Jiro Adachi
Jiro Adachi | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 14, 1965  |
Jiro Adachi (born October 14, 1965) is an American writer best known for his novel The Island of Bicycle Dancers (2004).
Jiro Adachi was born on October 14, 1965 in New York City, the son of a Japanese father and a Hungarian mother. He earned a BA in English from Columbia University and an MFA in creative writing from Colorado State University. He taught English, English as a second language, and writing at a number of schools, including Colorado State University, Hunter College, Lycée Français de New York, the New School, Stern College for Women, and the School of Visual Arts. He also worked as a bicycle messenger.
The Island of Bicycle Dancers is about Yurika Song, a half-Japanese half-Korean woman from Kawasaki whose rebellious nature causes her parents to send her to live with her Korean uncle in New York City. In New York, Yurika is overwhelmed by the "too many different kinds of English" used by the many diasporic communities in Manhattan, calling the language "a huge octopus...with so many wild and beautiful limbs writhing about." She learns English slang from her rebellious cousin Suzie and is disliked by her aunt, Hyun Jeong. She works in her uncle's East Village convenience store and encounters a number of bicycle messengers. She befriends one of them, Whitey, an Ivy League drop-out, and has a relationship with Hector, a Puerto Rican bicycle messenger nicknamed named Bone. The novel was favorably reviewed by Publisher's Weekly, The Asian Reporter, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, and Library Journal.
He also contributed the essay "Writing that Sings" to the book Rules of Thumb : 73 authors reveal their fiction writing fixations (2006) by Michael Martone and Susan Neville.
Bibliography
- The Island of Bicycle Dancers (2004)
References
- ↑ Xu, Wenying (2012). Historical dictionary of Asian American literature and theater. Historical dictionaries of literature and the arts. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press, Inc. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-8108-5577-9.
- 1 2 "Adachi, Jiro 1965-". Gale Contemporary Authors. Retrieved 2026-11-06.
- ↑ Rody, Caroline (2009-10-30). The Interethnic Imagination: Roots and Passages in Contemporary Asian American Fiction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-970363-0.
- 1 2 Zaleski, Jeff. 2004. “THE ISLAND OF BICYCLE DANCERS (Book).” Publishers Weekly 251 (1): 38–39.
- ↑ "The Asian Reporter - BOOK REVIEW". www.asianreporter.com. Retrieved 2026-11-06.
- ↑ “THE ISLAND OF BICYCLE DANCERS (Book).” Kirkus Reviews, vol. 71, no. 22, Nov. 2003, p. 1325.
- ↑ Hoover, Danise. “The Island of Bicycle Dancers (Book).” Booklist, vol. 100, no. 9/10, Jan. 2004, p. 818.
- ↑ “{The Island of Bicycle Dancers}.” Library Journal, vol. 129, no. 2, Feb. 2004, p. 120.
- ↑ Martone, Michael; Neville, Susan, eds. (2006). Rules of thumb: 73 authors reveal their fiction writing fixations. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer's Digest Books. ISBN 978-1-58297-391-3.
External links