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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Ashland, Or. May 16, 2011 flyer | Lisa Brackmann's website | ashland mystery
Lisa Brackmann: Rock Paper Tiger, a Literary Thriller Set in Contemporary China
Meet Brackmann on Friday June 10, 2011 at 6pm at Bookwagon New and Used Books 1652 Ashland Street in Ashland, or at the Medford Branch Library, 205 South Central Avenue in Medford on Saturday June 11 at 2p. Both events are free and open to the public.
Rock Paper Tiger features Ellie McEnroe, a medic in the Iraq war, who comes home with an excruciating leg injury and memories of the prisoners she had to keep alive. It's a retelling of Abu Ghraib. Ellie suffers from PTSD and she can't talk about the torture she witnessed to anyone except her husband, Trey Cooper, who "Few writers would be up to the challenge of blending the worlds of urban China, Iraq, and a virtual online kingdom--but Lisa Brackmann wildly succeeds. Prepare to taste the smog, smell the noodles, and rub the Beijing dust between your fingers. Rock Paper Tiger is a fresh and vigorous work that vividly captures the roller coaster that is life in modern China." —Eliot Pattison, tried to shelter her throughout the experience. When both are discharged, Trey takes Ellie to China, turns to the Bible and abandons her. And there the story begins.
Rock Paper Tiger is a coming of age novel of sorts. Ellie's unmoored in Beijing: no friends, no job, no place to go, which is in the end, liberating. It's a quest for identity, for strength and independence as she learns who she can trust and how to survive. This is the very modern China, of coffee shops, Internet cafes, the burgeoning art economy, of new wealth and old politics. Brackmann writes of online gaming and The Great Firewall of China, and the narrative becomes a confused interconnected quest in the game and outside of the game. Sometimes the writing is so clever, you'll forget where you are in which game, and which game is more real. Gaming brings new ways of creating community, establishing trust and continuing ancient traditions when people, places and things that are old and respected are supplanted by the drive towards commerce and success.
Brackmann's someone who might have been called a sinologist, an old China hand. She's lived off and on in China since 1979. Here, in Rock Paper Tiger, her experience living and traveling in China gives her the knowledge and insight to write of daily life in this fascinating, foreign country. You'll want to read Rock Paper Tiger more than once. The first time read it quickly, for the romp, the fun of the game and the excitement of the thriller. The second time read it slowly and thoughtfully. Savor each chapter, every place so carefully described, the nuance and layers of politics and meaning. The people and places that are China.
You can pick up
the newly released paperback edition of Rock Paper Tiger at Bookwagon New and Used Books on Ashland Street - call 541-448-4477.
Lisa Brackmann's visit to Ashland has
been organized by the Ashland Mystery Readers Group and is sponsored by Friends of the Ashland Public Library, Bookwagon
New and Used Books and Standing Stone Brewing Company. For more information on Lisa Brackmann's visit to Ashland, Oregon call Ashland Mystery at 541-552-0743 or visit www.AshlandMystery.com. For more information on Lisa Brackmann, visit www.lisabrackmann.com. You can also follow her on Twitter, and at papertigertail.blogspot.com
The Ashland Mystery Readers Group also produces the cable access television show Ashland Mystery, rvtv noir, airing Wednesdays at 7:30 pm on Cable Channel 15 in Jackson and Josephine Counties. The show is webcast at the same time from RogueTV.org ###
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