, tolerant, and humane place\" (p. viii). Perhaps for these reasons Grouev was able to unlock people's secrets, stir up their often painful memories, and record these eighteen remarkable stories. It is the second story, \"Parcel,\" that is the most unique and disturbing narrative in the collection. It is the only story assembled by Grouev on his own because it chronicles the last days of a Pole who has committed suicide. Anonymity is not of concern in this story, so Arkadiush Kubiak is the only immigrant name Grouev gives in the book (p. 83). After Grouev learns of Kubiak's death, he investigates the circumstances as thoroughly as possible, uncovering the recent history of a man with no friends and few acquaintances, ignored by the \"wealthy\" Newfoundland Polish community and kept in limbo by unconcerned Canadian immigration officials in St John's (pp. 83-86). It is the lack of compassion shown to Kubiak that chills this story. If greed and hatred destroy lives in other parts of the world, Grouev shows how indifference has much the same result in Canada.
Book Review
The Ash Garden
After the Columbia lecture, Anton Boll meets documentary filmmaker Emiko Amai, a Hiroshima survivor. Bock delivers her story in the first person (as opposed to the third-person narrator that describes Anton Boll). Emiko has lived the nightmare that Boll can only remark upon. She has felt the white heat of the explosion, experienced the loss of both parents and her brother, persevered through months of hospitalization and countless skin grafts. She leaves Japan almost a decade after the bombing as one of twenty-five young Hiroshima girls taken to New York for advanced cosmetic surgery. Emiko stays in America after the operations, finishes high school, attends university, and then learns about films. The inner strength she develops as a youth to deal with her unique, intense emotional pain is remarkable, as Emiko herself says: \"I recollect those times now with a nostalgic sense of pride and warmth for a young woman whose sense of adventure and fascination for the world had not been diminished, despite her circumstances... that young woman does not exist anymore.\" Thus, this filmmaker who asks Anton Boll for an interview regarding his part in the war is a complex woman who brings much more than simple objectivity to her Hiroshima documentary.
Book Review