Pretender

Stephen Ling

Description

PRETENDER is a fiction about one's man audacious exploration of his sexuality from A to Z...meaning, in the words of Steve Jobs, the emergence of a picture as a result of connecting the dots (experiences) in his life, one of audacity and adventure.

Sujets

• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 08 novembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669854661
• Langue: English

Extrait

PRETENDER
A novel
 
 
 
 
 
Stephen E. Ling
 
Copyright © 2022 by Stephen E. Ling.
 
ISBN:
Softcover
978-1-6698-5465-4

eBook
978-1-6698-5466-1

 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
Rev. date: 11/04/2022
 
 
 
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
848140
CONTENTS
DEDICATION
Introduction
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
About The Author
 
BOOKS BY STEPHEN LING: REV IEWS
FOR MY HANDS ONLY
“This is a lively book with a funny, thoroughly enlightened author doing his best to tell his story and the story of one Chinese village in Malaya with tremendous insight, detail, and compassion. The wok is waiting, with a thorough mix of oils and flavorings. Dig in!” – Lucas Smiraldo, playwr ight
CRAZY AMERI CANS
“In Crazy Americans, the reader is transported to a world rich with descriptive socio-political and historical information as Ling unravels his personal ‘coming of age’ experiences in this very candid, and humorous style. An intimate and soul-baring journey. Crazy Americans is a visual feast of words that whet the appetite and leave the reader wanting more.” – Patricia Ang, author of Poetic Ec hoes
“Ling’s style is boisterous and overflowing, reminiscent of Henry Miller’s” – Northwest Asian We ekly
GROWING UP CHI NESE
“Overall, this memoir is action-packed and often engaging.” Kirkus Rev iews
“The book’s pace is quick and smooth. Ling’s tone is open and inviting even as it carries the tension, agitation, and energy of his youth.” Clarion Re view
THIS IS C HINA
“A colorful, bicultural journey.” Kirkus Rev iews
“Stephen is passionate, open and articulate.” – Prof. Zhuang Hongming, Chairman, School of Journalism, Xiamen University, C hina
PRODIGAL SON
“This novel offers a window into the current tensions between East and West in contemporary China, and how they affect young people entering adulthood. An illuminating tale of modern China.” Kirkus Rev iews
LETTER TO FELLOW IMMIGRANTS: A ME MOIR
“A fascinating read for those who believe or doubt the American dream.” - Assunta Ng, Publisher of Northwest Asian We ekly
“It is always enlightening to read Stephen Ling’s book. In his Letter to Fellow Immigrants, he offers an unique perspective on the American Dream as an immigrant, a Chinese and an American. I highly recommend it! – Dr. Chen Chao, Brown University, USA
“Looking over across half a century, Stephen Ling shared how he explored his identity and pursued dreams in the USA and China. Beyond a memoir of personal journey since 1960’s, an inspiring read for young people surfing in this different, more rapidly changing world.” - Dr. David Yu Zeng, University of California, USA
BONSAI KIDS
“Bonsai Kids are the backbone of the economy of modern China. A must read.”
- Dr. Xianfeng Zhou, School of Medicine, Hamamatsu University, J apan
DEDICATION
This book is for all of you who might be cur ious
But afraid to take a jou rney
Of self-discovery about o ne’s
Gender identity or o ne’s
Sexua lity.
Take Steve Job’s advice serio usly:
Learn to connect the dots in your life.
INTRODUCTION
Some people might recite the famous I Have A Dream speech by Dr. Martin Luther King over and over again, but for me it was my simple interest in the famous Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address about his three stories, a simple yet profound endeavor to explain the enviable vast achievements of his life. Like the user-friendly computers his company would produce for use across the globe, he was able to package the success of his life story in three simple stories in his touching commencement speech. And the first story is about connecting the dots.
I never met the man Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computers and founder of NeXT computers, who made the phrase connecting the dots famous when he said, “You cannot connect the dots by looking forward. You can only connect them by looking backward.” It makes a lot of sense to me personally because life is never a simple straight line but it zigzags, meanders, threading the forbidden paths, like a curious snake beneath the thick forest floor, going to places with no clear markers, climbing many ups and downs, though always eyeing the destination with one or two eyes. Or blind-folded. Never stop learning from hindsight, foresight or insight. And along this winding journey, we have and continue to create many dots, seemingly, on the surface, different and isolated or unrelated to one another. And Steve Jobs was saying if you connect these dots, a mysterious picture might emerge to make sense of one’s strivings, endeavors and vicissitudes in life.
By now I was curious about this incredible genius and read voraciously a 656-page book Steve Jobs , an authorized self-titled biography about him written at the request of Steve Jobs (it was his wife, according to the book) by Walter Isaacson, a former executive at CNN and TIME , someone known for his best-selling biographies of Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin. It was published shortly after Steve Jobs died at a young age.
According to the Internet: “He died October 5, 2011 from a body full of cancer that began when he was a young adult working in Silicon Valley. The overall consensus was, and still is, that Jobs acted selfishly, stupidly, and irresponsibly when he refused surgery in October of 2003, at the time of his original diagnosis.”
I remember reading with disbelief that this self-made billionaire would gamble or experimen t with alternative medicine until it was too late. You could say he was his own worse enemy and behaved like the Californian Hippie, that he was, most of his life. He thought he was in command of his body like he was of his computer empire. That is another story.
The reason why I am writing this book is trying to connect the dots by looking backward, following every iota of Steve Job’s advice. I cannot guarantee the result. What counts is the journey, not the destination, some wise guy might say.
Something did happen in my life to cause me to do this, like peeling the onions to get to the core of the truth, And I will try my best to tell the story. I also believe fervently that everything happens for a reason or reasons and the truth, I anticipate, will emerge as you connect the dots. I admit the process is not as easy as taking a Polaroid photo or developing the negatives in a dark room. Connecting the dots is not instant photography but a clear image, I hope and pray, might emerge along the way or at the end of the difficult process. Assuming some truths are still intact, not destroyed or mutilated or buried deep beyond recovery or retrievable. Some reconstruction or embellishment of the truths is always possible, for the sake of entertainment.
For me while planning to find and connect the dots, the inevitable question is: Is honesty the best policy in exposing your long-held secrets to total strangers who might be reading the book? Why should any author be worried about a fiction or a novel? My individual response calmed my nerves. It buoyed my confidence. Because in fiction, I have the liberty to utilize as many special effects and embellishments to make the story come alive, irresistible and palatable like a glass of cold beer in the middle of a hot Texas summer. The fancy buzz word: does it resonate with the readers?
Ultimately the question is: does writing a book, fiction or non-fiction, endorses or justifies or exonerates one’s actions in matters as critical as one’s gender identity or sexual preferences in the context of human relationships? It depends who is talking.
I once heard a radio interview with a famous fiction writer somewhere in America and it intrigued me and gave me plenty of food for thought because he said would his readers continue to believe him, a fiction writer, if what he wrote was not believ able !
I asked myself this question: why is that so important to him, a fiction writer.
PRETENDER is a fiction.
CHAPTER ONE
Having taught many students during my decade long teaching in China as a visiting professor from America (I was nominated for a Friendship Award once as a foreigner who has made significant contributions to China), I wasn’t convinced Tony Chen, a friend in China ha