With few Asian voices heard in Western literature, Disko Praphanchith is a talented young writer who is about to change all that! His debut novel, Courage: A Story of Love and Friendship (CreateSpace), is a powerful, character-driven story that addresses the social plight of women today and touches on issues that deal with domestic abuse, racism, the loss of love and friendship, regret, and morality. In a sophisticated and worldly style, rarely seen in a young writer, Disko challenges culture, society and ideology in an attempt to reconcile one's individuality.
In Courage, the author skillfully weaves in fiction as a way to better understand reality. While the theme of the story is love and friendship, it focuses on issues universally discussed in our culture - gender, sex, identity and 'femininity' - but does so without immersing readers in fantasies of sparkling creatures or erotica. Courage does not follow the typical romantic genre of clichés; instead this often raw and gritty, in-depth story focuses on the true meaning of love and friendship; making it more a realistic portrayal of human psychology that rivals themes developed by the likes of Russian novelists Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.
The backbone of Courage is the Interludes that are conveyed through one of its leading protagonists; scholarly essays, seasoned with pearls of wisdom, are interspersed throughout the novel. These Interludes analyze the world and critique American society - namely Hollywood, for imposing ideological and hegemonic structures on the individual and thereby eliminating their personal identity.
Courage chronicles the tale of two friends over the span of a lifetime; Jenny Park, a Korean-American girl whose search for her identity in this world alienates her from her Korean kinsfolk, and
Daniel Fischer, an intense, thoughtful, and brilliant young man whose mind separates him from the rest of his peers. The two meet early in life and form a deep and loving relationship. As time passes, however, it is this very friendship that becomes their greatest source of pain, where an inability to voice their love for one another eventually drives them apart.
Many years pass and we see Jenny as a broken woman living under the tyrannical hands of her husband. Her life is hell, and each day is spent uselessly toiling away without meaning. When Jenny sees Daniel one night, memories of love and friendship stir deep in her heart. With these memories suddenly rekindled, Jenny flees from her husband, travels back into the world, and attempts to reunite with the boy she once loved and knew.
Heartrending and deep, Courage infuses an emotional rawness in examining human individuality in a world where personal identity is repressed. Disko Praphanchith does a superb job of painting a picture with words, vivid and real, of what it means to accept the inevitable loss of love and friendship in life-as well as what it means to simply love.
Born in Laos, Vientiane, Praphanchith moved to the United States as a young boy. He graduated from the University of Washington with numerous literary awards and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative-Writing and English. He is well-versed in subjects involving literary theory, post-structural discourse, critical practice, and philosophy. Currently working on his second novel, Chopin in the Library, the author resides in Seattle, Washington. For more information on this talented writer or his debut novel, please visit:
www.diskop.weebly.com.
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