{"product_id":"the-kitchen-of-small-hours-paperback","title":"The Kitchen of Small Hours - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eDerek N. Otsuji\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eReimagining the elusive American dream\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In \u003ci\u003eThe Kitchen of Small Hours\u003c\/i\u003e, Derek N. Otsuji embraces the fragility and endurance of a family of immigrants from two prefectures in Japan: Kagoshima in the south and Okinawa, an island more than four hundred miles from the mainland. In these poems, five generations sing, save, scold, bury, and cook against the culture and history that emerged from the pineapple and sugar cane plantations of mid-nineteenth-century Hawaii, from the bomb-scapes and hatreds of World War II, and from the canning and tourism industry of the twentieth century. Otsuji writes of how his family used stories and rugged cheer to fill the spaces apart from the cane fields and the canning factory. Their recipes, rituals, celebrations, songs, dances, myths, and family stories passed from grandmother to father to son, who folds them into lyrics. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Here too are whispers, failures, and traceable absences: a face removed from photos, a love silenced to be acceptable, a dead firstborn housed in an urn. There are things that no one intended to give. Otsuji's language hungers for them anyway. The haunting reunions between author and ancestor sink just as deep as roots and hold just as fast. The cooking pot, the family photo, the moon recur as images that feed and comfort. Lyrical and warm, Otsuji's voice sounds out a sinew of words that make the remnants of heritage and home durable. In these poems each new generation seeks to reimagine for itself the elusive American Dream\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eDerek N. Otsuji, an associate professor of English at Honolulu Community College, was awarded the 2019 Tennessee Williams Scholarship from the Sewanee Writers' Conference. He received the Editor's Choice Award for poems published in the fortieth-anniversary issue of \u003ci\u003eBamboo Ridge\u003c\/i\u003e, the longest running independent literary journal in Hawaii. His poems have appeared in \u003ci\u003eRhino\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eMissouri Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eIndiana Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePleiades\u003c\/i\u003e, and the \u003ci\u003eThreepenny Review\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 90\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.28 x 9.1 x 6.06 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e October 18, 2021\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51767918362912,"sku":"9780809338405","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/4ec3e2f74ab7985692a986f776677597.webp?v=1780320451","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/the-kitchen-of-small-hours-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}