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Volcano

A Memoir of Hawai'i

Part of Vintage Departures

Author Garrett Hongo
Paperback
$19.00 US
Knopf | Vintage
5.5"W x 8.5"H x 0.65"D  
On sale May 28, 1996 | 352 Pages | 9780679767480
Grades 9-12 + AP/IB
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Part memoir, part Japanese American family chronicle, part luminous work of natural history, Volcano tells what happened when Hongo returned to his birthplace in Hawai’i, as a young man, to reclaim its dreamlike landscape and his own elusive past. A magnificant evocation of heritage and place.

“My favorite kind of book is a poet’s first prose work. The poet comes upon a story so large—his life, nature, history—hat he must break out of careful verse into the freedom of prose. William Carlos Williams, Rainer Maria Rilke, Sylvia Plath, Raymond Carver, Louise Erdrich—and now Garrett Hongo.” —Maxine Hong Kingston

“When I finished this brave and sharp story I wanted to start again because of the honesty in the author’s voice and the many gifts—beautiful language, vivid and apt anecdotes, a novelist's narrative instinct—that await the reader. Garrett Hongo elucidates here a Dragon; he reveals intelligence as love. And he magics time.” —Barry Lopez

“Eloquent. . . . Hongo has created a memoir as beautiful and enduring as the volcano itself.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Passionate, wrought, often inspired. . . . Hongo’s book of origins is a work of beauty and consoloation.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Garrett Hongo’s Volcano is a memoir of his homecoming to a place that was never home, a natural and human history of extraordinary visual acuity.” —The New Yorker

“Rich, varied. . . . Hongo takes his cue from the volcano itself, the flow that folds in on themselves, creating new forms by building on the old.” —Chicago Tribune
© Steve Varni
GARRETT HONGO was born in Volcano, Hawaiʻi, and grew up on the North Shore of Oʻahu and in Los Angeles. His most recent books are The Perfect Sound: A Memoir in Stereo, The Mirror Diary: Selected Essays, and Coral Road: Poems. He has been the recipient of several awards, including fellowships from the NEA and the Guggenheim Foundation. Hongo lives in Eugene, Oregon, and teaches at the University of Oregon, where he is Distinguished Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences. View titles by Garrett Hongo
My favorite kind of book is a poet's first prose work. The poet comes upon a story so large -- his life, nature, history -- hat he must break out of careful verse into the freedom of prose. William Carlos Williams, Rainer Maria Rilke, Sylvia Plath, Raymond Carver, Louise Erdrich -- and now Garrett Hongo."

-- Maxine Hong Kingston

"When I finished this brave and sharp story I wanted to start again because of the honesty in the author's voice and the many gifts -- beautiful language, vivid and apt anecdotes, a novelist's narrative instinct -- that await the reader. Garrett Hongo elucidates here a Dragon; he reveals intelligence as love. And he magics time."

-- Barry Lopez

"In this memoir, the village of Volcano is both a place on the map and a beacon in the far more elusive terrain of a man's personal history. In charting that history, Garrett Hongo has produced a lyrical and penetrating work grafting intimate recollection with broad insight. He has aspired to Rousseau's standard for himself -- and for all memoirists -- to recount comprehensively 'what I have felt . . . and what my feelings have had me do.'"

About

Part memoir, part Japanese American family chronicle, part luminous work of natural history, Volcano tells what happened when Hongo returned to his birthplace in Hawai’i, as a young man, to reclaim its dreamlike landscape and his own elusive past. A magnificant evocation of heritage and place.

“My favorite kind of book is a poet’s first prose work. The poet comes upon a story so large—his life, nature, history—hat he must break out of careful verse into the freedom of prose. William Carlos Williams, Rainer Maria Rilke, Sylvia Plath, Raymond Carver, Louise Erdrich—and now Garrett Hongo.” —Maxine Hong Kingston

“When I finished this brave and sharp story I wanted to start again because of the honesty in the author’s voice and the many gifts—beautiful language, vivid and apt anecdotes, a novelist's narrative instinct—that await the reader. Garrett Hongo elucidates here a Dragon; he reveals intelligence as love. And he magics time.” —Barry Lopez

“Eloquent. . . . Hongo has created a memoir as beautiful and enduring as the volcano itself.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Passionate, wrought, often inspired. . . . Hongo’s book of origins is a work of beauty and consoloation.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Garrett Hongo’s Volcano is a memoir of his homecoming to a place that was never home, a natural and human history of extraordinary visual acuity.” —The New Yorker

“Rich, varied. . . . Hongo takes his cue from the volcano itself, the flow that folds in on themselves, creating new forms by building on the old.” —Chicago Tribune

Author

© Steve Varni
GARRETT HONGO was born in Volcano, Hawaiʻi, and grew up on the North Shore of Oʻahu and in Los Angeles. His most recent books are The Perfect Sound: A Memoir in Stereo, The Mirror Diary: Selected Essays, and Coral Road: Poems. He has been the recipient of several awards, including fellowships from the NEA and the Guggenheim Foundation. Hongo lives in Eugene, Oregon, and teaches at the University of Oregon, where he is Distinguished Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences. View titles by Garrett Hongo

Praise

My favorite kind of book is a poet's first prose work. The poet comes upon a story so large -- his life, nature, history -- hat he must break out of careful verse into the freedom of prose. William Carlos Williams, Rainer Maria Rilke, Sylvia Plath, Raymond Carver, Louise Erdrich -- and now Garrett Hongo."

-- Maxine Hong Kingston

"When I finished this brave and sharp story I wanted to start again because of the honesty in the author's voice and the many gifts -- beautiful language, vivid and apt anecdotes, a novelist's narrative instinct -- that await the reader. Garrett Hongo elucidates here a Dragon; he reveals intelligence as love. And he magics time."

-- Barry Lopez

"In this memoir, the village of Volcano is both a place on the map and a beacon in the far more elusive terrain of a man's personal history. In charting that history, Garrett Hongo has produced a lyrical and penetrating work grafting intimate recollection with broad insight. He has aspired to Rousseau's standard for himself -- and for all memoirists -- to recount comprehensively 'what I have felt . . . and what my feelings have had me do.'"

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