Coming Home Crazy
Holm, Bill. Coming Home Crazy. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 1990. 251ff. $10.95
When China is mentioned, ordering Chinese take-out seems appealing. There is much more to China than just rice. In Coming Home Crazy, Holm tries to capture the "warts, wisdom, grit, jokes, horrors, adventures, love, tragedy, wit and insight" of China. Along with these observations comes a severe culture shock. As a Minnesota native, Holm comments on the quirky and solemn luxuries Americans compared to many Chinese. In the title essay, Holm laughs at the disconnectedness Americans experience in another country:
After a year in China, it is difficult to even to remember America as a real country; it is a place created by your own imagination, where goods are available, service provided, language clear and direct, machines function with elegant efficiency, the food is clean, greaseless and served hot, the newspaper lively and truthful, an the weather an eternal southern California of the soul, helped out on rare occasions by Westinghouse and General Electric; in other words, a country with more than enough of everything, easily gettable everywhere, and because of that, no good reason to lie, hoard, or fail to do the job.
These essays follow alphabet format, starting with the essay "Alphabet" and ending with "Zou Houmen." Holmes uses this American technique of introducing each essay to counteract the "absence of orderly sequence" in Chinese culture. It’s tempting to start with "Zou Houmen" and end with "Alphabet" just to understand the "craziness" Holm talks about. In all of the essays Holm makes sure that the "Barbarians," or Americans as they are called, get a bit a history lecture on China.
"Alphabet" does not exist in China. Holm explains the creation of a loosely organized dictionary. The number of strokes to form a character determines the organization. It makes a point to say that " there may indeed be a kind of truth to this randomness, but it is not a truth that build computers or temples, or file cards." In "Underwear" the Chinese pile on layers of underwear during the winter since it is "illegal to heat a house in the winter." The "Barbarians" simply complain about it.
Holm goes into great detail to contrast the royal living he experienced in Minnesota, of all place, to villages of China. He to enjoy dispelling myths about Chinese culture. In "Mickey Mouse," the idea of Chinese being serious is proven wrong. "I found myself laughing at the cartoons almost as hard as the Chinese. But I had an exit visa in my pocket. An hour’s escape meant more to them than to me." Holm goes on to say how their past has been so heavy on them that Mickey Mouse is a welcome mat to innocent childhood. Holm makes a learning experience out of everything he experiences. This let’s the reader laugh as well as think deeply about the differences between Americans and Chinese.
Having an interest in the orient as well, it was refreshing to get a comical yet informative interpretation on Chinese culture and custom. Holm gives a straightforward account of being an alien in another country in "Waiguoren."
You can walk down any shopping and residential street in Xi’an. A Chinese mother comes along, cradling her one-child-family (obviously not a restraint Americans must abide by) toddler…The little fist shoots out with a cocked index finger. It shouts gleefully at the top of its lungs, ‘WAIGUOREN! WAIGUOREN!’ and point straight at you."
That is definitely a siren that you don’t look like every other Joe on the block.
Holm sticks to keeping the essays Americanly structured, with a few humorous tidbits about adventures in China here and there. This coming together of two worlds serves as a good reading tool for anyone interested in learning a little more about China, the good, the bad, and the dumplings.