Sansei and Sensibility

by Karen Tei Yamashita

In these buoyant and inventive stories, Yamashita transfers classic tales across boundaries and questions what an inheritance―familial, cultural, emotional, artistic―really means. In a California of the ’60s and ’70s, characters examine the contents of deceased relatives’ freezers, tape-record high-school locker-room chatter, or collect a community’s gossip while cleaning the teeth of its inhabitants. Mr. Darcy is the captain of the football team, Mansfield Park materializes in a suburb of L.A., bake sales replace balls, and station wagons, not horse-drawn carriages, are the preferred mode of transit. The stories of traversing class, race, and gender leap into our modern world with wit and humor.

I. Sansei
The Bath
The Dentist and the Dental Hygienist
A Gentlemen's Agreement
Bombay Gin
Borges & I
Kiss of Kitty
Indian Summer
Colono:Scopy
KonMarimasu
Sansei Recipes
A Selected L.A./Gardena J.A. Timeline
II. Sensibility
Shikataganai & Mottainai
Giri & Gaman
Monterey Park
Emi
Japanese American Gothic
The PersuAsians
Omaki-san
J.A. Cheat Sheet
Afterword: Sansei Janeite

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Retellings, Contemporary, Historical Fiction, Adult Fiction, Asian American

224 pages, Paperback

First published May 5, 2020

About the author

Born January 8, 1951 in Oakland, California, Karen Tei Yamashita is a Japanese American writer and Associate Professor of Literature at University of California, Santa Cruz, where she teaches creative writing and Asian American literature. Her works, several of which contain elements of magic realism, include novels I Hotel (2010), Circle K Cycles (2001), Tropic of Orange (1997), Brazil-Maru (1992), and Through the Arc of the Rain Forest (1990). Tei Yamashita's novels emphasize the absolute necessity of polyglot, multicultural communities in an increasingly globalized age, even as they destabilize orthodox notions of borders and national/ethnic identity.

She has also written a number of plays, including Hannah Kusoh, Noh Bozos and O-Men which was produced by the Asian American theatre group, East West Players.

Yamashita is a finalist for the 2010 National Book Award for I Hotel.

Reviews

[Adam Dalva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Karen Tei Yamashita is a remarkable writer - a genius - and this career-spanning collection of short stories set in the Sansei community (3rd generation ethnically Japanese residents of foreign countries, mostly California here) demonstrates her range. Though it doesn't reach the heights of I HOTEL (what does?), I loved her humor and insight here. About half of the stories are micro Jane Austen pastiches - I liked them best when I'd read the correspondent Austen (Emma/P + P/ S + S/ Northanger), which suggests that they worked well. Reviewing short story corrections is always a Goodreads trap, but this one was consistently potent and good. I most liked "Bombay Gin," a comic, emotionally charged inventory of a Japanese-American house, ending in an astonishing, personal flurry that undoes all the action. "Omaki-San," an epistolary homage to Austen's Lady Susan, is another high point.

[Claire Reads Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Illuminating, inventive, and often f*cking hilarious – but Janeites beware! The first half of the book is an at times disjointed collection of short stories and essays published between 1975-2019, all circling around various aspects of the sansei experience. The second half of the book is comprised of short stories that retell all six of Jane Austen’s novels, plus Lady Susan, transposing her beloved narratives onto postwar Japanese America, with sansei kids front and center – it’s all extremely satirical, tongue-in-cheek, and at times even glibly dismissive of the stories that Janeites hold so dear. But I loved it – learned a lot, laughed out loud many times, and found myself quite moved in the brief moments when Karen trades in the satire for thoughtful reflection.

[Sherwood Smith]

I didn't finish this.

I read as far as I did because of the excellence of the prose. I also found some of the cultural contrasts interesting but not as insightful as I'd hoped.

The essays are very postmodern and detached, which bumps up awkwardly against Jane Austen's clear-sighted passions; about the only characteristic the two share is how funny they can be, and Austen's wit is much sharper, at least to me. The insight about Godzilla and post-atom-bomb Japan has been around since the work of Osama Tezuka has been discussed.

