From Ghetto To West Point

By JANICE C. SIMPSON

The book that follows an accomplished first novel is like the younger sibling of a child prodigy: its achievements appear smaller than they actually are, and its flaws more serious. Gus Lee's China Boy was as precocious as they come. Based on the author's own childhood, it told of a first-generation Chinese-American misfit named Kai Ting who struggles to grow up in a predominantly black San Francisco neighborhood. The youngster stands up to the ghetto's bullies and his Caucasian stepmother, who imposes a harsh Americanization regimen that bans Chinese language and customs. Out of these fresh and dramatic materials Lee fashioned a winning novel, and after this successful debut, he quit his day job as an attorney to write full time.

+ While it may disappoint some readers of China Boy, Lee's new book, Honor & Duty (Knopf; 425 pages; $23), demonstrates that he made the right career move. The novel picks up Kai's story in 1964, when he arrives at West Point to honor his father's wish that he become a professional soldier. As a plebe, Kai is once again subjected to brutal treatment, and as America steps up its involvement in Vietnam, he again must struggle to reconcile the Asian and the American aspects of his identity.

Lee earnestly explores the Eastern and Western concepts of honor and duty as they play out in Kai's relations with his family, in a romance with an Asian- American heiress and especially at West Point, where Kai is recruited to uncover a cheating scandal. These plots never intersect, but with pungent humor and a subtle working of the themes of his title, Lee still manages to combine them into a powerful coming-of-age story.

What may bother admirers of China Boy is that Honor & Duty lacks the intensity and flamboyance of its predecessor. Still, it is a worthy achievement, and, as the wisest parents know, every child deserves to be measured on his own terms.