National Network for Equitable Library Service

Garrett Hongo's passion for audio dates back to the Empire 98 turntable his father paired with a tube amplifier in their modest tract home in L.A. in the early 60s. But his adult quest begins in the CD-changer era, as he seeks out speakers and amps beefy enough to honor the top notes of the great opera sopranos. And in recounting this search, he describes a journey of identity where meaning, fulfillment, and even liberation were often most available to him through music and its diverse delivery systems. Hongo writes about being a Hawaiian-born, Japanese kid growing up in the shadow of the shameful internment of his ancestors during World War II; about picking up music tips from kids with darker skin than his own; about being a fish out of water with his white peers. Along the way, he nerds out with visits to eccentric collectors of decades-old audio components, drinks in wisdom from blues musicians and poetic elders, and turns his ear toward the memory-rich strains of the music that has shaped him: Hawaiian steel guitar and ukulele, barbershop and the Beatles, Bach, Verdi, and Duke Ellington. And in the decades-long process of perfecting his stereo setup, Hongo also discovers his own, now celebrated voice.