cover image Lessons in Essence

Lessons in Essence

Dana Standridge, . . Shoemaker & Hoard, $15 (236pp) ISBN 978-1-59376-109-7

For Taiwanese arts master Teacher Li, the indignities of advancing age (he's old enough to remember Taiwan's founding) are exacerbated by the changing attitudes of the "new Taiwan," where the young look upon the old as little more than impediments. While Li's wife and children are in New York, trying to pave the way for the family's emigration, he, adrift, enters into a brief affair with a young woman named Cai Hong Mei. It's a decision of which he seems scarcely conscious, but which spurs him to retire, leave the city and seek a more contemplative life in the mountains. There, landslide, torrential rain and an encounter with a fellow intellectual named Dr. Gao prompt Teacher Li to examine his life choices rather more closely. Standridge, in her debut, effectively depicts the artistic reveries of Teacher Li, who discusses the artisanship of a single room or a bit of calligraphy with affectless clarity. That Li applies the same detached analytical eye to his personal life creates problems for him; in the novel's less adroit moments, it flattens the story as well. (June)