River Dragon Sky Justin Nicholes 9789881553805 Books
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A novel of people far from home and far from the selves of their origins, River Dragon Sky is the story of Junping, a Taoist street seer turned arsonist, Zhuan He, the girl he is sure is the daughter he abandoned years earlier, and Kal, an American who seems to have traveled to China for girls and kung fu. Long-buried memories emerge, and fragmented lives converge and assemble themselves in new ways, as fires spring up around the rural university where Kal teaches and Zhuan He studies. While pressures of Eastern tradition complicate Kal and Zhuan He's chances, someone with murderous intentions is stalking them. Will Junping be their savior, or their killer?
River Dragon Sky Justin Nicholes 9789881553805 Books
I am used to novels that shift from actor to actor in a progressive tale that in spite of many voices moves neatly toward resolution. And I am used to novels that flaunt their refusal to make linear sense, standing archly aside as if the lives they depicted were just parts of some universal joke. But Justin Nicholes does something quite different in River Dragon Sky, his small but tightly packed novel. In sharp, cubistic fragments, he involves us in the lives of half a dozen supremely flawed characters, whose lives conflict but never resolve.There are fights, arsons, betrayals and spurned love enough to, in a different sort of novel, create comparisons to Dallas. But in Nicholes' capable hands, drama does not sink into melodrama--it is balanced by common sense, which recognizes that these internal conflicts, even when they spill out, come from people who simply want their lives to make sense. Even the grandest gestures seem pitifully human, the greatest dangers sadly ordinary. It is a gift to be able to render that--to render the internal human opera in its fullness while simultaneously chastening it with the paltriness of reality.
There is something like love in River Dragon Sky, but no one can find or express it, and that failure parallels the failure to find or express oneself. The result is a novel that confronts characters in their brokenness and leaves them, perhaps, more self-aware but still broken.
Most of Nicholes characters have left home and all are seeking themselves in an environment foreign to them. Kal, an American teaching in China, says that expatriates are not running away but going home, "always going home." And though he later doubts that, the truth seems to be that there is no home for these people, no place where security and acceptance can be taken for granted, no society that will come to their aid if they are harmed. It is a brutally petty world, in some ways, where people look aside when terrible things happen, then turn and text their friends the story. And though Nicholes offers some characters the possibility of meaningful connection at the end of the novel, it is a tenuous one. Junping, fortune teller and arsonist, having set fire to three buildings and frightened a girl he mistakenly saw as his daughter returns to his home town, though what might happen then Nicholes leaves to the imagination.
This is a book worth reading more than once.
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Tags : River Dragon Sky [Justin Nicholes] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. A novel of people far from home and far from the selves of their origins, River Dragon Sky is the story of Junping,Justin Nicholes,River Dragon Sky,Signal 8 Press,9881553806,Fiction - General,Fiction Literary,Literary,Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
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River Dragon Sky Justin Nicholes 9789881553805 Books Reviews
Set on a college campus in Henan, Nicholes' book centers on five fascinating-and very realistic-characters
* Zhuan He-a female student who excels in English debate
* Feng-a professional martial artist and Zhuan He's live-in boyfriend
* Kal-an American of Russian extraction who teaches at the university and studies under Feng; he's also secretly dating Zhuan He
* David-an American missionary/teacher at the university who teaches Feng English; he's secretly dating Zhuan He, too
* Junping-a fortune teller and arsonist who thinks Zhuan He is the daughter he abandoned almost two decades earlier.
Nicholes' characters seem alive and multi-dimensional, and his writing is sophisticated and poetic. I've never stepped foot in Henan, but felt like I was there when I read his novel, whether it was in the overcrowded dorms, the barebones noodle stalls, or the stuffy gym.
The story is not without tragedy and betrayal. Although Feng seems obsessive and outdated, I grow to appreciate his character as the story develops. In fact, he turns out to be more sympathetic than the American men. I also like how Nicholes goes into the backstories of all the characters, especially Zhuan He's three love interests.
I can't wait to read more from Justine Nicholes!
