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work Woman, Native, Other (1989).From China, Ha Jin (1956- ) hasauthored the novel Waiting (1999),a sad tale of an 18-year separationwhose realistic style, typical ofChinese fiction, strikes Americanears as fresh and original.The newest voices come fromthe Arab-American community.Lebanese-born Joseph Geha (1944-)has set his stories in Through andThrough (1990) in Toledo, Ohio;Jordanian-American Diana Abu-Jaber (1959- ), born in New York,has written the novel Arabian Jazz(1993).Poet and playwright ElmazAbinader (1954- ), is author of amemoir, Children of the Roojme: AFamily’s Journey From Lebanon(1991). In “Just Off Main Street”(2002), Abinader has written of herbicultural childhood in 1960s smalltownPennsylvania: “…my familyscenes filled me with joy andbelonging, but I knew none of itcould be shared on the other sideof that door.”American literature has traversedan extended, winding pathfrom pre-colonial days to contemporarytimes. Society, history, technologyall have had a telling impacton it. Ultimately, though, there is aconstant — humanity, with all itsradiance and its malevolence, itstradition and its promise. ■CHANG-RAE LEEPhoto © Marion Ettlinger /CORBIS OUTLINE155