A Long Stay in a Distant Land.

A LONG STAY IN A DISTANT LAND. Chieh Chieng. 2005. Read by James Yaegashi. 6 cds. 6.5 hrs. Blackstone Audiobooks. 0-7861-8236-9. $55.00. Vinyl; plot, author, reader notes. SA

This is an immigrants' story, a comic novel and a look at what it means to grow up in America. The main character

is Louis Lum, the grandson of the first Lums to come to Orange County, California, but the story travels between the generations in an almost helter-skelter fashion. What connects all the separate stories is the author's humor and the love and acceptance among the family members even as they often shake their collective heads in dismay over the idiosyncrasies and idiocies of the individual members. These include the grand mother's famous turnip cake, Sonny's tape recording of his childhood, and the unfortunate demise of many of the members of the Lure family by tainted cheeseburger or speeding ice-cream truck. Real tragedies as well as genuine emotions are conveyed with humor, but also with understanding and compassion.

Narrator Yaegashi reads with a funny tilt to his voice, which somehow makes the reader think he must have had the equivalent of a Grandma Esther or Uncle Bo in his family. These characters are Asian American, but most listeners who are close to their own grandparents will recognize them as part of their American family. Nola Theiss, Sanibel, FL