Immigrant daughters (and sons)

Stuck in Atlanta's horrific traffic on I-285, Terry Gross's Fresh Air helped me to stay sane. In fact, tonight's interviews with a writer and a jazz-pianist were rich and inspiring.

Philip Roth is a Jewish descent writer who recently published a novel Nemesis. Nemesis is about a polio outbreak taking place in Newark — the town where Roth grew up. Terry asks the author if he sees his recent work Nemesis as an exercise of recollecting his childhood memories. And yes, I think it is an incredible work of art that was created with bases of his recollections of the past. As Allen Ginsberg stated, Philip Roth's work then becomes an art form that "oscillates between idealizing the actual and actualizing the ideal." Towards the end of interview, Terry Gross asks the author why he keeps writing when he doesn't have to anymore (he has enough money now) - then Philip Roth gives a great answer:

"It's hard to give up something you've been doing for 55 years, which has been at the center of your life, where you spend sometimes six, eight, 10 hours a day," he says. "I always have worked every day, and I'm kind of a maniac. How could a maniac give up what he does? ... You sit alone, decade after decade, and you try to imagine something out of nothing. Not just imagine it, but, again, make a work of art out of it. And you do it so long, that in a certain way you can't do anything else."

To listen to the interview, go to http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130566223.

Second portion of the interview was with a self-taught jazz pianist Vijay Iyer who is a son of immigrant parents from South India. His piano tracks were beautiful - I almost forgot about the traffic. He talked about his interests in rhythmic concepts from South Indian music and culture and how his identity influences his music.

To listen to his interview, go to http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130543663. 



Both artists are immigrant sons. The author Philip Roth talked about how he was not able to communicate with his grandparents. They only spoke Yiddish which was the language he did not understand. He could only communicate with his grandparents with emotions; his understanding of his heritage comes through research rather than personal stories. A jazz pianist Vijay Iyer talks openly about his personal background as a South-Indian immigrant son and what it means to be an American. It was so interesting to draw some similar correlations from their stories to mine and my Asian-American friends. We all juggle with expectations and positions we encounter as immigrant daughters and sons.

After about one and half hours of drive, I arrived at one of my tutoring students' house in Johns Creek. She is a 5 years old girl, extremely energetic and talented. Her mother and she moved to the States from Korea about a year ago. She will be spending most of her growing years in the States, and she will grow up to be an American.

Hah!

Terry Gross mentioned of this phrase during the interview -

M o d e r n   A m e r i c a n   C h i l d

Driving back home, I thought about the artists in the interviews. I decided to write about it.



I came home in Marietta and my parents were watching a Korean drama. Yes, I am an immigrant daughter and there is nothing richer than understanding and encompassing moments on 'the road between home and school.'