China Dog: And Other Tales from a Chinese Laundry

A chorus of immigrant voices populates Judy Fong Bates's graceful and poignant first collection. Denizens of the ubiquitous small towns around Ontario, as far from their native land as can be imagined yet united by their proximity to the local Chinese laundry, her characters have in common their driving desire to assimilate, to fit in, to belong to a "majority" culture. But they are also people trapped by a certain cultural pride in confronting a world that may feign acceptance while at the...