Finally I realized that, despite the excellence of the prose on the sentence level, I was not really interested in the bare bones of Austen's plots redressed in literarily hip pomo, even to see the author address culture and generational tensions; what matters in Austen is not her fictional plots, it's the enchanting way she balances her satiric eye with her compassion for those who strive to be their best selves, and the way she paints the world as it should be. (She knew how grotty it could be--she read Smollet's Humphry Clinker well before she wrote about Bath.)

[Kiran Bhat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Karen Tei Yamashita is one of the most under-rated bicultural writers currently working today. Her writing is often a lot more ambitious and harder to define than a lot of writing by second generation Americans, which is probably why she has had less success in the marketplace. At the same time, Yamashita likes to provoke emotions that are rarely discussed in immigrant American writing, and she likes to play with form and structure, too. I think the stories in Sansei and Sensibility are not necessarily her best, but they showcase what makes her an interesting writer. Yamashita takes what makes Austen so interesting and rewrite them from a Japanese American perspective. While the stories are not as searingly deep or aching as other postmodern pastiche projects (like Wide Sargasso Sea), there's a lot of cleverness at work here, and one still feels a lot for the Japanese Americans caught not only between heritages, but between literary dimensions.

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lingering title from the 2021 Tournament of Books longlist, two halves, made of stories. The first half is a variety of stories about Sansei, third generation Japanese people living in the United States. The second half is retellings of Jane Austen novels using Japanese names, places, events, etc.; these I felt were pretty niche and most accessible to people deeply versed in both. I think with this author you have to commit 100% to what she's trying to do and I'm not always willing. I enjoyed the first half more than the second!

[Katie Long]

DNF-50%

No rating because I don't think that's fair when I didn't finish the book, but I wouldn't recommend this

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

J.A x 2 – Japanese American meets Jane Austen

A two-part collection of thematically related short stories about Sansei – third generation Japanese immigrants to America (here mainly California), and their interactions with the two previous generations and particularly the Nisei (second generation immigrants) and Kibei (American born/Japanese educated/America returning) generations whose experience of World War II internment coloured their worldview and in particular their parenting.

The first part is a series is a collection of stories/essays already (with one exception) published by the author from 1975 to 2017. This is completed by a series of Sensei recipes (effectively Japanese/junk American fusion cuisine) and a timeline of Japanese American events (with a California bias) from 1868 to 2019 which also shows the ages of the three different JA generations and the well known American generations (Boomers etc).

My favourite stories included “The Dentist and the Dental Hygienist” – an amusing story about an uncomfortably perceptive dental hygienist; “A Gentlemen’s Agreement” – more of a picture essay but which gave me interesting insights into the different Japanese immigration into Brazil compared to the US due to the presence of wives; Colono:Scopy – which uses that medical procedure as an uncomfortable/confrontational exploration of the Japanese role in recent American history; and best of all “KonMarimasu” which very cleverly links the Marie Kondo craze to various sites remembering JA internment camps via the idea of retention of memories and artefacts.

The second part is effectively an enjoyable and imaginative series of pastiches of Jane Austen novels written with Sensei characters as the author explores how the tightly controlled, but changing, social mores of Jane Austen’s writing is partly mirrored in the world of the JA Sensei.

The only criticism here is that the stories seem to me to really require for maximum enjoyment both an extensive knowledge of Jane Austen and a good knowledge of JA cultural references – which for optimal enjoyment may be a pretty small venn diagram intersection converging on the author’s JA sister Jane - a fanatical cos-playing Janeite.

For me I score pretty highly on the first but my enjoyment was much stronger for the Pride and Prejudice/Emma stories where I know the original plot in huge detail, high for Sense and Sensibility where I have what could be described as prompted-plot awareness, and lowest for say Northhanger Abbey or Lady Susan where I have almost none)

And on the second (as someone with only limited knowledge of Californian culture in general let alone Sansei specificities I felt I was lacking appreciation and even comprehension of these elements.

A highlight for me was one scene – in which (in a replay of the “badly done Emma” Box Hill conversation) Emi is upbraided by her mentor George Kishi for harassing a well intentioned Church matron Mrs Esa for her generations refusal to talk about internment, oblivious to the social reasons for this.

I received this book as an extremely thoughtful leaving gift by a colleague and friend – and it is a fascinating and very different read.

