Heads by Harry - by Lois-Ann Yamanaka (Paperback)

About the Book

"Yamanaka concludes her trilogy of novels set among the Japanese-American working class in Hilo, Hawaii, with a work that delivers a precise look at this vibrant culture yet speaks to anyone who has experienced the joy, security, and small humiliations of family life."--"The New York Times Book Review."

Book Synopsis

You can always count on a crowd outside Heads by Harry, the Yagyuu family's taxidermy shop in Hilo, where the regulars gather every day to drink beer, eat smoked meat, and pontificate into the pau hana hours. But above the shop, where the family lives, life isn't so predictable. Toni Yagyuu, the middle child, has enough on her hands dealing with her budding diva of a little sister. But it is the men in her life that really have her running in circles: a flamboyant older brother who wants to be a hairdresser, a stubborn father who refuses to accept her into the family business, and the Santos brothers--two pig-hunting, ex-high school football players who don't know what to think of their headstrong, outspoken neighbor.

From the Back Cover

You can always count on a crowd outside Heads by Harry, the Yagyuu family's taxidermy shop in Hilo, where the regulars gather every day to drink beer, eat smoked meat, and pontificate into the pau hana hours. But above the shop, where the family lives, life isn't so predictable. Toni Yagyuu, the middle child, has enough on her hands dealing with her budding diva of a little sister. But it is the men in her life that really have her running in circles: a flamboyant older brother who wants to be a hairdresser, a stubborn father who refuses to accept her into the family business, and the Santos brothers -- two pig-hunting, ex-high school football players who don't know what to think of their headstrong, outspoken neighbor.

Haunting, compassionate, wildly original and brutally funny, HEADS BY HARRY takes its rightful place alongside Lois-Ann Yamanaka's acclaimed novels on growing up in Hawaii.

Review Quotes

"Unsparing and profoundly generous. This is Yamanaka at her best, examining human failure through a microscope of love, of desire".

-- The Village Voice

"Outstanding...Earthy and exotic, occasionally macabre, often sexy, Heads by Harry is one Hawaii import that throbs with authenticity."--"The Baltimore Sun"Raw, rich...Delivers a precise look at [working class Hawaii's] vibrant culture yet still speaks to anyone who has experienced the joy, security, and small humiliations of family life."--"The New Yore Times Book Review"Unsparing and profoundly generous. This is Yamanaka at her best, examining human failure through a microscope of love, of desire."--"The Village Voice"Remarkable...A stimulating introduction to a world more mysterious and exotic than the illusory idylls of Hawaii painted by [outsiders]...Hawaii has found a bard."--"Atlantic Monthly