In his Oct. 14 letter, "Enough with the cockroach humor," Robert Lezzi severely criticizes the contributions regularly made to The Japan Times by Amy Chavez, dismissing her work as lame and "delivered in the guise of humor."
I agree with Lezzi in that Chavez's writing initially seemed superficial and rambling. But she has gotten much better. The key to appreciating Chavez's work is to understand that she is writing from the perspective of a foreigner on a tiny island, and she makes no pretensions otherwise. If she reaches broad and far-reaching (and occasionally outright funny) conclusions from her limited perspective, then this, I believe, is her intent. It is also something that we all do every day -- using induction to obtain often dubious insights based on only limited examples.
Professional humorists use the same tactics. Witness "Dave Barry Does Japan" or Dave Chappelle's "Ask a Black Man," where the humor is based solidly on the generally false premise that limited and often partial "knowledge" can lead to genuine insight, but usually doesn't. Chavez is growing as a writer, and it takes all writers time to hit their stride.