[Erin Cataldi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the scope and uniqueness found in these short stories; from powerful grandmothers, to bathtubs, to dental hygienists who know too much, to interment camps this book has a bit of everything in it. The first half of the short stories aren't related to Jane Austen but are still profound and enjoyable. The second half of this collection turns each classic Jane Austen novel on it's head and gives it a Japanese American twist. I don't want to give anything away, but I will say they were very clever and were the most unique takes on Jane Austen that I've read in ages! Filled with beautiful prose; these unique short stories are worth a read!

[Dr. Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was all right, but a majority of it didn't hold my attention.

I don't have much to say about this collection. The first part, Sansei, is a collection of original short stories/essays. While I did enjoy them, the only one that stuck out to me was one about a dentist and his way too honest assistant.

The second part, Sensibility, is a collection of Jane Austen retellings. I've only read Mansfield Park which was meh, but I do like Pride & Prejudice (the movie). I really enjoyed the P&P retelling, it was definitely my favorite of the collection. Probably because it was the only one I was super familiar with. I'd definitely recommend this second half to Jane Austen fans as they might have fun with the retellings!

Rep: All characters were Japanese, or Japanese-American.

CWs: Death, confinement, grief, infidelity, xenophobia, discussion and mentions of Japanese internment in the USA, and WWII.

[Abi Fiedler · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun lil gem I’m so glad I read!

[Marina · Rating 3 out of 5]

i really enjoyed the essays (i think one towards the end i skipped though), and without context, i think i would've loved the stories too, but knowing they were (J. A.) JA adaptations made me expect some warmth and fluff that was not there

[Anri W]

My review in the Boston Globe here:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bost...

[Alison Hardtmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Karen Tei Yamashita's book of short stories is two collections in one. The first half concerns itself with sansei, the grandchildren of Japanese emigrants. In these stories, they live mainly in an affluent Japanese-American community in California. And there are essays from topics ranging from prominent women of Japanese heritage to the WWII internment camps in isolated locations and how they are being preserved.

The second half of the book is a series of stories in which the familiar characters and plots of Jane Austen's novels are placed in that same Californian Japanese-American community and altered for our modern age, so that Mr. Collins is a high school librarian and Mrs. Bennett is the president of the PTA. These stories require a familiarity with Austen's novels, but that's probably a given for readers of Yamashita's collection.

I picked up this book because of the Austen stories, but much preferred the first section, especially the essays, which brought to life the Japanese-American experience and that of being the grandchildren of immigrants. The first story, of two sisters visiting Japan for the first time and of looking like they belong, while still being outsiders, was also fascinating.

[Chaitra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me. I thought I wouldn't mind the scattershot writing style because that's how my mind works mostly. But in this case I couldn't adapt to it at all. I struggled with the Sansei stories and skimmed the Jane ones (also featuring Sansei?)

At all times my attention wandered. Sometimes to cleaning. Always a dire sign for a book. I did enjoy Omaki-San though.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

This just wasn't for me. Yamashita's talented and smart and writes stories that don't stick in my brain. The Austen-derived ones were...pretty okay. This is such a lukewarm review, good grief, but if you're in to short stories and want to learn more about the experience of post-WW2 Japanese Americans, give this a go. The "mapping," as one reviewer described it, of the Japanese American experience onto Austen was the most interesting thing to me. Otherwise, I felt about the stories how I feel about a lot of short story collections—they were weird or distant for the sake of being weird or distant, without storylines or characters that jump out at you much. I did appreciate the idea that Godzilla represents the physical manifestation of Japan's post-war/post-Hiroshima trauma, and the story 'Bombay Gin' is one I would actually recommend. Otherwise, not my cup of tea.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a recent episode ('Seeing Ghosts' across Generations) of the amazing NPR podcast Code Switch, the host asks a first-generation Chinese-American writer if learning more of the Cantonese language has made her feel more comfortable with being Chinese-American. In a similar vein, on a recent visit to the fabulous Elliott Bay Book Company in Capitol Hill in Seattle, I noticed an abundance of books by Japanese authors that have been translated into English.