Justin Nicholes ("Ash Dogs"), who lives and teaches in China's Henan Province, uses his knowledge of the territory to great advantage in "River Dragon Sky." His spare and evocative prose quickly transports readers to his novel's university location where we become close-in onlookers in the tangled lives of seer and fortune teller Jumping, American teachers Kal and David, martial artist Feng, and university student Zhuan He.
When hexagrams and premonitions convince Jumping that Zhuan He is the daughter he abandoned twenty years earlier while single-minded following the Tao, he becomes obsessed with following and confronting her. This leads to clashes with Feng, Kal and David, all of whom are having relationships with Zhuan He. An excellent student, Zhuan He alternatively needs each of these three men while finding herself stalked by them, especially Feng who has been her live-in boyfriend.
Nicholes approaches this story through multiple points of view, often showing the same scene more than once as experienced by those involved. "River Dragon Sky's" stylistic organization heightens the noir effect of a story, and meshes well with the rather chaotic daily lives of students in and outside the university's gates.
Backstory information about each character adds to the novel's depth while providing motivations for their attitudes and actions. Nicholes' sense of place and the characters' movements through that place is superb. Clearly, all of the characters are wounded and dysfunctional, a point driven home again and again by the author's brief, near-poetic scenes.
Without spoiling the plot, it can be said that while he is the most difficult character to fathom, "Driver Dragon Sky" is Jumping's story. When he moves on to another town after setting fires around the university out of angst and protest, the other characters fall away like frail leaves in a winter wind. They become unimportant slices of life in the seer's quest, reminiscent of the shadows cast by those not on the seeker's path in Carlos Castaneda's "Journey to Ixtlan." The lack of resolution to any of the characters' stories is less than satisfying.
Nonetheless, with reservations about the plot, this novel is recommended for those who enjoy dark, literary fiction with a high level of multicultural and location ambiance.
RIVER, DRAGON, SKY is a vividly beautiful and compelling literary novel. The prose is often dazzling and remains crisp throughout; the narrative is filled with suspense and conflict that is driven by well-drawn, interesting characters. I want to avoid putting this book in any category other than literary, but it is at once a mystery, a love story, an adventure, and a tale of rivalry, revenge, and a dark coming-of-age. I really enjoyed it. Two thumbs-up.
I am used to novels that shift from actor to actor in a progressive tale that in spite of many voices moves neatly toward resolution. And I am used to novels that flaunt their refusal to make linear sense, standing archly aside as if the lives they depicted were just parts of some universal joke. But Justin Nicholes does something quite different in River Dragon Sky, his small but tightly packed novel. In sharp, cubistic fragments, he involves us in the lives of half a dozen supremely flawed characters, whose lives conflict but never resolve.
There are fights, arsons, betrayals and spurned love enough to, in a different sort of novel, create comparisons to Dallas. But in Nicholes' capable hands, drama does not sink into melodrama--it is balanced by common sense, which recognizes that these internal conflicts, even when they spill out, come from people who simply want their lives to make sense. Even the grandest gestures seem pitifully human, the greatest dangers sadly ordinary. It is a gift to be able to render that--to render the internal human opera in its fullness while simultaneously chastening it with the paltriness of reality.
There is something like love in River Dragon Sky, but no one can find or express it, and that failure parallels the failure to find or express oneself. The result is a novel that confronts characters in their brokenness and leaves them, perhaps, more self-aware but still broken.
Most of Nicholes characters have left home and all are seeking themselves in an environment foreign to them. Kal, an American teaching in China, says that expatriates are not running away but going home, "always going home." And though he later doubts that, the truth seems to be that there is no home for these people, no place where security and acceptance can be taken for granted, no society that will come to their aid if they are harmed. It is a brutally petty world, in some ways, where people look aside when terrible things happen, then turn and text their friends the story. And though Nicholes offers some characters the possibility of meaningful connection at the end of the novel, it is a tenuous one. Junping, fortune teller and arsonist, having set fire to three buildings and frightened a girl he mistakenly saw as his daughter returns to his home town, though what might happen then Nicholes leaves to the imagination.
This is a book worth reading more than once.
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