ON A BED OF RICE: An...

ON A BED OF RICE: An Asian American Erotic Feast edited by Geraldine Kudaka (Anchor: $14.95; 497 pp., illustrated, paperback original). Seventy writers of Asian descent explore sex and sexuality in this intriguing anthology. Bharati Mukherjee (“The Tenant”) and Chitra Divakaruni (“The Word Love”) depict the problems of Indian women caught between their conservative upbringing and the freer mores of the West. David Mura mixes academic analysis and sensual memories in “The Lover”; Henry Chang evokes the tone of noir detective stories in an unusual portrait of Chinatown. In contrast, Kimiko Hahn’s attempt to equate male genitalia with the impulse to be “hegemonic and Western” seems amateurish and silly. Unfortunately, the texts are marred by numerous typos.