These are great things. I love, absolutely love, that different Asian experiences are getting more coverage in media and have a larger presence in well-respected bookshops. But it also frustrates me, because not all Asian experiences are of the first-generation type, and as a fourth-generation Japanese-American, it is an invaluable experience to read books like Sansei and Sensibility and to know that there are publications of writers who represent the Asian Americans who have been in this country for longer and have a different experience and a different perspective on being Asian in America. It's safe to say that, perhaps outside of Hawaii, there aren't many and certainly not many published by mainstream publishing houses (Sansei and Sensibility was published by Coffee House Press).

This is an important book to read and understand, not because you, dear reader, seek out books with Austenite sensibilities, although that's a fantastic reason in itself. It's important because it sheds light on the experiences of a generation that is, I'm afraid, being forgotten or overlooked, perhaps because it is less 'authentically' Japanese than books written about Japan by Japanese nationals, or perhaps because newer immigrant experiences are just more abundant. I personally own a disproportionate amount of books translated from Japanese or books written about post-modern Asian immigrant experiences (On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous has to be one of the most incredible pieces of fiction published this century).

This book is about my father's generation, sansei or third generation. My mother's too, technically, but she is from Hawaii and her family did not experience the trauma that my father's family did in the internment camps. The sansei are not only the generation that inherited the fallout of the trauma of WWII and the Japanese American concentration camps, but also the last generation that had to grapple with being visibly Japanese in the wider U.S., at least of the Japanese who first arrived after the Meiji Restoration. As Yamashita notes in one of the stories, many sansei (outside of Hawaii) did not marry other sansei, and so most yonsei (fourth generation) on the mainland are hapa. In a way, the sansei were the in-between generation, the bridge between the immigrant generations who had to navigate a new world and the accompanying political minefield, and the more comfortably American generations to follow.

This is an older story of Asian immigration to America, straight out of the history books, and it offers lessons on what it's like to be a minority group in America after several generations have passed. Read this not just to enjoy the innumerable nods to the one and only, the OG, Jane Austen. I hope that people read this to understand better what happens to your family history, your heritage and how you relate to it, your understanding of where your family came from and what they went through and how they were treated by this country, when you have been here not for one or two generations, but for three or four or five.

[Vivek Tejuja · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, here’s the thing about Karen Tei Yamashita’s writing – not only they seem absurd or abstract most of the time, strangely enough they also seem complete and concrete. The writing that doesn’t miss a beat or rhythm and it is all perfect, not quite though. Sansei and Sensibility is a collection of stories just like that. And of course, let’s not forget the Jane Austen wordplay, which I will talk about later.

The stories in this collection centres around sansei, or third generation Japanese-Americans. We have stories that set context – culturally and politically. There are the issei, a Japanese immigrant to North America and nisei, an American whose parents were immigrants from Japan and then of course there is Sansei. It is all clearly laid out as the collection begins with the section “Sansei”. A lot of sanseis were born in the 1930s and 40s, they grew up in Second World War internment camps or just heard stories from their parents or grandparents about years spent in camps.

The second half of the collection “Sensibility” is light-hearted in a sense, taking off from Jane Austen’s novels, where “Monterey Park” is a spin-off of Mansfield Park or for that matter “Omaki-San” is based on Austen’s Lady Susan and works perfectly because of a single protagonist’s point of view. Yamashita’s pace is frenetic and unyielding. It is as though she has so much to say and so little time.

Short stories aren’t easy to write. To be able to communicate it all and sometimes not everything is an art in itself which I think very few writers master. Yamashita is one of them. The stories are told in many voices and that is what makes them even more exciting and palpable. Read this collection, and then read her other works.

[Oliver]

Split into 2 parts, Sansei and Sensibility is a collection of short stories focused mainly on Japanese-American history, culture and identity. And while a little hit and miss, enjoyable overall.

The first half (Sansei) are stories (both fictional and memoir/non fiction) centred on the Japanese diaspora in both the US and Brazil, and discusses issues such as Japanese Internment during WW2 as well as cultural staples such as bathing, natto and Marie Kondo, all framed from the perspective of the Japanese Immigrant generations: Issei (1st gen), Nisei (2nd gen) and Sansei (3rd gen). I found this really interesting as I haven’t been exposed to this concept before and didn’t really know about the important role it has in the Japanese-American immigrant experience, I guess it parallels how we define generations such as boomers, gen X and millennials etc., but I enjoyed it more as it felt like less of a meme (ok boomer ;)) and showed actual historical value.

