ROOTS AND BRANCHES: Contemporary Essays by West...

ROOTS AND BRANCHES: Contemporary Essays by West Coast Writers edited by Howard Junker (Mercury House: $10.95, illustrated). Most of the miscellaneous short writings in Junker’s collection aren’t essays in the traditional sense of the word: They’re neither formal nor personal discussions of a specific topic. Most of them have been excerpted from other books, including a number of autobiographies. Some of the selections are both interesting and entertaining: Alev Lytle Croutier discusses the vanishing world of the harem, and how her female relatives forged a special camaraderie within its confining walls. In “Bones of Jade, Soul of Ice,” Sarah Liu describes her awkward relationship with her remote yet affectionate father. Paula Gunn Allen seeks to reconcile her experiences in America with the stories and traditions her family brought from the Middle East in “My Lebanon.” The less successful selections feel like the literary equivalent of re-warmed leftovers.