It was great "Keep up the good job girl", 15 Mar 2000
inferrera the book was great i hope you get to read this cause i loved it i've been keeping up with your books and watching and learning things from you still till today i am now in virginia im traveling girl and i love it even though i miss you my loving 8th grade teacher. Lois is the best she writes from the heart and experiences and things she has seen she is a true to the heart person....love ya girl

A humbling experience, "Alwayz rememba yo roots!", 24 Aug 1999
Bred, born, and raised in Hilo, I can relate to all of her characters, and I almost think I actually know a few of them personally. As brutal as it may seem, this is the way many of us were raised, this is what growing up in Hawaii was about, this is why we can get along the way we do here. Reading these books pulled me back down to earth and beneath to my roots, my family, my community, and growing up in Hawaii.

Can't tell you why, but I cried from beginning to end, 30 Jul 1999
Somehow every action and every word spoken was deeply moving. I cried from beginning to end for each one of the threee children.

Grrrreat Book!!!, 09 Jul 1999
This book gave insight into what it must have been like to live, destitute, without a mother, on the island of Moloka'i. Through the author's words, you could really feel for the characters, admire their strength, and sympathize when they were hurting. This was a marvelous read!

The best, most real book you'd ever want to read, 21 Mar 1999
well, I first read wild meat and the bully burgers, the first book by Yamanaka. I really enjoyed the way that the author didn't let you know the real meaning of the story until the last chapter. Yamanaka succeded in doing the same thing in this book. Her characters are so well developed that you never know who the story is actually focusing on. I would defiantly recommend this book to anyone. It is a good and realistic look at life growing up in a single parent home. I also enjoyed how it delt with the family as a whole but also the famly as seperated people. You come away from this book feeling like you personally know each character.

It was great "Keep up the good job girl", 15 Mar 2000
inferrera the book was great i hope you get to read this cause i loved it i've been keeping up with your books and watching and learning things from you still till today i am now in virginia im traveling girl and i love it even though i miss you my loving 8th grade teacher. Lois is the best she writes from the heart and experiences and things she has seen she is a true to the heart person....love ya girl

A humbling experience, "Alwayz rememba yo roots!", 24 Aug 1999
Bred, born, and raised in Hilo, I can relate to all of her characters, and I almost think I actually know a few of them personally. As brutal as it may seem, this is the way many of us were raised, this is what growing up in Hawaii was about, this is why we can get along the way we do here. Reading these books pulled me back down to earth and beneath to my roots, my family, my community, and growing up in Hawaii.

Can't tell you why, but I cried from beginning to end, 30 Jul 1999
Somehow every action and every word spoken was deeply moving. I cried from beginning to end for each one of the threee children.

Grrrreat Book!!!, 09 Jul 1999
This book gave insight into what it must have been like to live, destitute, without a mother, on the island of Moloka'i. Through the author's words, you could really feel for the characters, admire their strength, and sympathize when they were hurting. This was a marvelous read!

The best, most real book you'd ever want to read, 21 Mar 1999
well, I first read wild meat and the bully burgers, the first book by Yamanaka. I really enjoyed the way that the author didn't let you know the real meaning of the story until the last chapter. Yamanaka succeded in doing the same thing in this book. Her characters are so well developed that you never know who the story is actually focusing on. I would defiantly recommend this book to anyone. It is a good and realistic look at life growing up in a single parent home. I also enjoyed how it delt with the family as a whole but also the famly as seperated people. You come away from this book feeling like you personally know each character.

This book was very entertaining and well written., 23 Aug 1999
Yamanaka describes her characters so well that I feel like I know each and every one of them. She captured the pidgin English of Hawaii and added other bits of culture throughout the story.

A Tale of an Adolescent's Troubles, 06 Aug 1999
Name Me Nobody by Lois-Ann Yamanaka was one of the few books I couldn't put down. Being through the adolescent trauma of weight problems, school, and boys, I knew exactly where Emi-lou was coming from. As a child Emi-lou, dubbed Louie by her best friend Von, was abandoned by her mother and left to be taken care of by her grandmother. Emi-lou must put up with many hardships, mostly about her being over-weight. It seems as though whenever she does something wrong, her weight is blamed. Everything begins to change once she and Von go to play for the Hilo Astros, a woman's softball team. Emi-lou begins to realize the meaning of family, friendship, and love. She also finds that bonds between two people that truly care about each other can be torn but not completely broken.

It was great "Keep up the good job girl", 15 Mar 2000
inferrera the book was great i hope you get to read this cause i loved it i've been keeping up with your books and watching and learning things from you still till today i am now in virginia im traveling girl and i love it even though i miss you my loving 8th grade teacher. Lois is the best she writes from the heart and experiences and things she has seen she is a true to the heart person....love ya girl

A humbling experience, "Alwayz rememba yo roots!", 24 Aug 1999
Bred, born, and raised in Hilo, I can relate to all of her characters, and I almost think I actually know a few of them personally. As brutal as it may seem, this is the way many of us were raised, this is what growing up in Hawaii was about, this is why we can get along the way we do here. Reading these books pulled me back down to earth and beneath to my roots, my family, my community, and growing up in Hawaii.

Can't tell you why, but I cried from beginning to end, 30 Jul 1999
Somehow every action and every word spoken was deeply moving. I cried from beginning to end for each one of the threee children.

Grrrreat Book!!!, 09 Jul 1999
This book gave insight into what it must have been like to live, destitute, without a mother, on the island of Moloka'i. Through the author's words, you could really feel for the characters, admire their strength, and sympathize when they were hurting. This was a marvelous read!