The second half (Sensibility) was a collection of stories based on the books by Jane Austen, reframed with a Japanese context. I enjoyed them, but found them to be a little bit of a random addition (even though that’s what initially drew me into the book in the first place.) While they were entertaining on a whole, I did find in isolation the stories to be a bit drab, lacking that Jane Austen wit. That being said I did enjoy Yamashita’s writing throughout, felt super unique and modern, and her creativity is super exciting.

Favourite stories were A Gentleman’s Agreement, Kiss of Kitty and Colono:Scopy from Sansei. Emi (Emma) and Omaki-san (Lady Susan) from Sensibility.

[Chelsey Saatkamp · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Odd how that Darcy kid even speaks Japanese in a monotone."

The Gist: The first half is a collection of short stories and personal essays by Yamashita about what life is like as a sansei (a third-generation Japanese American). The second half is short adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels set amongst the Japanese-American community in the 60s and 70s.

My Thoughts: I really loved both halves of this book! The personal stories were quite lovely, and there was only one I didn’t fully grasp. “Bombay Gin” was my favorite - the melancholy mixed with humor was a perfect balance.

The Jane Austen stories were just super fun. They’re a bit heavier on the social commentary than the romance, which was a bit of a bummer for this romance Austen fan, but overall I thought the adaptation choices were really clever.

[Kirk]

I only read Part II.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid story collection, with ties to the works of Jane Austen. Cleverly done.

[Gayla Bassham · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was not the intended audience for this book. Not my cuppa, despite the Jane connection (which I was genuinely intrigued by).

[Priya · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 *
I enjoyed some of the essays/stories in this collection, especially the Austen stories reimagined in a Japanese American context.
Some were too complex though.
The last story was my favourite.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yamashita's prose is funny and engaging and educational. I enjoyed each individual story I read, but started to grow tired of them cumulatively. Ironically, the place where I got bored was the back half of the book where Yamashita retells Jane Austen stories with modern, Japanese American characters. That's what I came to this collection for to begin with, but I was way more interested in the first half of the book collecting her own, Austenless work.

I loved the insight to Japanese American culture; it just turns out that I didn't need to have it married to my favorite Regency-period author. I wonder if it has anything to do with Yamashita's admitting that she's not a huge Austen fan herself. Her sister is and that appears to be the inspiration, but I found the Austen adaptations more cute than insightful. They don't have anything particularly new to say about Austen, nor are they as revealing about JA culture as the first half of the collection.

[Mary Pagones · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this for my JASNA group, and found both the non-Austen-inspired tales as well as the Jane Austen-influenced stories rather confusing and underwhelming. This collection has been heaped with high praise, and some of the stories do begin with promising premises (a dentist growing wealthy on patient's teeth rotten with Doublemint gum becomes obsessed with his hygienist, who seems to have an eerie ability to communicate with his patients) but then go nowhere. The Jane Austen stories attempt to compress every single one of Austen's novels into a short story per book. And if that sounds dauntingly impossible...well, it is.

But it's not just that the characters of the books are so sketchily touched upon they hardly come to life in the new setting. There's an uncomfortable merger of mentioning tragic pasts (the characters' internment, for example) with very light scenes (teenage Marxists smoking cigarettes while eating chocolate chip cookies) that might work in a longer work, or even a short story where the characters are more fleshed out. Here, there just feels like a curious galloping to the end of the tale, with no time to give each character any sense of interior life. Readers who prefer absurd, minimalist fiction might warm to the collection more than I did. But I felt myself growing grumpier with every story.

[Joy Ramlogan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exploring the Japanese immigrant experience in the Americas through short stories and memoir shorts, Ms. Yamashita bridges between life in Japan (where the Japanese Americans pretend to be Japanese, taking on the mannerisms and personas to pass unnoticed) and life in these Americas. I loved the threads of bathing in America and in the public baths in Kyoto mixed in the tapestry of family. We are told in passing of grandparents who lived in the same place except for the time of their internment in Oregon during WW2. Less is more in this wonderful set of tales. The second part of the book, takes the Austenian tales as the base for the various stories. Fascinating ride through the imaginarium of Ms. Yamashita's world view that spans the globe and keeps the intimacies of normal life in bright focus. My favorite piece was that of the grandmothers - Ms. Yamashita's paternal and maternal grandmothers in America and her friend Kuso's paternal and maternal grandmothers in Brazil. As she observes, the women are the true immigrants as they kept hearth and home and family together. I plan to read her other works, having been introduced to this gem.

