Dragon House
by John Shors | Literature & Fiction | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 9780451227850 Global Overview for this book
ISBN: 9780451227850 Global Overview for this book
Registered by k00kaburra of San Jose, California USA on 4/6/2010
This book is in a Controlled Release!
This book is in a Controlled Release!
1 journaler for this copy...
REc'd via Bookmooch.com.
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From Publishers Weekly
Shors's third novel tells an absorbing story weakened by melodrama, sentimentality and exposition. After promising her dying father, a Vietnam War veteran, to take care of his shelter for street children in Ho Chi Minh City, American writer Iris agrees to take along her childhood friend Noah, now a depressed veteran who lost his leg in Iraq. In Vietnam, they find the shelter has drawn an appealing cast of Americans and Vietnamese, all seeking escape and salvation, including two children exploited by a brutal drug addict, and an impoverished old woman whose granddaughter is dying of cancer. Though interesting, most characters never overcome Shors's insistence on telling, rather than showing, their inner lives ("he hurt and hated so much"). Melodrama and mawkish foreshadowing ("I'm taking the risks... and everything's going to be just the way it was meant to be") will prove familiar to anyone who's watched a TV movie. Though frustrating, this is the kind of novel (provocative, polarizing, exotic) that should stir book group discussion.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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From Publishers Weekly
Shors's third novel tells an absorbing story weakened by melodrama, sentimentality and exposition. After promising her dying father, a Vietnam War veteran, to take care of his shelter for street children in Ho Chi Minh City, American writer Iris agrees to take along her childhood friend Noah, now a depressed veteran who lost his leg in Iraq. In Vietnam, they find the shelter has drawn an appealing cast of Americans and Vietnamese, all seeking escape and salvation, including two children exploited by a brutal drug addict, and an impoverished old woman whose granddaughter is dying of cancer. Though interesting, most characters never overcome Shors's insistence on telling, rather than showing, their inner lives ("he hurt and hated so much"). Melodrama and mawkish foreshadowing ("I'm taking the risks... and everything's going to be just the way it was meant to be") will prove familiar to anyone who's watched a TV movie. Though frustrating, this is the kind of novel (provocative, polarizing, exotic) that should stir book group discussion.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Cleaning out Mt. TBR.
I decided not to keep this book, so I'll be sending it off into the world, unread.
I decided not to keep this book, so I'll be sending it off into the world, unread.
Journal Entry 3 by k00kaburra at -- Mailed, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- USA on Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Released 13 yrs ago (5/3/2011 UTC) at -- Mailed, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- USA
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
sent to Amber M. in Houston, TX to fulfill a request on Paperbackswap.com!
