the stereotypes that define them. The question that
runs through the stories is the one Danny Kim, in
the title story, struggles with as he dreams of being
“exemplary, unquestionably American.” Though
he challenges simplistic expectations about ethnic
identity, Lee’s stories do not offer easy, politically
correct perspectives or comfortable solutions to
the problems the characters face. Rather, he criti-
cally engages the multilayered realities of contem-
porary life in California, laden with contradictions
and ambiguities, in stories that examine notions of
ethnic, personal, and professional positioning.
His novel, Country of Origin (2004), which won
the 2005 American Book Award, centers on the dis-
appearance of Lisa Countryman, a half-Japanese,
half-black American, in Tokyo in 1980. The story’s
attention shifts among several main characters,
including Lisa, whose disappearance is explained
to the reader in the first chapter, as each character
grapples with issues of identity, race, deception,
loyalty, and justice. Lisa’s real motives for coming
to Japan eventually become clear: She is seeking
the Japanese mother who gave her up for adoption.
In the course of her search, she becomes involved
in the world of Tokyo’s sex trade and international
espionage. Other characters also have to deal with
racial and social identification as well as the perils
of rootlessness: Tom Hurley, the embassy officer in
charge of Lisa’s case, identifies himself as a Hawai-
ian to avoid having to say he is half Korean; David
Kitamura, a nisei CIA agent, functions undercover
with a host of assumed names; his wife, Julia Tin-
sley, hides her “white trash” origins as she fights
for upward mobility; Kenzo Ota, the Japanese po-
liceman on the case, trails the Japanese-American
boy he thinks is his son, dreaming of a reunion,
only to realize that the boy is a cultural stranger
to him. Tom and Julia have an affair; and Lisa and
David Kitamura end up collaborating on one of
his cases.
In this novel set in Japan, where the word gai-
jin (foreigner) appears repeatedly, these characters
contest the cultural labels that might define them,
giving them a sense of disconnection. The novel
is written elegantly, and Lee manages to maintain
the suspense of how Lisa disappears by creating a
world where appearances are not what they seem
and characters are all in disguise or engaged in sub-
terfuge. He also attends to each of the characters’
weaknesses, illustrating how very often problems
arise from errors that might have been avoided, or
from wrong choices. The novel is sympathetic to
the characters who come together at the point of
tension (it is set during the Iran hostage crisis) and
realize how the complex workings of history shape
their individual lives.Bibliography
Oh, Seiwoong. “Don Lee (1959– ).” In Asian Ameri-
can Short Story Writers: An A-to-Z Guide, edited
by Guiyou Huang, 151–154. Westport, Conn.:
Greenwood Press, 2003.
Rocío G. DavisLee, Gus (Augustus Samuel Mein-Sun Lee)
(1946– )
The first son and youngest of five children, Lee
was born in a family who immigrated in 1944 to
America from Shanghai, China. The family settled
in the San Francisco Panhandle, a ghetto mainly
of African Americans. The untimely death of his
mother when he was five forced Lee into a tur-
bulent childhood in a household tightly run by
his white upper-class stepmother. In the street,
he was bullied by tough boys. CHINA BOY (1991),
Lee’s debut novel, is an account of his childhood,
though disguised as a novel in order not to offend
his father. Lee went to West Point in 1964, the ex-
perience recounted in his second autobiographical
novel, Honor and Duty (1994). He flunked out of
the West Point due to his failure in mathematics
and engineering. Lee went on to get his B.A. and
L.L.B. degrees from the University of California at
Davis, where he also served as the assistant dean
of students for the Educational Opportunity Pro-
gram and project coordinator of the Asian Ameri-
can Studies Program. When he rejoined the army
in 1976, serving as a defense counsel and com-
mand judge advocate, Lee was sent to Korea to in-
vestigate recruits who were foreign nationals. This
experience provided the basis for his third novel,
a thriller, Tiger’s Tail (1996). Upon concluding hisLee, Gus 163