World Famous Love Acts

Rating:
Summary: Great Writer and Great Reader!
Review: I saw Brian Leung read from this book recently and I bought a copy. The story he read was amazing, and I had hoped that the others would be similarly solid. I wasn't dissapointed. I could't put this book down. I would usually read a story a night, but I stayed up all night eading this book cover to cover. Thanks for writing such a great book!

Rating:
Summary: A different Perspective
Review: In his book World Famous Love Acts, Leung takes a jump into exploring the side of relationships that one usually pretends is not there. The side of the self that is somewhat stranged from the part that one presents to the world. Leung's success is admirable in his approach to that side of relationships and inner character. In his montage of short stories that he delivers in a T.S. Eliot-like manner, he shows the disconnectedness that lures over most of contemporary society, encouraging to evaluate ourselves and our relationships. I applaud Mr. Leung on his successful book, and look forward to more of products of his imagination. His expertice on the craft of story telling is incomparable.

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Summary: unique and disturbingly entertaining
Review: Leung, a teacher at California State University Northridge and recipient of the Mary McCarthy Prize for Short Fiction has written this collection of well-crafted narratives with unique characters in well-constructed settings. At a time when so many stories are hyped and filled with the antics of celebutantes, it is refreshing to read about singular characters who are far from cliché. The author wields his adjectives the way a surgeon controls a scalpel. His descriptions of the California skies and landscapes are hallowed and resplendent. Some stories are like grenades. The full impact of the scenes did not hit me until a few minutes after finishing each story's final paragraph. The collection's title suggests that the stories are about love, yet the cover art is of a noose. The stories concern quiet, unspoken, suppressed loves and losses of a different sort - the type with inner conversations that are never vocalized. Some characters think they are filled with insights, but actually know nothing; and others who long for connections with other people, even though those people are standing next to them in the same room. So much is conveyed in the silences between the stories' vulnerable characters. In one story, the people who walk across hot coals of a firewalk numb themselves to the feelings and truth, just as family members do in everyday life. In another story, a family that never speaks what they fell in meaningful words, ponder whether they have to put their pet "to sleep." In another, an aging archeologist is more at home digging up buried artifacts or leaving them buried than digging up her own family memories. In my favorite, "White Hand," a son who is trying to be devoted feels that he is a tourist in his own culture. He goes through the motions, but like a reptile, is it just a skin that will be shed?

Rating:
Summary: Noose is for the Reader
Review: The inability to define oneself seems to be the central theme in this convoluted collection of short stories. From pornstars to various flat Chinese protagonists (farmers, archaelogists), Leung presents himself as a poor man's Amy Tan or abridged/Cliff Notes Maxine Hong Kingston. With all the emotional disconnected plots and characters, the author reveals a sense of cliched, bitter and jaded portrayal of sexuality especially that of between gay men. I wished this author would show some insight that has not been said before and better than what others have written already.

Rating:
Summary: Superb Superb Superb.. Well Done Mr. Lueng!
Review: This book is a MUST READ. I cannot put into words how overwhelmingly suprised I was and how well written this book is from cover to cover and back again! I am buying for friends to read..... it is that good!

Rating:
Summary: Some Calm in the Storm
Review: What makes this book special to me is that it offers so many quiet moments of clarity. The world I live in doesn't serve these up too often, and to find this thoughtful calmness between these pages was a genuine pleasure. And yet, it's not as if the characters are living easy lives or have easy answers. Their lives are as difficult and complicated as mine. In some ways, it seems as if the reader is being softly reminded that the simple act of reflection can clear away alot of life's problems. My favorite stories in here are "Drawings By Andrew Warhol," which is crazy, "Leases" and the title story, the latter two of which deal with their characters in a way that kind of startled me in a good way.

Rating:
Summary: A Book that Pulls No Punches
Review: What's stunning about this collection of stories is that the writer manages so many authentic voices and yet maintains a key and unifying lyricism. The range of sexualities and cultures is impressive. And no character here is left off the hook for their dubious life choices. Yet, all are respected in their journey of reflection on those choices. The results are both open, and surprising. Equally as impressive is that Leung avoids the cliche's and well-trod ground of fiction with (...)Chinese characters. Any reader who has pre-concieved notions of how family relationships, love relationships, and cultural relationships are "supposed" to be written will be wholly and usefully challenged by these stories. This is a new and authentic reading of what it means to be human.