The best, most real book you'd ever want to read, 21 Mar 1999
well, I first read wild meat and the bully burgers, the first book by Yamanaka. I really enjoyed the way that the author didn't let you know the real meaning of the story until the last chapter. Yamanaka succeded in doing the same thing in this book. Her characters are so well developed that you never know who the story is actually focusing on. I would defiantly recommend this book to anyone. It is a good and realistic look at life growing up in a single parent home. I also enjoyed how it delt with the family as a whole but also the famly as seperated people. You come away from this book feeling like you personally know each character.

This book was very entertaining and well written., 23 Aug 1999
Yamanaka describes her characters so well that I feel like I know each and every one of them. She captured the pidgin English of Hawaii and added other bits of culture throughout the story.

A Tale of an Adolescent's Troubles, 06 Aug 1999
Name Me Nobody by Lois-Ann Yamanaka was one of the few books I couldn't put down. Being through the adolescent trauma of weight problems, school, and boys, I knew exactly where Emi-lou was coming from. As a child Emi-lou, dubbed Louie by her best friend Von, was abandoned by her mother and left to be taken care of by her grandmother. Emi-lou must put up with many hardships, mostly about her being over-weight. It seems as though whenever she does something wrong, her weight is blamed. Everything begins to change once she and Von go to play for the Hilo Astros, a woman's softball team. Emi-lou begins to realize the meaning of family, friendship, and love. She also finds that bonds between two people that truly care about each other can be torn but not completely broken.

Another amazing book by Lois-Ann Yamanaka, 07 Aug 1999
This book is chock-full of all the delightful, screwball, tough, and intense elements of Yamanaka's previous novels. As usual, it takes place in Hawaii, and the family is one of high dysfunction and much love, though strangely and disturbingly expressed. Be ready to confront your own demons as you delve into the backroom of "Heads By Harry".

Very disappointing. Reinforces sexist & racist stereotypes., 21 Jul 1999
Yamanaka needs to develop more depth and complexity in her characters. Instead of repeating all too familiar stereotypes about the underclass of Hawaii and filling page after page with her characters' sexist obscenities, she need to slow down and dare to move into her characters' inner lives. With the narrator Toni and Toni's father, Yamanaka allow us to imagine why they view themselves and the world as they do. But too many scenes are built on reinforcing stereotypes of lower class Hawaiians, who are portrayed as having next to no self-respect and very little ability to see beyond the next beer or pig hunt. Scenes of cruelty to animals seem atrociously similar to innumerable situations where women's bodies are treated as meat. But Yamanaka stays away from ever looking too closely at WHY people have developed such hateful attitudes toward women (and "outsiders" in general). It seems to be a form of self-hatred in the lower class world of the novel, but Yamanaka stays away from investigating that possibility in any depth. The gay characters are superficial, sashaying their way in and out of clubs and boutiques. The Filipino men, particularly the brothers Wyatt and Maverick, are vile in their treatment of women. Yet Toni does coke with them, gets drunk with them, and ends up not knowing which of them is her baby's father. The only man she really loves and likes is Billy -a haole- the only man, other than her father, who actually talks with her about her own dreams. Why does Yamanaka structure the book this way? Very disappointing overall, especially considering Yamanaka's potential to do so much more.

Real, earthy, funny - a Unique voice, 16 Jul 1999
What a story. You keep rooting for the underdog to rise above her low self esteem and expectations, the ending is not as you hope or expect, but it's real. All her books are wonderful, although this is the least painful in terms of dealing with poverty. It is a real and unique story that draws you in and makes you look forward to her next work.

Fiction or non-fiction. "You sure, you sure?", 31 Mar 1999
I stayed up past midnight to finish the book. Today I am somewhere between here and there. Lois- Ann, I know those trails and streets, the taste of smoke meat and river opae, and your characters. You wrote about what you and I know; such a strong sense of place. How strange to feel and see it again through your sharp squid eye.

The "real" Hawaii as few experience it., 20 Mar 1999
"Heads by Harry" reminded me of why I left Hilo ten years ago, and then on the very next page, made me wish I had never left. Mrs. Yamanaka captures so perfectly how it feels to grow up in a small town where everyone knows your parents, knows all about your mistakes, but about your triumphs too. Reading it becomes a uncomfortably personal experience when it is your small town she happens to is dissecting.

This book is as close as most tourists will ever get to the elusive "real" Hawaii promised by their vacation brochures. A Hawaii where brutal men hide their sensitivity under masks of contempt for anything different or "haole". Where the effects of a colonial plantation past cast shadows on the lives of the descendants of Asian migrant workers and where family is your rock, your curse, your tonic - all at the same time. Reading "Heads by Harry" was too familiar and intimate at times, like sitting in your Aunty's living room on a lazy Hilo afternoon, eating smoked meat while watching a steady stream of people wrapped up in their own personal dramas go in and out, beer in hand. The rough language, noble but comical characters, the smell of Bayfront after the evening rain, the yellow-orange haze that descends over Mamo Street and the KTA parking lot after dark, "Heads by Harry" captures Hilo's essence entirely.

Mrs. Yamanaka writes passionately about finding one's place in the world. And while many of us wouldn't necessary choose Mamo Street with it's dusty, out-of-business shop fronts and yes, cross-dressing hookers, she teaches us that sometimes we do not have the luxury of making the choice for ourselves.

Anyone with a rural, small town background who now finds themselves lost in the modern, urban rat race should read this book. Only be prepared for the painful rush of childhood memories about not fitting the mold when fitting in is not an option.