Press
Book Review: Paper Bullets
Alex Luu, Yolk Magazine
2001 Issue No. 3
If you're looking for yet another I-am-Asian American-hear-me-roar chest
pounding autobiographical novel, do not pick up Paper Bullets. However,
if you're looking for a hilarious, cocky, honest, and no-holds-barred
account of lust and life from a unique Hapa male perspective, this is
a keeper. Through endearingly side-splitting recollections, ruminations,
and epiphanies, Fulbeck paints an intimate portrait of sexual/identity
politics associated with being Hapa. One chapter about a "rice chaser,"
white trash girl that demands Fulbeck to speak Chinese to her during sex
is painfully funny. Fulbeck's worldview is at once brutal and side-splitting.
His prose blends the raw confessional honesty of performance art and the
richness of poetry, juxtaposed with clever references to movies and pop
culture. Paper Bullets flows more like a stream of consciousness than
straight narrative, moving at breakneck speed with staccato pitch and
wondrous revelation, but never loses its audience for the entire glorious
ride.
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