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May. 12th, 2009
Cultural boxes
May. 12th, 2009 05:39 pmI read 'Waiting to Exhale' by Terry Macmillan last week (picked up at the hostel in Brisbane). And noticed this review, from the Literary Review, in the front:
"Just as Amy Tan's stories from San Francisco's Chinatown speak of and to mothers and daughters everywhere, so Waiting To Exhale transcends its location to tell the story of disappointed women the world over."
What struck me about this was the subtext of the comparison of a story about African Americans to a story about Chinese Americans. Because, y'know, universality of experience is *surely* restricted only to stories about white people!
[sigh]
"Just as Amy Tan's stories from San Francisco's Chinatown speak of and to mothers and daughters everywhere, so Waiting To Exhale transcends its location to tell the story of disappointed women the world over."
What struck me about this was the subtext of the comparison of a story about African Americans to a story about Chinese Americans. Because, y'know, universality of experience is *surely* restricted only to stories about white people!
[sigh]