There are books that you may pick up and start reading that have an interesting story. I find that I can get hooked on a book in the first few pages. I will overlook the sloppy characterizations, poor style and any other short comings if there is a good plot. The most disappointing thing is to get into a book with potential and not have it pan out in the end. A book that fits in this category is The Dissident, by Nell Freudenberger. The story is about Yuan Zhao, a Chinese artist and dissident that has the opportunity to spend a year in Los Angeles to further his art. He lives with a liberal, upper class family made of cliches. Yuan in China is part of the underground art scene. His avant-garde style gets him into trouble with the authorities. In LA, he is a quiet, observer of those around him. His inability to create new art scares him. Yuan finds himself teaching art to girls at a private school. One of the students has talents that Yuan is inspired by. This leads to tragedy for all involved.
I learned something about myself from reading this book. Nell Freudenberger does a nice job of using language and pacing similar to other books I've read recently by Chinese authors. These have been difficult books for me to get through. I have decided that I don't care for this style. In addition this book had a very promising start, but the story went nowhere. The book felt sloppy with no real direction. There were too many pages without a quality wrap up. Not my kind of book in the end. If you do decide to read this...
Enjoy!
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