Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
" has an accidental elegance that is un-selfconscious and refreshing." New York Times Book Review
Synopsis
Wrack and Ruin is a rollicking comedy that's seriously smart. When Lyndon Song's estranged brother, Woody, shows up in northern California with a kung fu diva on his arm and a scheme to convert Lyndon's coastal farmland into a golf course resort, Lyndon knows that his bucolic life as an artist-turned-Brussels sprouts farmer will never be the same again. Category-busting, award-winning novelist Don Lee surfs the tricky waters of identity, art, fame, and family in this brilliant, fast-paced comedy.
Synopsis
"Lee has outdone himself here. His prose moves and sparkles." --
Synopsis
Lyndon Song is a renowned sculptor who 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 on Lyndon's land and an aging kung-fu diva from Hong Kong with a mean kick and an even meaner drinking problem. Over one madcap Labor Day weekend, this plan wreaks havoc on Lyndon's bucolic and carefully managed life--leading to various crises, adventures, and literature's first-ever windsurfing chase scene."A highly appealing novel that swerves ever so gracefully from rollicking humor to poignant moments of reflection" (), this hilarious and philosophical novel about the landscape of contemporary "multicultural" America is Don Lee's best book yet.
Synopsis
“Lee has outdone himself here. His prose moves and sparkles.” —Washington Post
About the Author
Don Lee has received an American Book Award, the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction, the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, an O. Henry Award, a Pushcart Prize, and the Fred R. Brown Literary Award. His stories have appeared in The Kenyon Review, GQ, The Southern Review, American Short Fiction, The Gettysburg Review, and elsewhere. For nineteen years, he was the principal editor of the literary journal Ploughshares. He is currently the director of the MFA program in creative writing at Temple University.