Other Voices, Other Vistas:: China, India, Japan, and Latin America | 
 enlarge | Author: Various
Creator: Barbara H. Solomon
Publisher: Signet Classics
Category: Book
List Price: $7.95
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New (38) Used (36) Collectible (3) from $3.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 101221
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 480
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 4.2 x 1.3
ISBN: 0451528409
Dewey Decimal Number: 808.831
EAN: 9780451528407
ASIN: 0451528409
Publication Date: June 1, 2002
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| Also Available In:
| • | Paperback - Other Voices Other Vistas | | • | Paperback - Other Voices, Other Vistas: Short Stories from Africa, China, India, Japan and Latin America (Mentor) | | • | Hardcover - Other Voices Other Vistas | | • | Unknown Binding - Other Voices, Other Vistas | | • | Library Binding - Other Voices, Other Vistas: China, India, Japan, and Latin America | | • | Turtleback - Other Voices, Other Vistas: Short Stories from Africa, China, India, Japan, and Latin America |
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Product Description
This collection of contemporary multi-cultural fiction includes stories by: Bessie Head * Charles Mungoshi * Ngugi wa Thiong'o * Wang Anyi * Ding Ling * Wang Meng * Chen Rong * Lu Wenfu * Anita Desai * Mahasweta Devi * Ruth Prawer Jhabvala * R. K. Narayan * Khushwant Singh * Kobo Abe * Sawako Ariyoshi * Yasunari Kawabata * Yukio Mishima * Yuko Tsushima * Jorge Luis Borges * Carlos Fuentes * Luisa Valenzuela * Nadine Gordimer * Isabel Allende
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Many Cultures, One Humanity August 29, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The more you read about other cultures, the more you realize how similar we are beneath the surface. "Other Voices, Other Vistas" is a collection of stories that celebrates our differences while bringing us closer together. Some of the more insightful and poignant stories include:
India: "The Interview" by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
India: "A Horse and Two Goats" by R.K. Narayan
Africa: "The Collector of Treasures" by Bessie Head
Africa: "Who Will Stop the Dark?" by Charles Mungoshi
Latin America: "Book of Sand" by Jorge Luis Borges
China: "Sketches from the 'Cattle Shed'" by Ding Ling
China: "Kite Streamers" by Wang Meng
China: "Regarding the Problem of Newborn Piglets in Winter" by Chen Rong
But my absolute favorite story in the entire collection is, without a doubt (drum roll, please):
Japan: "The Magic Chalk" by Kobo Abe.
For my money, "The Magic Chalk" is worth the price of the book. It is a witty, magical tale invoking the apocalyptic outlook of a post Hiroshima/Nagasaki Japan. Should be required reading.
 Great Travel Book August 22, 2007
I picked up this collection for a trip. It was a great collection to sit on the beach with. Each story is different and exciting. It's also nice to explore different cultures and think about your next great trip!
 Worthwhile March 23, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book was published in 1992 and contained 25 short stories, five each from Sub-Saharan Africa, China, India, Japan and Latin America. Most of the works were written or published in the 1970s and 80s, except the stories for Japan, all but one of which came out originally in the 1950s and 60s.
The stories were chosen to showcase major writers from these regions who published after World War II, and whose work was already available in English translation. The compiler was attracted, firstly, to stories that provided insight into the values, pressures, behavior and conflicts of people from other cultures. ("What does it feel like to grow up in Beijing, Bombay, or Buenos Aires? Increasingly, we have become fascinated by the details of daily existence in other cultures and curious about the lives of those whose circumstances and pressures seem so different from our own.") And secondly, to works that transcended individual situations and locations to touch on the shared human condition.
Themes in the stories included relationships between family members, men and women, different social or racial groups in a particular society, and artists and society, and the struggle to find a job or overcome poverty, civil strife, repression or imprisonment. The stories from China showed the impact of the Cultural Revolution: three of them contained main characters either banished to the countryside or imprisoned because of it.
Each region was represented by just five stories, and the quality overall seemed fairly high, even though it was difficult to get more than a glimpse of "what it feels like" in each place. Works that succeeded particularly in communicating atmosphere were, in my opinion, "Civil Peace" by Achebe, about a family struggling to survive the aftermath of civil war; "Africa Emergent" by Gordimer, about the relations between a black artist and a white architect during the time of apartheid and the resulting psychological tensions; "The Destination," by Wang Anyi, about a man returning to Shanghai after years of internal exile; and "The Man from a Peddlers' Family" by Lu Wenfu, about a political cadre's acquaintance with a peddler over many years, through the political shifts in their society, conveyed particularly well in their remarks to each other.
Others included a tale by Kushwant Singh about an Indian civil servant who'd been so Anglicized he could no longer follow his society's customs; "Papito's Story" by Luisa Valenzuela, in which a neighbor observed passively an incident during the period of military rule in Argentina; Sawako Ariyoshi's "The Tomoshibi," about the inhabitants of a cozy little bar in a Tokyo backstreet; and Yuko Tsushima's "The Silent Traders," about a woman's memories of a particular neighborhood at various stages of her life. The stories set in Japan, though, felt several generations out of date at the least.
It's too bad that a multicultural anthology such as this one, published more than a year after the Gulf War, omitted the Arab world. Major Arab writers whose works were available in English translation before this book was published included 1988 Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz, Yusuf Idris, Alifa Rifaat, Ghassan Kanafani, Zakaria Tamer and Mohamed Choukri. I also wondered why Japan was included instead, since it should've already been comparatively familiar to Americans as a fully industrialized U.S. ally.
The book provided useful lists of fiction anthologies for each region and informed biographies for each author. Though it's a minor point, in the table of contents in the China section the five authors weren't alphabetized correctly (the first author's surname should be Wang, not Anyi, for example), and their stories should've been reordered.
Readers who enjoyed this book might also enjoy Global Cultures: A Transnational Short Fiction Reader, a multicultural anthology of some 60 short stories that was published in 1994.
Around the world in 25 stories February 18, 2003
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
"Other Voices, Other Vistas," edited by Barbara H. Solomon, is a wonderful anthology of stories. The selections in the book are grouped by geographic region into 5 sections, each containing 5 stories. The regions represented are Africa, China, India, Japan, and Latin America. In her introduction, Solomon notes that all of the stories are written by major authors who had published fiction after World War II.The group of 25 authors is full of noteworthy names: Chinua Achebe, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Jorge Luis Borges, and more. The themes in the anthology include love, marriage, parenthood, oppressive governments, art, religion, economic struggle, ideological conflict, and cultural dislocation. The modes range from fantasy to stark reality--there is violence and serenity, beauty and grotesqueness, sorrow and humor. I especially loved the Chinese stories, which give a vivid portrayal of life under the Communist regime--it's like a real life dystopia. Other strong selections include Yukio Mishima's "Acts of Worship," about a professor's pilgrimage; Isabel Allende's "Clarisa," a colorful character study; and R.K. Narayan's "A Horse and Two Goats," a story of cross-cultural miscommunication. Overall, I would recommend this book both as a classroom text and for individual reading. Recommended companion text: "Caribbean New Wave," a short story anthology edited by Stewart Brown.
Wonderful collection for all, who like reading short stories May 11, 2000
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is a pocket-size book, that contains short stories from the best international authors. Each story is a good one. Each one is different from the next. So, this book is good not only for college classes, but anyone who enjoys reading short stories from Asian, Latin, and African authors.
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