Don Lee :: Author

of wrack and ruin                                                           
Reviews and Interviews for Wrack and Ruin


NPR summer book recommendation (first in recording)
Memorious interview with Rob Arnold
Minnesota Public Radio interview
MN Artists profile by Shannon Gibney
Kartika Review interview with Denis Wong
AsianWeek Q&A
 

Booklist
The author of Yellow (2001) and Country of Origin (2004) delivers another warmly humorous take on identity in this entertaining novel featuring Lyndon Song, a sculptor turned brussels-sprouts farmer. In his youth, Lyndon made it to the top of the cutthroat art world in New York City but soon tired of the egos, politicking, and harsh criticism. He gave it all up to settle in Rosarita Bay, California, a sleepy, foggy town ideal for organic farming. But his low-key lifestyle is threatened when a developer decides to build a golf course and needs Lyndon’s land to complete his deal. Lyndon’s long-estranged brother, Woody, a disgraced financier turned movie producer, makes a secret deal with the developer to work on Lyndon, but their wild Labor Day weekend visit changes both of them in unforeseen ways. An eccentric cast of secondary characters, including a fading Hong Kong kung-fu star and a perpetually stoned surfer, adds to the merriment in a highly appealing novel that swerves ever so gracefully from rollicking humor to poignant moments of reflection.
— Joanne Wilkinson
     Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly
The trick to reading Don Lee's wonderfully silly second novel (after Country of Origin and a story collection, Yellow) is to take nothing seriously, even when you should. The book concerns the eccentric sculptor-turned-brussels sprout farmer, Lyndon Song, and his estranged brother, Woody, an uptight Hollywood producer. Lyndon's refusal to sell his farmland to a golf course developer results in an unwelcome visit from his brother, who has been secretly hired by the developer. The author has corralled an array of misfits and minor characters—Lyndon's friend Juju, a philosophizing surfer with a prosthetic limb, and Yi Ling Ling, a has-been kung fu film star—to season the backdrop of the brothers' misadventures and muster up some drama and didactic spiritualism. The novel's best sections are lighthearted in their delivery, but hint at deeper substance and self-reflection. At times the author starts pulling too adamantly at readers' heartstrings, but before long he's back to slathering on the sarcasm. This novel thrives on unlikely unions, unseemly humor and happy endings while maintaining a constant examination of family and identity, in keeping with the themes of the author's previous book. (Apr.)
     Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved.

A Bookseller
Lyndon Song is a Korean-Chinese farmer under siege by developers in a slowly gentrifying (from hippie to yuppie) Northern California town. He’s on the run from his fame as a sculptor, but what most people think is that he’s on the run from failure. In steps his brother Woody, who most definitely is on the run from failure, with an over-the-hill kung fu actress in tow, with whom he hopes to remake a classic Chinese action flick. But it turns out everyone in the story is either on the quest for fame and fortune or running from their efforts, failed or otherwise. And on top of that, Lee eloquently and humorous puts this achievement identity in the context of cultural identity and family identity.  Here’s the bottom line—I laughed out loud at some points and started tearing up at others. Lee made me think, and this wonderful novel is done, and I’m still thinking.  Honestly, what more can you want in a book? 
—Daniel Goldin, Buyer and Manager, Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops, Milwaukee

 

 

 

 

 

Wrack and Ruin :: novel
Country of Origin :: novel
Yellow :: stories
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