You can determine the content of the book from its title, so the real question becomes, are the selections worthwhile? To say it simply, yes. The short stories, excerpts, poems, and plays are generally of very high caliber from solid writers. There were occasional choices I didn't like as much, which I expect from any anthology, really, but I enjoyed the vast majority. High profile authors, such as Maxine Hong-Kingston, Amy Tan, Bharati Mukherjee, and Carlos Bulosan, are accompanied by authors that I had never heard of, but plan to pursue now that I've had a taste of their style.

The selections are arranged according to theme, rather than region, but each chapter has a wide selection of writers from different areas of Asia, as well as variety in immigrant versus American born writers, men and women, and different perspectives on the same issues. My only quibble with the book is that there are a lot of excerpts from novels. This is a personal issue, really, since I like to read the whole book, not just pieces, and would have preferred more short stories here instead. On the whole, though, this is an excellent collection of work, and I am glad that I finally got back to this unfinished college read. ( )