June 1, 2022
Veteran narrator Kaleo Griffith's warm, conversational tone draws the listener into Hongo's latest memoir, a beautifully written account of his life through the lens of his lifelong passion for a wide variety of music and his obsession with building the perfect sound system. Though the memoir's heart is Hongo's life as an audiophile, issues of race, identity, and cultural history seamlessly make their way into the narrative with stories about the many challenges he and his Hawaiian family members faced as Japanese Americans, some of whom were forced into concentration camps during World War II. In carefully crafted, often breathtaking prose, Hongo, an award-winning poet and professor of arts and sciences at the University of Oregon, deftly weaves together his often humorous coming-of-age adventures and biographical portraits of family and friends with incredibly detailed descriptions of the music he loves and the stereo equipment he collects in his quest for perfect fidelity. Griffith's careful pacing allows listeners to savor Hongo's elegant prose and follow the extensive exploration of audio technology. VERDICT The audiobook is long, but Griffith's excellent performance, Hongo's brilliant prose, and the incredible depth and breadth of topics discussed make for a delightful listening experience.--Beth Farrell
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
November 22, 2021
Poet and essayist Hongo (The Mirror Diary) delivers a memorable memoir on reflection and artistry, as rendered through his audiophile tendencies. He relates his fascination with music as a kid in Hawaii—from his obsession with countertop jukeboxes to seeing the calming effect Hawaiian singer Marlene Sai had on his parents’ oft-stormy moods. When his family moved to Los Angeles in 1957 when he was six years old, music became a vehicle to escape the confines of racial expectations, and his “first lessons on love and poetry, ardor and longing” came in the form of The Penguins’ doo-wop hit “Earth Angel.” As he describes in lyrical, fervent passages, his penchant for spinning vinyl on cheap turntables would eventually become a love for elaborate equipment, amplifiers, speakers, and vacuum tubes. While, admittedly, much of the in-depth discussions of audio technologies—among them, Tung-Sol 6550 tubes, his Air Tight ATM-2 amp, and the Dutch pentode—can be a lot to digest, Hongo’s soulful work shines brightest when he looks to sound to make sense of his own struggles: “Leave me alone, Joel sang, and I said it too, spitting on my failed past and turning the yellow Toyota compact into the southerly corona of my new life.” While it can be dense, this paean to the power of music mostly sings.