Honor and Duty - Softcover

Gus Lee

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0804110042 ISBN 13: 9780804110044

Publisher: Ivy Books, 1994

Synopsis

Kai Ting knows what it means to become an American and lose all that is Chinese. It happened to his father, a former officer in Chiang Kai-shek's army, who never came to terms with his new life in the United States. Now, as a West Point cadet in the 1960s, Kai has a golden chance both to retain his heritage and to become undeniably, gloriously American.

But the Point has dangerous preconceptions about Asians, especially as the war in Vietnam escalates. Kai walks on a razor's edge...and falls into the dark pit of a cheating scandal. Suddenly, he must learn a new tribal behavior, a new etiquette. And his very survival depends on learning it fast....

About this title

From the Back Cover

"Superb...Gus Lee has forged a marvelous novel, with a hero capable of embodying the United States and all its multitudinous citizens." -- Chicago Tribune

"Moving...Honor And Duty reminds [one] of The Color Purple in the way that family revelations come slowly, subtly, often in fragments that Kai Ting must piece together in order to understand his past." -- The New York Times Book Review

"Enlightening And Sobering...Lee is a natural storyteller with wry humor, a wonderful ear for dialogue and the cadences of dialects -- black, Southern, Bronx and pidgin English -- and a talent for vivid and visceral descriptions." -- San Francisco Chronicle

From Kirkus Reviews

Lee's documentary-like second (after China Boy, 1991) concerns a West Point cadet who comes of age in the shadow of Vietnam at a university plagued by bigotry and cheating. Kai Ting, 17 in 1964, walks onto the West Point campus: ``After all the years of hope, I was here.'' Almost immediately, he and other cadets are ``psychically sandblasted'' all in caps: ``YOU ARE IN IT NOW, CREEP! YOU ARE IN THE PAIN PALACE, THE HURT HOOCH, THE OUCH POUCH, THE BRUISE BAG.'' In San Francisco, his stepmother is a witch: ``I am your mother. Not your stepmother. Give the picture of the Other Woman to your sister. Never, ever make a fist or raise your voice to me!'' His father (``Chinese fathers--for me, such a mystical, frightening term...'') was an officer with Chiang Kai-shek's forces, but West Point is important mostly because it is a way for Ting to certify his American identity. The book's narrative pattern is thus established: it shuttles between West Point and San Francisco. The Class of 1968, for all their military shine, are full of sloth, idealism, and lust; Ting's dreams are to ``study solids,'' ``bench-press three hundred pounds,'' get laid by someone who is not ``dating others,'' and to avoid getting caught between a collegiate cheating ring and the Honor Code. Finally, the whole West Point mess it too much for him, and he gets out in time for a teary-eyed reconciliation with his father. Duty gives way to individual choice, and the torch is passed to a new generation of Chinese-Americans: the story's a bit progammatic but rich in the sociology and folkways of two cultures. (First printing of 50,000) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ivy Books
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0804110042
• ISBN 13: 9780804110044
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 434