Jade Lady Burning
by Martin Limón
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Book Summary Information
Author: Martin LimónEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-07-01
ISBN: 1569470200
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Soho Crime
Book Reviews of Jade Lady Burning
Book Review: Don't believe Publisher's Weekly.....this is far better than they indicate
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a simply fantastic novel!! Noir, dark and darkly humorous, gritty, seedy, pulsing with human vice and need, and chock-full of knuckle-dusting action, gun fire, and labyrinthine mystery. The story line revolves about two men, military detectives, investigating the steaming underbelly of the local black market Korean/American military economy and the concurrent trade in prostitution, despite the endearing fact that they themselves are active and daily participants in the party. The characterization in Jade Lady Burning is superb, authenticity in setting and detail perfect, the action is exciting, the characters memorable, the story and plot excellent.
To this day I find it mind-boggling that this book and author have been so completely overlooked by both the publishing mainstream and the general readership. There are few delights more enjoyable that stumbling upon a book and author you have never heard of that is so wonderful, enjoyable, and captivating that it catapaults straight to your all-time favorite lists. Finding and reading this book was a revelatory experience like waking in July to Christmas morning, or finding an overlooked bottle of stupendous, world-class wine and buying the entire stock of six cases for $12 a bottle (Yamhill Valley 96 Pinot in case anyone is interested.) Yet books like this should be shared and savored by all.
Despite the puzzling lack of popular acclaim, this book is easily one of my favorite reads. I found it in the public library seven or eight years ago, devoured it, and then went on to read his next two as quickly as possible. What a thrill ride! Since then I have been disappointed that the author, Martin Limon, has not published any other novels....so imagine my surprise and delight when I see on Amazon today that he has a new one arriving in a month. I just pre-ordered mine. With the advent of his new novel perhaps Mr. Limon will win the attention and readership he deserves. I hope so, and to that end, I share with my fellow readers why this book is so darn good and why, if his upcoming book is in the same vein, that it deserves to be on the bestseller lists.
In Jade Lady Burning Mr. Limon introduces us to his protagonists, Ernie Bascom and George Sueno, military investigators stationed in Korea in the seventies. I am a sucker for complex characters that are vividly brought to life, who struggle through thorny and complicated moral situations, and who grow throughout the novel as their basic humanity is challenged by the assaults life throws at them. Mr. Limon delivers in spades with these two likeable rogues in the characterization department. Even more impressive is his command of setting and atmosphere. His depictation of Korea, a byzantine and complicated place with differing social mores, expectations, values, and outlooks, is spot on and he captures perfectly the soupy, complicated moral morass than can come about when two cultures meet and try to function side-by-side.....particularly when one of the cultures is represented by an occupying military force, with it's own needs, vices, social structures, and attitudes.
The Publishers Weekly review dings this book for a "strangely, leisurely pace"; I never criticize other reviews because I know how hard they are to write, but I believe this remark completely undermines this novel and is representative itself of those differing cultural outlooks I referenced above. This book is set in Asia, and in Korea in particular. Life moves at a more languid pace there than in America and matters of custom are sometimes more important than matters of truth, which Ernie and George themselves so often discover in the course of their investigation. The fact that the author could make the novel move at a Korean pace was a brilliant bit of writing that makes the setting absolutely believable. I actually feel like I am back in Korea as I read his novels; his spare yet hauntingly evocative writing is that good. Despite the ding, my belief is the Korean characters should act like Koreans, and more over, Ernie and George should act like what they are, two soldiers stationed in Asia, with access to a Disneyland of earthly delights but yet with some nominal duty to police it so that while the army can blow off steam, nothing gets out of control. Mr. Limon does exactly that and it is the friction and differences between the cultures that drive this novel so convincingly and make it so enjoyable. Order this book folks and treat yourself to a rare read.
Summary of Jade Lady Burning
Almost twenty years after the end of the Korean War, the U.S. Military is still present throughout South Korea, and tensions run high. Koreans look for any opportunity to hate the soldiers who drink at their bars and carouse with their women. When Pak Ok-Suk, a young Korean woman, is found brutally murdered in a torched apartment in the Itaewon red-light district of Seoul, it looks like it might be the work of her American soldier boyfriend. Sergeants George Sueño and Ernie Bascom, Military Police for the U.S. 8th Army, are assigned to the case, but they have nothing to go on other than a tenuous connection to an infamous prostitute. As repressed resentments erupt around them, the pair sets out on an increasingly dangerous quest to find evidence that will absolve their countryman.Literature & Fiction Books
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