The Cutting Season

Arthur Rosenfeld

Description

If you like martial arts movies, you're going to love this book!

YMAA Publication Center has chosen author Arthur Rosenfeld's The Cutting Season to introduce a new literary fiction category: Martial Arts Fiction. The Cutting Season transplants this ancient, hugely popular, and authentic literary category to an American setting. Along with a thrilling story, The Cutting Season also conveys insights into genuine martial techniques and philosophies.

Dr. Xenon Pearl cuts brains for a living, and he's as good as it gets. His direct, sometimes abrasive style is forgivable in light of his skill with a scalpel, and tempered by his compassion for his patients and his friends. He is a dutiful son to his widower father, a doting grandchild to a grandfather who was once a rabbi, and he has even met the girl of his dreams. Everything is on-track for this medical golden boy.

The other side of this motorcycle riding, brilliant doctor façade is a side that Xenon (aka Zee) hides even from his father. Secretly trained since childhood by his Chinese nanny, Wu, Tie Mei--herself a martial warrior of shadowy lineage--Dr. Xenon Pearl is also a martial arts expert who loves the sword as much as the scalpel.

Now his past is showing up to literally haunt him. His dead teacher reappears, reminding him that he has lived many lives before…

I relived the foul stench of city cisterns, the rotting of corpses in the desert, the intoxicating smell of night-blooming jasmine, the musky odor of my own clothes after battle, the ripe and heady aroma of a wife waiting months for my return. My fingertips bore witness to the paper-thin delicacy of azaleas, and the smooth hands of children. My hands recalled weapons I have no name for, spiked ropes and strange maces with bumps and edges like some crazy fruit. I remember the gossamer threads of an industrious spider touching my eye. I remembered feeling holes where once I had teeth.

In this life, Dr. Xenon Pearl must use his skill – to defend the innocent, defeat the Russian mob, protect the woman who loves him, and stay one step ahead of a smart cop; he is set to lose everything unless he can cut just one more time.

"It's essential that you remember your previous lives," she said. "Without that memory, you're doomed to repeat your lessons."

"You are a fearsome warrior no matter what skin you wear, no matter the shape of your eyes; it's time to give up the scalpel and pick up your sword."

"I'm a doctor." I said. "And the way things look now, I'm a schizophrenic doctor."

"Your visions always come true." She said. "You are going to cut the man who burned his wife."

"I'm telling you to cut him now!"

In the spirit of martial arts tradition, The Cutting Season brings the traditional Asian martial arts novel to our shores, exploring human conflict, desires, and the search for moral certainties.

Do no harm... Honor your teacher... Cut without mercy...

Sujets

• Kung-fu
• Hospital
• ACTION
• Doctor
• Samaritan
• Martial arts
• Ethics
• Sifu
• Sword
• Adventure
• Vigilante
• Crime
• Moral
• Dexter
• Master
• Détective
• Hard Boiled
• Dojo
• Tai Chi
• Médecine

Informations

• Publié par: YMAA Publication Center
• Date de parution: 01 juin 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781594391552
• Langue: English

