The Novel Project Committee on Cultural Diversity in Practice

Contributing Editors: Kristin Hancock, PhD, Armand Cerbone, PhD

The Novel Project is intended to be a fun and interesting way to learn about diversity. The Committee on Cultural Diversity in Practice would like to invite Division 42 members to submit their own recommendations with a short summary of works of fiction which highlight cultural diversity.

Please submit reviews for consideration to Kris Hancock

Division 42’s Committee on Cultural Diversity in Practice suggests:

Escandon, M. (1999). Esperanza’s Box of Saints. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN: 0-684-85614-X.

Mexican-American author Escandon offers an engaging, simply written novel that traves a woman’s search for her beloved 12 year old daughter. The tale begins with a miracle: on the day of her daughter’s funeral, grief-stricken Esperanza Diaz is preparing pollo al chipotle for the funeral guests when San Judas Tadeo, the saint of desperate cases, appears in her grimy oven window.

Eugenides, J. (2002). Middlesex. New York: Picador. ISBN: 0-312-42215-6

This is the story of a Greek-American family that includes one Cal Stephanides—a 41 year old hermaphrodite raised as Calliope. The book spans 80 years of family history beginning in the 1920’s in Asia Minor through the 1970’s. The book is intelligent, insightful, and, at times, humorous.

Garcia, C. (1992). Dreaming in Cuban. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN: 0-345-38143-2

A novel about Cuba, and three generations of del Pino women who are seeking spiritual homes for their passionate, often troubled souls.

Hosseini, K. (2003). The Kite Runner. New York: Riverhead Books. ISBN: 1-57322-245-3

A remarkable account of the Amir, the privileged son of a wealthy businessman in Afghanistan and Hassan, the son of Amir’s father’s servant, the story begins in pre-Taliban Kabul and follows Amir as he and his father re-locate to the United States without Hassan and his father. It is an engaging, reflective work offering a close look at pre- and post-Taliban Afghanistan and covering a variety of major issues including classism, racism, immigration, acculturation, and sexism, to name a few.

Kidd, S. (2002). The Secret Life of Bees. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN: 0-14-200174-0.

This book is set in South Carolina in 1964 and tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. Following an incident in which her African American “stand-in mother” Rosaleen insults three of the deepest racists in town, both escape to a small town that holds the secret to her mother’s past.

Lahiri, J. (1999). Interpreter Of Maladies. New York: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN: 0-395-92720-X

In this Pulitzer Prize winning epic, Lahiri's characters suffer on an intimate level the dislocation and disruption brought on by India's tumultuous political history and includes the stories of a second generation in the United States.

Martel, Y. (2001). The Life of Pi.

This book is about a boy stranded in a boat with a tiger. How he survives is a story in itself. However, the real story is about his asking the big questions about religious conflict and the unique ways he resolves them by embracing Christianity and Islam as well.

Masuda, S. (2003). Autobiography of a Geisha. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN: 0-231-12950-5.

This book was originally published in Japanese in 1953 and is an account of the unrelenting hardships endured by Masuda after being sold for a bag of rice to a geisha house in pre-World War II Japan. The book reveals the verbal and emotional abuse she sustained and looks at the challenges these women faced in order to become geisha.

Rosner, E. (2003). The Speed Of Light. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN: 0-345-44225-3

An eloquent story about the adult children of a holocaust survivor learn about grief, forgiveness and the power of bearing witness from a Latina housekeeper who has also been victimized by government-sponsored genocide.

White, E. (2002). A Boy’s Own Story. New York: Modern Library – Random House. ISBN: 0-679-64254-4.

This novel is a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story about an upper-crust, well-educated, youth in the years of his gay discovery. Common to many a gay youth, a distant, unapproving father, a surrogate, unengaged step-mother, and a self-absorbed, fickle mother are found emotionally wanting. Attracted to his own gender, he finds satisfaction, but remains conflicted. It is a soft, yet vibrant story.