bers, especially to the woman who makes “swell”
doughnuts.
Yokohama, California is often credited as being
the first collection of published short stories writ-
ten by a Japanese American. While the book gained
some notoriety because of this, it is deemed im-
portant today for providing a glimpse into the ev-
eryday prewar life of Japanese Americans. For this,
along with Mori’s creative fusion of Japanese and
American literary traditions, Yokohama, California
will be remembered and read.
Bibliography
Bedrosian, Margaret. “Toshio Mori’s California
Koans,” MELUS 15, no. 2 (1988): 47–55.
Sato, Gayle K. “(Self ) Indulgent Listening: Reading
Cultural Difference in Yokohama, California,”
Japanese Journal of American Studies 11 (2000):
129–46.
Shawn Holliday
Yoo, David (1974)
David Yoo grew up in Connecticut, which is the
setting for his first novel, Girls for Breakfast (2005).
He graduated from Skidmore College and attended
a graduate program at the University of Colorado-
Boulder. He currently lives in Boston, Massachu-
setts, but frequently returns to his childhood home
to do “research,” poring through yearbooks “to
try to revive the dusty memories of being a teen-
ager.” In Girls for Breakfast, Yoo explores themes
of insider/outsider, identity politics, sexuality and
friendship through the lens of a teenage Korean-
American boy growing up in an all-white town. In
addressing how his own youth influenced his writ-
ing, Yoo says, “In my writing I tend to explore the
negative moments from my life, the uncomfort-
able feelings that are perpetually bubbling under
the surface.... Self-sabotage. Hatred. Self-loathing
... I write because it’s the one thing that makes
me feel truly alive.” Yoo’s sister, Paula Yoo, is the
author of the picture book Sixteen Years in Sixteen
Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story (2005).
Girls for Breakfast follows Nick Park’s com-
ing-of-puberty from third grade until high
school graduation. Nick’s adolescence in Ren-
field Hills, the fifth-richest town in Connecti-
cut, is a paradox; he has to climb to the top of
his neighborhood to go home after school each
day, yet he is perpetually stuck at the bottom of
the social totem pole. He becomes curious about
girls in the fourth grade when his friend shows
him Playboy. Unable to detach himself from the
magazines, Nick spends the rest of his youth ob-
sessing over the different women in his life—his
friends’ moms, the bus driver, teachers, and all
of the popular girls in school. Every so often he
has real contact with a girl but he fouls up all
these relationships. Nick’s sole claim to popu-
larity is his place on the soccer team with the
jocks, but they do not accept him either. The
boys make fun of him for being socially awk-
ward and exclude him from their weekly class
parties. Despite his social standing, which he
squarely blames on his Korean ethnicity, Nick
is, by senior prom, finally dating Maggie, one of
the hottest girls in his class.
Girls for Breakfast is an important contri-
bution because it speaks to Korean-Ameri-
can young men about peer pressure, sexuality,
and identity for those growing up in all-white
areas—topics rarely addressed anywhere. By re-
jecting his Korean ethnicity, Nick rejects his par-
ents, their Korean church, food, and everything
and everyone he associates with being Korean.
However, since he is simultaneously outcast by
the popular white kids at school, he is paralyzed
between the two cultures. He finally creates his
unique identity near the end of high school. Be-
sides Sheri Cooper Sinykin’s The Buddy Trap,
John Son’s Finding My Hat, and MARIE G. LEE’S
NECESSARY ROUGHNESS, this novel is one of the
few stories to reflect the realities of Korean-
American males.
Sarah ParkYun, Mia (?– )
Born and raised in South Korea, Yun moved to the
United States in 1981 to study creative writing at
the City College of New York. Yun’s appreciationYun, Mia 339