The Laughing Sutra

Mark Salzman. Vintage Books USA, $13.95 (272pp) ISBN 978-0-679-73546-5

Hsun-ching and his mentor, Colonel Sun, travel from China to San Francisco in their quest for the Laughing Sutra, a text that allegedly holds the key to immortality. PW called this ``a novel whose sincerity, good spirits and imaginative high jinks make up for some weaknesses in prose and narrative momentum.'' (Jan.)

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