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
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.
An experimental, illustrated essay collection that questions neurotypical definitions of what is normal.
From a young age, writer and comedian Myers has been different. In addition to coping with obsessive compulsive disorder and panic attacks, she struggled to read basic social cues. During a round of seven minutes in heaven—a game in which two players spend seven minutes in a closet and are expected to kiss—Myers misread the romantic advances of her best friend and longtime crush, Marley. In Paris, she accidentally invited a sex worker to join her friends for “board games and beer,” thinking he was simply a random stranger who happened to be hitting on her. In community college, a stranger’s request for a pen spiraled her into a panic attack but resulted in a tentative friendship. When the author moved to Australia, she began taking notes on her colleagues in an effort to know them better. As the author says to her co-worker, Tabitha, “there are unspoken social contracts within a workplace that—by some miracle—everyone else already understands, and I don’t….When things Go Without Saying, they Never Get Said, and sometimes people need you to Say Those Things So They Understand What The Hell Is Going On.” At its best, Myers’ prose is vulnerable and humorous, capturing characterization in small but consequential life moments, and her illustrations beautifully complement the text. Unfortunately, the author’s tendency toward unnecessary capitalization and experimental forms is often unsuccessful, breaking the book’s otherwise steady rhythm.
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9780063381308
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
A pleasure for fans of old-school historical narratives.
Avuncular observations on matters historical from the late popularizer of the past.
McCullough made a fine career of storytelling his way through past events and the great men (and occasional woman) of long-ago American history. In that regard, to say nothing of his eschewing modern technology in favor of the typewriter (“I love the way the bell rings every time I swing the carriage lever”), he might be thought of as belonging to a past age himself. In this set of occasional pieces, including various speeches and genial essays on what to read and how to write, he strikes a strong tone as an old-fashioned moralist: “Indifference to history isn’t just ignorant, it’s rude,” he thunders. “It’s a form of ingratitude.” There are some charming reminiscences in here. One concerns cajoling his way into a meeting with Arthur Schlesinger in order to pitch a speech to presidential candidate John F. Kennedy: Where Richard Nixon “has no character and no convictions,” he opined, Kennedy “is appealing to our best instincts.” McCullough allows that it wasn’t the strongest of ideas, but Schlesinger told him to write up a speech anyway, and when it got to Kennedy, “he gave a speech in which there was one paragraph that had once sentence written by me.” Some of McCullough’s appreciations here are of writers who are not much read these days, such as Herman Wouk and Paul Horgan; a long piece concerns a president who’s been largely lost in the shuffle too, Harry Truman, whose decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan McCullough defends. At his best here, McCullough uses history as a way to orient thinking about the present, and with luck to good ends: “I am a short-range pessimist and a long-range optimist. I sincerely believe that we may be on the way to a very different and far better time.”
A pleasure for fans of old-school historical narratives.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781668098998
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
© 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.
