Snakes Can't Run
by Ed Lin
After you read about the book be sure to read Ed's post on World Building.
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GENRE: FICTION/Mystery & Thriller
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BLURB:
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EXCERPTS
The mind is a funny thing.
After I got on the wagon and fell in love with a girl, I started seeing my
father out in the streets. I didn't literally see his ghost walking around, but
I'd see his nose in profile on another guy's face. Sometimes I'd be walking
behind someone who had his slouchy shuffle, his spotted ears, or the back of
the head that looked like an elderly porcupine with spikes gone soft and white.
One time, a hand reached out
to my shoulder and touched me exactly where he used to touch me from his chair
after dinner to ask me to get him a beer from the fridge.
Of course it wasn't my
father. It was an older guy who wanted to know if I was the guy whose pictures
used to be in all the Chinese newspapers. The man was almost completely bald
and had two light brown spots on the top right of his head that looked like an
imprint from a woman's high-heeled shoe.
He called me the Sheriff of
Chinatown. I tried to get away from him as soon as possible, but he was one of
those people who liked to say good-bye and then ask another question just when
you're about to part. The guy ended up grabbing both of my hands twice before I
was able to make the corner and get away. I checked that my wallet was still in
my pocket, though, just in case he had been working me with a partner. I guess
he was genuinely glad to meet me.
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Ed's Take on World Building
I’ve been accused of
doing more world-building than plotting out a mystery. That may be valid
because I think the separation of “good guys” and “bad guys” as characters is
so dumb. We all have a subjective morality. We all believe in karma to a
degree. We read about some kid being bullied and share it online and we share
the story thousands of times on social media. The bullied kid becomes this
presence that everybody wants to build up and protect while the bully is
demonized a thousand times over.
Of course it’s wrong
that anybody is bullied but the story takes on a archetype in which we deny the
bullied her own complexity and bully is denied her own nuanced existence. Maybe
the victim really enjoys shoplifting and online porn. Maybe the bully lives in
an abusive home and power plays are the only way she knows how to relate to
people.
I enjoy exploring
the complications, the strange destinies that all the characters need to
fulfill. I can’t remember who said it, but there’s an adage that there’s no
such thing as a simple, isolated crime. In Dog
Day Afternoon, for example, the bank robbery was supposed to pay for a
sex-reassignment operation, and to get two siblings out of foster care. Life is
strange, and mysteries today should accommodate as much as of the messy and
absurd as possible while remaining an intelligible story. Moreover, it has to
be believable, while real life doesn’t have to be.
I feel like we are
all alive to do good things for the people we love, if not everybody. This may
or may not come at the expense of people we either don’t know or don’t like.
Fiction is a zero-sum game. There is a poetic justice that a reader is acutely
aware of. I want to make complex characters, put them in nuanced situations and
have readers feel the thrill of almost getting away with “it.”
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AUTHOR Bio and
Links:
Ed Lin, a native New Yorker of
Taiwanese and Chinese descent, is the first author to win three Asian American
Literary Awards and is an all-around standup kinda guy. His books include
Waylaid and This Is a Bust, both published by Kaya Press in 2002 and 2007,
respectively. Snakes Can't Run and One Red Bastard, which both continue the
story of Robert Chow set in This Is a Bust, were published by Minotaur Books.
His latest book, Ghost Month, a Taipei-based mystery, was published by Soho
Crime in July 2014. Lin lives in Brooklyn with his wife, actress Cindy Cheung,
and son.
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/robertchow
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edlinforpresident/
Website: http://www.edlinforpresident.com/
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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION
Ed
Lin will be awarding a limited edition print copy of the book to a randomly
drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteLoved your take on world building and the excerpt. Great to have you on my blog today.
ReplyDelete