Review: "We don't tell these stories... these stories tell us."
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 31, 2012
In the fourth installment of Daniel Kucan's "Full Contact" series, he gives the reader more background on his frenetically-minded hero, Isaac as well as a delicious dose of irony. Kucan's hipster-prose style is a chaotic pleasure romp that kept me laughing, surprised, and reflecting on the larger questions in life.This story starts with a visceral visit to a backwater cesspool in Chinatown and continues on a series of twists and turns that kept me guessing on each page as to what might happen next. Each time I guessed I was blindsided.Kucan's teasing of the character's backstory -a stint in jail, a journey of apprenticeships under legendary fight masters, and a string of female companions- left me wanting more dividends on my investment. In Kucan's terms, I'm feeling like it's time to "put out" or show me a little "fourth base" in regards to Isaac's history in future installments.That said, "The Emerald City" was an enjoyable read, and I'm still on board to watch another fight. Like his expertly-trained-fighter-posing-as-a-hayseed protagonist, Kucan's writing is deceptively light as it jabs playfully on the page. When the time is right, he hits you with a knock-out punch that leaves you pondering the bigger questions in life. Out of all the messages in "The Emerald City" (and there are a few) the biggest idea that resonated with me dovetails into what Mick Jagger once stated: "you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime you find, you get what you need." Many of us are lucky to realize even this simple statement in our lives. For every person we see who "made it" there are a thousand others who tried just as hard and didn't. There is eloquence in simplicity and Kucan says it best: "We don't tell these stories, kid; these stories tell us."