Customer Reviews

Wrack and Ruin: A Novel

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

On the surface, "Wrack and Ruin" by Don Lee is a readable, funny, endearing story of one holiday weekend in coastal northern California. There is a confluence of personalities and relationships that gravitate, collide, then disperse. It is a snapshot of characters, illuminated with vivid back stories. There is an element of slapstick: practical jokes, pitfalls, ridiculous injuries. It would be easy to read this book in a day or so, enjoying every well placed word, then put it down and forget about it. But underlying the action and forward movement of the story are a stew of ideas, ideologies, and identities.

I love Brussels sprouts. I was totally charmed by the prominence of Brussels sprouts in Lee's story. I love stories that pull random imagery to carry a storyline. I learned a great deal from "Wrack and Ruin": about small organic farms, about the art world, about film production, about chocolate, about bartending, about saving endangered wetlands.

It has been several weeks since I finished reading "Wrack and Ruin". I almost can't imagine a harder book to review. If a novel could be explained as an exploration of identity - racial, national, sexual, etc. - this book seems almost to be an exploration of nonidentity: take away race, nation, gender, and what is left? What makes us do what we do and feel what we feel? We love, hate, create and destroy, and all those things spring out of places far deeper than skin color, language and genitalia.

What is lovely to me about "Wrack and Ruin" is how subtly Lee weaves profundity into his story. There are amazingly crafted sentences and paragraphs, that not only carry the story along, but also suggest that Lee is doing something more.

Part of the marketing campaign has it compared to popular "Dick-Lit" like "The Wonder Boys" by Michael Chabon or "Sideways" by Rex Pickett. But don't come at this book expecting it to be like some other author's work. Rather than suggest he falls under someone else's standard, Don Lee is an amazing author who it would be fairer to say, defines a standard. I look forward to reading Lee's previous books.

I really think this is a story that is more than the sum of its parts.

Hopefully Woodrow Wilson Song has thought of producing a movie about the outrageous Labor Day weekend (of which he is a part) chronicled in Wrack and Ruin, the new novel by Don Lee. Such a movie just might give him the success he desperately seeks in his "second life" career.

Brothers Lyndon and Woodrow Song provide the principal stories with which others intersect in this story of second chapter lives. Each brother has started anew. Both are haunted by personal issues that have forced each to abandon his initial career path, with an additional layer of complexity added by their long estrangement, an estrangement precipitated by Woody's fall from grace.

The story takes place over a Labor Day weekend in the small California coastal town of Rosarita Bay. This is the community that has become Lyndon's home after abandoning his brief meteoric art career to become, of all things, a grower of organic Brussels sprouts. Despite the brief time period covered, we get to know the brothers well. In addition, we meet an array of other quirky and eccentric characters, each providing enough of a glimpse into his or her history to provide depth - and reasons to care.

In one sense, the story is quite over the top, with calamity after calamity occurring at a rate that is hard to believe. Yet, despite the incredible string of events, one eventually comes to realize that the coming together of all of these people, of all of these personal histories, could happen in no other fashion. This Labor Day weekend has become the perfect storm.

There are many moments of hilarity which serve to highlight absurdities (personal and corporate) that we see around us each and every day. There are also more reflective moments that punctuate the book, though these moments of reflection may actually occur in the midst of some pretty wild circumstances. It is a wild ride that is entertaining, outrageous, and insightful at the same time.

In the end, despite the devastation, destruction and ruin implied in the title, there are epiphanies and quiet personal victories that put the chaos in perspective. Life moves forward, all survive, some have grown, some have moved on to new adventures. It is a book well worth the suspension of disbelief so that the rapid fire sequence of incredible events does not detract from the personal journeys and transformations we hear about and experience.

And yes, Woody, this would make an entertaining movie...

In his wonderful new novel, Don Lee has accomplished one of the most difficult forms of art: the farce. And he has done so with tremendous skill, pulling you into a vibrant and lush world where you can taste, smell, and feel everything around you. In short, it was the ultimate sensory experience. It was certainly hard to leave.

Perhaps fans of Shakespeare's comedies would enjoy this for it's a novel where you have to be willing to just let go, immerse yourself in a world of exaggeration and improbability. It is utterly hilarious and wacky--it's been a while since I laughed so hard reading a book--but what moved me, in the end, was its great tenderness, the way we stumble toward, and discover, love.

The other reviewers are correct - the plot is quirky and unexpected, and the characters are far from what you expect, and it's definitely worthy of more than five stars. It's also important to not that the book is far from feeling like a spoof; there are no cheap thrills here, instead there's a real depth and honesty that, combined with Lee's lovely, lyrical writing, is generally tough to find.

Lee masterfully intertwines several different themes: family relations, race and identity, fame and art, love and friendship, environmentalism and development, even brussels sprouts farming. I appreciate that he captures a sense of place so perfectly, and beautifully, and created characters with obvious humanity. It's just a happy, thoughtful, lovely surprise of a book, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

For the last several years, I've been searching for an author who can compare with TR Pearson's hilarious reflections on small town life--I think Don Lee may be it! I analogize this book to movies. For me, I most often want to see serious films that tell a logical story based in reality--the so called "art house films". But there are other times when I just want to be entertained in only the way a huge blockbuster, disconnected from reality can do. When I walk out of a good blockbuster, my only lasting thought is, that's exactly what I wanted at that moment--it's not going to change my life. This book was my blockbuster film. The story is WAY over the top and the characters come up at you at NASCAR speeds, but if you know that going in, and you sit back and let it all happen around you, you'll enjoy the ride.

This novel is funny, but underneath the humor lies some excellent observations about life, love, and family. It's an excellent read, a fast read, a winner.

This is a very funny novel. At times the humor is subtle; at other times it borders on farce or slapstick. Lee touches on themes of individuality, racial identity, the nature and meaning of art, and whether the value of art (sculpture in the case of one character, film in the case of his brother) is determined by the artist or the audience.

The main character is a recluse, a once successful artist who walked away from the art scene and just wants to be left alone to deal with his failing farm, his hapless relationships with women, and an irksome scheming brother who won't leave him alone. A number of other quirky characters come together in a melting pot of a plot that can only be described as whacky, while nonetheless making some salient points about love, ambition, and the importance of following dreams.

I'm surprised the novel wasn't more successful; it really deserves a wider audience. I would give it 4 1/2 stars if I could.

I'm amazed at the beauty in each of these characters. No saints, all sinners. All beautiful and flawed in their own ways, and each given a tiny bit of redemption. Not full redemption, that would be trite and treacly, but just a little bit. Enough to be thankful for. Enough to make it all seem real. It isn't hard to imagine these characters as living and breathing -- they are all around us.