This is from a fabulous editor/writer, Barbara Milbourn. She edits most all of my books and God love her, she definitely earns her money! Without further adieu,
The Mango Tree Café Loi Kroh RoadAuthor: Taryn Simpson & Alan Solomon
Author Web site:
http://mangotreecafe-loikrohroad.blogspot.com/Book Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQD0R5IXOhsISBN-13: 978-1430325222
Reviewer:
Barbara Sharp MilbournPurchase at
http://www.lulu.com/content/1019489 or Amazon.com
Alan Solomon and Taryn Simpson, in The Mango Tree Café Loi Kroh Road, present the life of Larry. We both meet and say goodbye to Larry as an old man sitting in his cane chair on the veranda of his Chiangmai home peering into the past and future. What’s in-between is an entertaining and sensitive story of a man’s awakening to find and serve the truth.
Larry, a teenager, heeds the words of his father to leave the small New Zealand village so that his achievement will be greater than “. . . watching the grass grow and releasing the pressure from the udders of cows. . .” His travels take him to Thailand, “Land of a Thousand Smiles” and to the fertile beauty of the Mae Rim region where the solitude of the jungle stands in sharp contrast to the noise and bustle of Chiangmai’s Loi Kroh Road.
On this famous and hypnotic road, the powerful and the powerless come to wash bad luck away in drink, prostitution, and anonymity.In one of its bars, Larry has a vision (not his first) that points him to partake of the road and feed it a different food, to experience a different kind of love, and to acknowledge and embrace his purposefulness.
I’m convinced that roads like this and their seedy, gritty dynamic exist around the world. What I especially liked about The Mango Tree Café Loi Kroh Road is that it places us in the pocket of Larry’s shirt closest to his heart. We are standing with him in the press of his life, peering into and out of the café, seeing it for what it is, meeting its characters, smelling its smells, tasting its strange humor and barely disguised grief.
We move back and forth through time and reality to the accident scene, and eventually come to rest as the realization of who he is and why he is here presents itself. Through Larry we are reminded of how little we are really known and understood by others—and often ourselves—and how his seeking is hardly different from our own if we will but stare into its face.
Enjoy The Mango Tree Café Loi Kroh Road.
Hear author Taryn Simpson in an interview with Barbara Milbourn by clicking on Taryn’s name on the right side bar at
http://yvonneperry.blogspot.com.