[Glen U · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave this book 4 stars because of its relatability and insightfulness into my own personal experiences and psyche. Truthfully, if I was not of the Sansei generation, I may have not felt the emotional pulls of growing up Japanese-American after World War 2, that Yamashita so skillfully and adroitly brings to the reader. Her homage to Jane Austen consists of several short stories with Austen characters placed in America during the 1950's and '60's only with problems transcribed to Japanese-Americans and their unique outlooks and cultural mannerisms. Personally, I think that the stories would have been better without an Austen connection. Very strong on their own. Perhaps not 4 star but definitely 3. Yamashita can evoke real feelings, and for some of us, memories with her skillful rendering of characters and occurrences. On the other hand, I thought her essays and introductory asides before the Austen stories were excellent. She does know the true essence of the Japanese culture transplanted to America. A very good read.

[Sara Leigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Actually, I quit at three-quarters. Not my book. I’m sure there’s an audience for it, but I found it tedious. Its relationship to the Austen books was tenuous in my opinion.

[Mayumi Shimose Poe · Rating 4 out of 5]

SANSEI AND SENSIBILITY (2020) by Karen Tei Yamashita: As it took me 14 (!!) days to get through, this book wasn’t the best choice for first read of the year. That doesn’t mean I didn’t like it—just that it’s a thick, chewy read that cannot be devoured in a quick sitting. 📕 My initial sense in reading through was that the first half of the book was a collection of disparate parts that I wanted to cohere but seemed not to. Lots of interesting stuff: changes in style, tone, structure; guided by puzzlement, curiosity, unsettled feelings, regret, and sometimes rage; multiple POVs; in turns, magical realist, academic and removed, experimental, even essays and a standalone timeline. (Standouts in the first half were “Colono:Scopy,”an unhinged journey through the history of colonialism and, well, a protagonist’s colon, and “KonMarimasu,” which makes a poignant argument that the art of letting go hits different to issei and nisei who lost so much when they were incarcerated in WW2 and their descendants who still shoulder generational traumas neatly labeled with their family number.) 📕 The second half of the book recast beloved Jane Austen novels with Japanese American characters. Not being a hardcore Janeite, I can’t speak to the fidelity of reproduction, but the stories were great even on their own, and for me this section congealed better than the first section did.📕 Sitting here this morning digesting the book as a whole, I notice the press is Coffee House Press, which prides itself on publishing “work that doesn’t fit neatly into genre categories” (see back matter of book). 📕 It may have taken me 2 weeks to read, but I am sated by this several-course feast of an unconventional, interdisciplinary book that fills the reader with the sense of growing up “postcamp” (p. 124)—that is, growing up Japanese American in the postwar world in insular ethnic enclaves, “in a safe place, where sansei had the opportunity to grow up in camp without being in camp” (124).

[Lindsay]

I'm not going to rate this book, which has an amazing title. I learned stuff from it! That was good and important! I didn't quit! It wasn't un-readable. But... I did skim a bit and in the end I just don't have much to say.

I was confused as I began reading, expecting some Jane Austen stuff. But... it was short stories and essays. Some of them were very readable, some were so academic and abstract that I really couldn't follow what was happening without a little more context. After a bit of that I admit I skimmed a few of the first half's offerings.

The second part... Well, it was fun to guess which Austen book it was. And the premise was interesting, if only expounded on in the afterword. Comparing the reticence and the power structures in the two cultures (?). But, each story really depended on the weight and context of the novel it was based on to carry it. I don't think they added to the experience of Austen for me. But Austen as a way to show their experience was interesting.

I learned things about issei and nisei and sansei, about how different groups came to and reacted to America. But because each piece was so short, I felt like I had to dig for the parts that I was at the right level to get something out of them. I think I wanted more of a long-form comparison memoir/ essay about Austen and the Japanese-American experience, but what I got instead were glimpses into how those things overlap.

If you wanted a starting place to learn about the Japanese-American experience, a few of the essays in the first half would be great for that. But the book as a whole... maybe not.