Thursday, April 3, 2008

"Wrack and Ruin"

New from W.W. Norton: Wrack and Ruin by Don Lee.

About the book, from the publisher:

An exhilarating comic satire with the quirky energy of The Wonder Boys and Sideways.

Lyndon Song, a renowned sculptor, has fled New York City to become a Brussels sprouts farmer in the small California town of Rosarita Bay. Lyndon has a brother, Woody, an indicted financier turned movie producer, and Woody has a plan, involving a golf-course resort on Lyndon’s land and an aging kung-fu diva from Hong Kong with a mean kick and a meaner drinking problem.

A dreadlocked buddy with an artificial leg, a small plot of exceptionally lush marijuana, two field biologists studying western snowy plovers, a disgraced museum curator, and Lyndon’s great love, the impulsive mayor of Rosarita Bay—these are only some of the complications in Lyndon and Woody’s lives over one madcap Labor Day weekend.

Hilarious and philosophical, this many-hued novel about the landscape of contemporary “multicultural” America is critically acclaimed Don Lee’s best book yet.