The Fortune Cookie Chronicles

I love social histories that use one item as a springboard for exploration. I've read books on jade, opium, and now Chinese cuisine. [There is no pattern here. These are not the droids you're looking for.] Jennifer 8. Lee's The Fortune Cookie Chronicles begins as a search for the origins of the fortune cookie, and grows into a much broader survey of how Chinese food has become a cultural ambassador and anchor as much as a commodity. Plus, it's written like a Da Vinci Code thriller (in the good way)!

I'm impressed with the depth and range of her research; it's almost like spending the afternoon following Wikipedia links, but she brings it all home in the end. Lee encapsulates the immigration patterns of Chinese Americans with remarkable concision (conciseness?), but maybe it's not quite so pithy if you haven't done your undergrad thesis on Chinese immigration in the 19th and early 20th century. She reaches beyond to look at the beginnings of door-hanger menus on the Upper West Side, Japanese American internment in WWII, Third World labor in Dubai, marketing strategies, and the very real perils of working as a Chinese deliveryman in the 21st century. Her conclusions on the ripples of influence that Chinese food has had on the intergenerational struggle for understanding are more profound than anything Amy Tan has come up with so far. I recommend this book! It left me, begging yer pardon, with a lot to chew on.

The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, by Jennifer 8. Lee, at your local independent bookseller.

The Kite Runner

I'm still enough of a surly adolescent that I've resisted trends in popular literature (plus, I don't have a CostCo card), so I've never read The Kite Runner or seen the movie. Tonight's stage adaptation at San Jose Rep, then, was more of a revelation for me than many Bay Area audiences, although I became aware that I had, in fact, scanned the plot summary on Wikipedia at some point.

A handsome production from the top down, extending even beyond the talents of my CPF James "Jimmy" Saba! Scenery, lighting, costumes-- all gorgeous (Vicki Smith, David Lee Cuthbert, Kish Finnegan, respectively). Strong acting overall, though somewhat too strong in the case of Amir (Barzin Akhavan). That guy goes to eleven. And sometimes twelve. I blame the director (David Ira Goldstein), ultimately, for the good and the ehhh. There was no restraint, and a remarkable lack of specificity. When a play is primarily narrated, the director is responsible for making clear whom the narrator is addressing. Even if the answer is "the audience," the questions of relative status, receptiveness, etc. remain. Please don't just cheeze at me for two hours. Aaack-ting!

Still, and despite the rather heavy-handed script (Matthew Spangler from Kholed Hosseini's novel), I enjoyed the show very much, thanks to beautiful stage pictures, an attractive and committed cast, and one truly amazing tabla player (Salar Nader).

The Kite Runner at San Jose Rep. Through April 24, 2009.