“Wonderfully rich and suggestive . . . an important contribution to the study of gender and ethnicity, to community and citizenship, and to contemporary American fiction.”---Nancy J. Peterson, Purdue University
“Compelling and outstanding. . . . I know of no other work that brings to bear on such literature the perspective of coalition building and its importance for the processes of community relations and the inter-connections between individuals and their communities.”---Philip Page, California State University at San Bernardino
“In this nuanced and insightful analysis of ethnic women writers Amy Tan, Barbara Kingsolver, Ana Castillo, and Toni Morrison, Michael argues that traditional American values like rugged individualism, capitalist materialism, and intersecting race, class, ethnic, and gender oppressions isolate, impoverish, and victimize women until they turn to the values of ethnic communities for inspiration.”---Phillipa Kafka, author, On the Outside Looking In(dian): Indian Women Writers at Home and Abroad