Extrait

Praise for the novels of Arthur Rosenfeld
A Cure for Gravity
A Cure for Gravity is a constantly flowing mix of jarring, earthbound reality and soaring flights of fancy . It s the way life could, or should be.
-The Boca Raton News
It will be the rare reader who turns the last page without a lump in the throat and a smile on the lips.
-The Sun Sentinel
[A] charming tale . There s a bravura innocence at the heart of this offbeat novel.
-Publishers Weekly
A zesty, comic, high-speed American gothic.
-Kirkus Reviews
A touching ghost story that eludes easy comparison to any other book . An amazing voyage that is as rewarding for the reader as it is for the protagonists.
-Booklist
Rosenfeld uses the tangle of lives he has created to tell a story that has its mystical moments-but is every bit about the needs of the living. This makes it a love story, of course, and a sweet, telling one at that.
-The New York Daily News -
A Cure for Gravity may be seen as mainstream fiction, that just happens to be fast, funny, outrageous, and full of heart.
-The San Jose Mercury News
A Cure for Gravity roars along at the pace of an open-throttled motorcycle.
-The Tribune , South Bend, IN
A Cure for Gravity, by Arthur Rosenfeld, is a charming tale of one teen-age boy s lucky bank robbery that takes us not only cross-country, but also across a few spiritual dimensions such as the one separating life and death.
-The Daily Courier , Prescott, AZ
A novel of surprising imagination and stylistic daring . A Cure for Gravity rises to near greatness as a piece of home-grown Magical Realism. Touching, scary, hilarious.
-Knight Ridder News Service
This wonderful novel doesn t just cure gravity, it cures all matters of heart, mind, and soul. I felt better after reading the title alone, imagine how I felt after reading the whole book.
-Neil Simon, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of The Odd Couple, Lost in Yonkers , and Brighton Beach Memoirs .
Rosenfeld has woven a very unusual yarn that intrigues and grips the reader. A colorful collection of unique but believable characters, thrown together in a series of bizarre event help to create an imaginative and suspenseful tale that doesn t let up until the last page.
-Barbara Taylor Bradford, New York Times bestselling author of Where You Belong
This book is like reading a story and listening to music at the same time. A page-turner with rhythm, and a most unusual narrative voice. I loved the characters, the views of an America I haven t seen, the unexpected twists and turns. A wonderful book.
-Jack Paar, former host of The Tonight Show
Mr. Rosenfeld s work inspires the deepest emotion one writer can feel about another: envy. These days I manage to get through barely two books a year. Having just finished A Cure for Gravity (its title being only the first of the many treats in the pages which follow), I am now ready for my second-which will be a rereading of this amazing book .
-Larry Gelbart, creator of M*A*S*H, Tootsie , and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Arthur Rosenfeld s A Cure for Gravity is a noir mystery, a supernatural thriller, a crime caper novel, a love story, and an American road-trip adventure-all seamlessly woven ml one moving, magical book. If the ghosts of Jack Kerouac and Jim Thompson could collaborate with Alice Hoffman, this is the story they might write . This novel twists, spins, and rages like an Oklahoma tornado, and it ll fling you up into the cruel sky before bringing you back down to the good earth safe, but shaken. Hell, it ll make you fly.
-Bradley Denton, author of BLACK BURN and LUNATICS
Diamond Eye
A great read in the noir tradition.
- Cluesunlimited.com
Rosenfeld dexterously blends cinematic scenes with intricate, often humorous personality studies in what may be this year s most promising detective series introduction.
-The January Magazine
Exploring cop-struggling-against-criminal-desire themes hauntingly reminiscent of Hammett s Red Harvest, Rosenfeld crafts a high-action suspense thriller with plenty of wry humor and cultural commentary.
-Publishers Weekly
Rosenfeld s crisp writing, vivid characters and incisive humor that make Max Diamond a treasure to discover.
-Book Browser
Rosenfeld writes a muscular prose that moves along at a brisk clip smooth and fast, and it provides plenty of bang for your entertainment dollar
-The Sun Sentinel
This is, to put it bluntly, one of the freshest, most enjoyable mysteries to come along in the last couple of years.
-Booklist, (Starred Review)
quite delight of a mystery
-The Washington Times
The Cutting Season - A Xenon Pearl Martial Arts Thriller
Arthur Rosenfeld s The Cutting Season is a marvelously entertaining blend of many different genres: medical thriller, psychological suspense, fantasy, martial arts adventure, romance, and crime drama, all neatly packaged into three hundred engrossing pages
- MostlyFiction.com
Highly recommended, and not just for martial artists. This is a well written story that all will enjoy.
-Larry Ketchersid, author of Dusk Before the Dawn
It takes a bold author to attempt the creation of a new category of popular fiction. That s the task crime novelist and tai chi master Arthur Rosenfeld set himself with his ninth novel , The Cutting Season.
-Chuancey Mabe, The Sun Sentinel
A gripping story . a page-turning mystery . Rosenfeld s medical knowledge and martial-arts expertise reinforce an authority and clarity to the work . that s storytelling!
-Walter Anderson, Chairman CEO Parade Magazine
. fast-paced combination of crime novel and martial art lesson . Clancy-like attention to detail . a must read .
-Detective Jim Dees
. lively, accurate and beautiful writing . secret world of blades . brimming with romance, mysticism, and murder. It s the rare writer who can hold my interest so intensely.
-Dellana, Master Bladesmith
A brain surgeon swordsman battles with . Russian mobsters, and his own reincarnations . this smart thriller sets a refreshing new standard for martial arts fiction.
-Kung Fu Magazine
Remarkable! . a literary masterpiece . exceptionally well-paced and hard to put down . unique insight into the mysterious world of classical martial arts.
-Lawrence Kane, author of Surviving Armed Assaults
a writer who understands the deeper side of these sacred arts a breath of fresh understanding
-Stuart Charno Shing-Yi Ch uan master
[A] home run! We rated his book five hearts.
-Heartland Reviews
an intriguing premise as the hero rationalizes his vigilante justice to do nothing would be amoral. Fascinating.
-The Midwest Book Review
The Crocodile and the Crane-A Novel
Arthur Rosenfeld has done it again!
-Virginia Gazette
a thriller of uncommon inventiveness In the hands of the right filmmaker , The Crocodile and the Crane could be a terrific movie.
-Sun Sentinel
Also by Arthur Rosenfeld
Novels
The Cutting Season-A Xenon Pearl book
Quiet Teacher-A Xenon Pearl book
The Crocodile and The Crane
Diamond Eye
A Cure for Gravity
Dark Money
Dark Tracks
Harpoons
Trigger Man
Nonfiction
The Truth About Chronic Pain
Exotic Pets
THE
CUTTING SEASON
A RTHUR ROSENFELD
YMAA Publication Center, Inc.
Main Office
PO Box 480
Wolfeboro, NH 03894
1-800-669-8892 www.ymaa.com [e-mail]
2009 by Arthur Rosenfeld
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
Editor: Leslie Takao
Cover Design: Vanessa Luchtan and Axie Breen
ISBN: 9781594391309 (print) ISBN: 9781594391552 (ebook)

Publisher s Cataloging in Publication
Rosenfeld, Arthur.
The cutting season / Arthur Rosenfeld. -- 1st ed. -- Boston, Mass. : YMAA Publication Center, 2009.
p. ; cm.
ISBN-13: 978-1-59439-130-9
ISBN-10: 1-59439-130-0
1. Martial arts--Fiction. 2. Reincarnation--Fiction. 3. Martial arts fiction, Chinese. I. Title.
PS3568.O812 C88 2009
2009930068
813/.54--dc22
0709
For Master Max Gaofei Yan. I must have done something truly wonderful in a past life to deserve such a gifted teacher and generous friend in this one.
Contents
Acknowledgments
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About the Author
Acknowledgments
In writing this book, I became hugely grateful for the number of friends I have and their eagerness to help me. That might just be the finest thing a man can say about his life.
My meager science background was never up to the task of getting all the medical details in this book right. Any technical mistakes are mine and mine alone, and all accuracies are thanks to the illustrious Dr. Lloyd Zucker; my great friend the loyal and insightful Dr. Ronald Weisberg; and my long-time friend and student, the swashbuckling Dr. E. Scott Leaderman.
Howard Korn and Daniel O Malley contributed greatly to my understanding of blades, while my