I was surprised to learn that Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers was a work of fiction as opposed to a memoir.  The book is filled with such pointed and vivid stories that I assumed it must be a memoir filled with Lois-Ann Yamanaka’s real life experiences growing up in Hawaii.  I was mistaken.

The book is written in a Hawaiian dialect referred to as “Pidgin” and is all the more interesting because of it.  I was reminded of my experience reading A Clockwork Orange with all the unfamiliar slang that you eventually make sense of contextually.  Words that were confusing or strange at first glance almost became second nature by the end of the book.  This is a testament to Yamanaka’s style which can be challenging at times but gives you just enough insight to figure out what characters mean.

This book reminded me a lot of Donald Duk.  Both books center around young characters, who for one reason or another, are ashamed of their heritage and upbringing.  However, our main character in Wild Meat has the added stress of being one of the poorer students in her class unlike the family in Donalk Duk who owned their own restaurant in the San Francisco area.  Both characters are caught in between the world of their family, the diverse population their surrounded by, and images of pop culture that reflect people like themselves back.  Both characters are caught in a sort of no-man’s land that makes them unable to accept who they are.