Shortcomings Stands Tall

The New York Times gave the book a thumbs up, and it's getting acclaim everywhere. My colleague Randy Myers writes about the San Francisco Bay Area locales Tomine uses in Shortcomings. If you're in the Bay Area, Tomine is doing readings there this week. Also, find out what Tomine's favorite comic books are in Issue 13 of Hyphen, coming out soon.

The protagonist in Shortcomings, Ben Tanaka, was refreshing for me because there seems to be so many more female lead characters in works of fiction about Asian Americans. Am I wrong about this? Whenever I'm in a bookstore looking at the Asian or Asian American books, there just seems to be Amy Tan knockoffs every where.

Whatever the gender, Shortcomings is a good read. Tanaka is flawed, infuriating and so real. Tomine smartly conveys observations about relationships and race in the book. All the accolades Shortcomings has received are well deserved.

Harry Mok

Editor in chief

Editor in Chief Harry Mok wrote about growing up on a Chinese vegetable farm for the second issue of Hyphen and has been a volunteer editor since 2004. As a board member of the San Francisco and New York chapters of the Asian American Journalists Association, Harry has recruited and organized events for student members. He holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was also a graduate student instructor in the Asian American Studies Department.