海角大神

Pontificating with superlatives only halfway through the calendar year might prove short-sighted, but risking humiliated inaccuracy seems to be a negligible consequence for claiming that Reading with Patrick could be the most affecting book you鈥檒l read this year. To experience such a spectrum of responses 鈥� from anger to admiration, disbelief to inspiration, helpless frustration to stand-up-and-shout-cheering 鈥� should be enough impetus to get you urgently "reading with Patrick" as soon as possible.

Debut author Michelle Kuo doesn鈥檛 offer a perfect book 鈥� she鈥檚 guilty of unnecessary repetition, overdone details, and unresolved tangential narrative spurs, but what she鈥檚 written is unguardedly open, thoroughly revealing, and deeply thoughtful. On the surface, Kuo鈥檚 story reads like a heroic tale: a Harvard-educated idealist takes a two-year teaching job in one of the country鈥檚 most depressed, segregated cities and makes lasting connections with many of her middle-schoolers. Indeed, Kuo鈥檚 altruistic actions are inarguably laudable, but Kuo is self-aware enough to recognize her youthful arrogance, admit to mistakes, question her motives, and realize the impossibility of definitively knowing the right or wrong of her decisions.

The US-born daughter of Taiwanese immigrants who grew up in Michigan in the 1980s, Kuo considered herself 鈥渨eak, sweet, obedient鈥� until she found her 鈥渞ole models in books.鈥� With Asian Americans either missing or silenced by a history that seemed predominantly black and white, Kuo turned to writers like W.E.B. Du Bois, James Baldwin, Maya Angelou who 鈥渟eemed as fearless to [her] as Asian Americans seemed afraid, as essential to American history as [Asian Americans] were irrelevant.鈥� Meeting activists at Harvard emboldened her, but she realized she 鈥渨asn鈥檛 good at it.鈥� What she wanted was 鈥渟traightforward, immediate work in places that needed people,鈥� which led her to the Mississippi Delta with Teach For America: 鈥淚 went ... with a specific project: to teach American history through black literature.鈥�

In 2004, Kuo arrived in Helena, Arkansas, assigned to an alternative school 鈥渋ncongruously named 鈥楽tars,鈥� which the local administration used as a dumping ground for the so-called bad kids鈥� 鈥� where 鈥渢roublemakers鈥� who had already been expelled from mainstream schools were given a final chance before being permanently ejected from the public education system. Here, students were 鈥減addled鈥�: corporal punishment was still legal in Arkansas. In a predominantly African-American community in which 鈥淸m]ost students had never encountered an Asian person before,鈥� Kuo was insulted, cursed, and targeted, but she persisted. Relevant books 鈥� by Walter Dean Myers, Nikki Grimes, and Jacqueline Woodson 鈥� became her most effective teaching tools.

As her two-year contract approached its end, Kuo agonized over whether to stay or go to Harvard Law School. Despite misgivings, she chose the law, trying to convince herself she could be more effective with her prestigious degree and powerful connections-in-the-making. Then in her final year, she got a call that one of her most promising students was in prison for murder.

Patrick was 15 in her eighth-grade class when Kuo met him; she would eventually learn 鈥淸h]e鈥檇 watched dope deals at age five, accidentally set himself on fire at eleven.鈥� With everything he鈥檇 endured, the Patrick Kuo knew was 鈥渕ild-mannered鈥�; he 鈥渨anted to try ... was thirsty for encouragement.鈥� When he skipped school too often, Kuo brought him back with additional, individual attention. Kuo would never have believed Patrick capable of such violence.

Kuo returned to Helena to understand what happened. She deferred her post-graduation job at a non-profit serving undocumented immigrants in Oakland. With the "Stars" program shut down, Kuo reluctantly agreed to teach Spanish at another Helena school (her protestations that she only had two years of college language classes doesn鈥檛 disqualify her). When she鈥檚 not in the classroom, Kuo re-establishes her teacher/student relationship with Patrick 鈥� in jail. Again, books provide the means to explore difficult topics, engage in intimate discussions, and share deep life lessons. Kuo leads Patrick through Narnia, black history, poetry as diverse as Bash艒聽and Whitman and Merwin; Patrick shows Kuo new paths and possibilities along the way. Easy answers, happy endings are hardly what await, but the journey together is agonizing and rewarding both.

鈥溾�橶e shouldn鈥檛 have sent you to Harvard,鈥欌�� Kuo鈥檚 parents lamented during their single visit to Helena. 鈥淓verybody there thinks they can change the world.鈥欌�� Parental disapproval aside, Kuo stays true to her course 鈥� in matters of race, equity, and justice, she becomes both witness and prosecution to prove that 鈥淸a] person must matter to another, it must mean something for two people to have passed time together, to have put work into each other and into becoming more fully themselves.鈥�

Terry Hong writes BookDragon, a book blog for the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.