AALAM is launching the AALAM Book Club, a new way for AALAM attorneys to connect with each other through discussions about books by AAPI authors.
Our second book will be No-No Boy by John Okada. A staple of Asian-American Literature classes nationwide, this novel has been read by generations of Asian-Americans, and remains relevant to this day. A brief synopsis:
"No-No Boy has the honor of being the very first Japanese American novel," writes novelist Ruth Ozeki in her new foreword to John Okada’s classic of Asian American literature. First published in 1956, No-No Boy was virtually ignored by a public eager to put World War II and the Japanese internment behind them. It was not until the mid-1970s that a new generation of Japanese American writers and scholars recognized the novel’s importance and popularized it as one of literature’s most powerful testaments to the Asian American experience.
No-No Boy tells the story of Ichiro Yamada, a fictional version of the real-life "no-no boys." Yamada answered "no" twice in a compulsory government questionnaire as to whether he would serve in the armed forces and swear loyalty to the United States. Unwilling to pledge himself to the country that interned him and his family, Ichiro earns two years in prison and the hostility of his family and community when he returns home to Seattle. As Ozeki writes, Ichiro’s "obsessive, tormented" voice subverts Japanese postwar "model-minority" stereotypes, showing a fractured community and one man’s "threnody of guilt, rage, and blame as he tries to negotiate his reentry into a shattered world.
If you are interested in receiving a copy of this book for the book club, please sign up here by Monday June 2nd. https://aalam.wildapricot.org/event-6206254
Members of AALAM can sign-up for $5 and Non-Members for $10. This fee goes towards us shipping a brand new copy of the book to your door.
As part of the Book Club, there will be one ~1 hour virtual book discussion with AALAM members. As part of the Book Club, there will be one ~1 hour virtual book discussion with AALAM members. The discussion will likely be in late August, so you will have over two months to read the book. If you're looking to get your summer reading starting, sign up!
Discussion questions will be sent out in advance to facilitate discussion. Upon signing up, you must provide your correct address so we can send the book to your address. Please double check before submitting.
Please only sign-up for a book if you plan on attending the virtual AALAM discussion.
Note that we understand this is a popular book, so you might not need a new copy. We will send a link to coordinate the virtual discussion to all of AALAM, so those who have read the book before can join in the discussion.
If you have any questions, please email Celene Chen at celene.chen@cooley.com
