The Immigrant Experience TALK Series
Book Descriptions
China Men by Maxine Hong Kingston
Woven from memory, myth, and fact, this novel is a journey into the hearts and
minds of Chinese men in America as they built the railroads, worked on the Hawaiian
plantations, and endured in a strange new land.
Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez
Mexican American Rodriguez started school in California with just 50 words of
English and went on to a university education. Along the way he learns about the
alienation from family, past, and culture that is the price of success in America.
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Antonia Shimerda’s Bohemian family homesteads on the wide Nebraska plains, where
she discovers the glory of the land, the tragedy of loss and disappointed dreams,
and ultimately a triumph of the spirit.
A Walker in the City by Alfred Kazin
The son of Jewish immigrants, Kazin’s boyhood is filled with the sights and sounds of
his Polish neighborhood in east Brooklyn, and with his own awakening to the ecstasy
of the senses, the power of language, and the meaning of life.