A thorough compendium of Charlie Chan quotations.
Armagno compiles quotes from the controversial detective in this debut work of cultural criticism.
In less than a decade, from 1925 through the early 1930s, Earl Derr Biggers wrote six novels whose main character, Chinese-Hawaiian detective Charlie Chan of the Honolulu Police Department, became a cultural mainstay for more than half a century. Those half-dozen books have spawned more than 40 Chan movies, a BBC television series, multiple radio plays, a nationally syndicated newspaper comic strip, and even a Milton Bradley board game. Chan was, postulates the author (a 40-year Air Force veteran who lived for a time in Honolulu), “arguably as popular a fictional icon as Mickey Mouse and Superman!” He is also among the most controversial figures of 20th century pop culture, an Asian character created by a white author and portrayed on film by white actors using insulting pseudo-Chinese accents and garbled English grammar. Seeking to “differentiate the ‘literature’ from the antics of Hollywood film,” Armagno argues that the original novels eschewed stereotypes and portrayed “the Chinese as a wise, intelligent, people and nation.” To this end, the author has meticulously compiled examples of Chan’s defining characteristic—his use of relevant, pithy aphorisms—into this anthology of wit and sagacity. Divided into three parts, the book begins with almost 200 aphorisms divided by the Biggers’ book in which they are found. More aphorisms are organized by topic in Part II, covering subjects including death, fate, beauty, and patience (“In time,” Chan reminds us, “the grass becomes milk”). The book’s final chapters are an eclectic collection of short essays, drawings and illustrations of Chan, and random aphorisms that didn’t make the cut for the first two parts. Armagno also includes an introduction by Biggers biographer Barbara Gregorich, a bibliography on all things Chan, and an encyclopedic index of Chan’s appearances in books, films, and other media. Some readers may not be convinced by the alleged racial benevolence of Biggers’ original novels, though Armagno makes a convincing case on the differences between the Chan in print versus film.
A thorough compendium of Charlie Chan quotations.Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2023
ISBN: 978-1667894270
Page Count: 112
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: Aug. 14, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
