Left Bank #3 (Sex, Family, Tribe)

The Pacific Northwest writers whose work is gathered in this eclectic collection provide new definitions for cliched American values. ``So, how's your lady friend?'' an 89-year-old man asks on the phone; and his lesbian granddaughter questions if he understands his choice of words. From there, Anndee Hochman's memoir/essay moves on to a poignant exploration of the positive and negative terms for lovers and family members. In a delightful story that straddles fact and fiction, Martha Gies describes the West African custom of choosing someone else to replace a deceased parent, and her own process of selecting the infant son of friends to be her ``little father'' and coming to terms with her own father's shortcomings. ``There's something in the air between us, a spark of recognition that might be termed a tribal connection,'' Lawson Fusao Inada says of chance meetings between Japanese, or between Japanese-Americans. Fiction and poetry reinforce the memoirs and essays that form the core of this volume. Also included are an interview with National Book Award winner Charles Johnson and excerpts from recent novels by Ken Kesey, William Kittredge and David James Duncan. Illustrations. (Dec.)