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King Mai (2013)

by Edmond Manning(Favorite Author)

4.74 of 5 Votes: 5

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Pickwick Ink Publishing

series

The Lost and Founds

review 1: King Mai is the second book in the Lost And Founds series by Edmond Manning. The first book, King Perry, took my breath away with its uniqueness and beautiful prose. King Mai is no different.Well, okay… it’s a little different … but not really. Confused? That’s okay. If you’ve already read King Perry, you know it’s totally okay to be confused. In fact, you’re supposed to be confused … and curious.After finishing King Perry, I felt I needed some time to ‘recover emotionally’ before starting King Mai, or that was my excuse. I think I really didn’t want to start it because I know there are NO other books like this out there and I don’t want this reading experience to be over. But Facebook friend/author AJ Rose told me I needed to dive right in ... morewhile I was still in the same frame of mind. That made sense to me. These books are different. The writing style is different. It does take a certain mind-set to read. Don’t get me wrong - I say all this in the most wonderful of ways.So, dive in I did – straight into Dekalb, the heartland of America. Corn country. Now, I’m from Ohio, so I know corn too. Or I thought I did. A lot of this story is about corn and that may sound boring, but trust me, some really hot sex happens in these cornfields. As Vin takes Mai on a weekend treasure hunt in search of one painted stalk, Mai discovers his love for the corn, his family farm, his town and he also finds his heart along the way.By the end of the story, the corn had come alive to me and I could totally picture it the way Vin did, as men in a bath house – reaching out, touching, caressing. Or, at night, a dark gang of thugs, standing there whispering. Yeah – I’ll never drive past a cornfield and look at it the same way again.“I remain silent as a gentle breeze ripples through the field and I listen to the fat, broad corn sheaths slap each other across the face, like thousands of rugged drag queens.”The same type of gorgeous, descriptive passages that graced King Perry are also sprinkled throughout this book. I didn’t find myself highlighting the heck out of them this time, but they are definitely there. “The house is clearly abandoned. Rectangle windows with no shades stare at us in gloomy surprise, as if to say, ‘Can you believe this happened to me?’” (Is that not the best description of an abandoned house EVER?)This time I seemed to have highlighted passages that made me laugh or cry. There were a lot of both. “I ask, ‘Option A? Or Option B with movies, and general drunkenness? Oh, and at least one trip to a Dairy Queen. I need an Oreo Blizzard. Actually, Option A might include a trip to Dairy Queen, too. So don’t let that be the deciding factor.’”“His eyes flash rage. ‘Oh, lookie,’ I cry out with excitement. ‘It’s the brittle anger again. Hi, anger.’ I flap my hand wildly, as if waving through the back window of a school bus.”“…what the fuck do you do when you hate the life you love? Or love the life you hate?”There is a scene that I won’t spoil, but it involves butterflies and it ruined me. I was literally sobbing into my pillow at 2 a.m. so I wouldn’t wake my husband. I was so choked up I had to stop reading, even though I was dying to see where the story was going. I got on Facebook and posted a “Damn you, Edmond Manning” type of post. Turns out he was online and messaged me, wondering what had me upset. We chatted about the scene a bit and while I LOVE this entire story, this scene is possibly one of the most beautiful I’ve ever read - in any book - anywhere. I won’t even be able to type this next quote without tearing up, but it’s my favorite, so I want to share it.“Sometimes truths flit like butterflies, landing on the red, pulpy tenderness that is your heart. Maybe they think it’s watermelon.”I said this book was different and I don’t really know how to explain why I feel that way. Maybe I was prepared to be a little confused this time. Maybe I had a preconceived notion of how I would feel reading it. Maybe it’s because I fell a little bit in love with Vin in the last book. I don’t know. I really don’t. It touched me in a totally different way, but I can’t explain that either. In King Perry, I felt as if I were Perry the entire time. This time, in King Mai, I felt connected to Vin. When I ran the corn, I was Vin. When my heart broke, I was Vin.Gotta’ say, this is the first time I’ve ever sat and cried writing a review, but just looking back through my highlighted parts, I’m feeling it all again. Again, I couldn’t even say if these are happy tears or sad tears. They are just “feeling tears”. The overall depth and beauty of this story evokes such strong “feels” that they have to overflow I guess. This week on Facebook, I saw one of those, “Who would you like to spend one hour with?” things. I usually have to think about that, but this time, it was a no-brainer. I want to sit with Edmond Manning. Even if we don’t talk. I just want to curl up beside him and give him all my love for sharing his beautiful words with me.
review 2: Once again, I'm blown away by this author. His writing style, his characters, the quirky and wholly unique nature of the stories being told are all mesmerizing. This book takes place earlier in time than the first one, but really does need to be read second. There are things we just begin to learn in the first book that become more apparent in this second one. Vin Vanbly's methods for king-making were the stuff of extraordinary and unexpected surprises throughout the first book; in this one there can't be that same element of shock and awe, but there is still plenty of awe. Manning is a master at making the reader feel like s/he is in on the makings of the king weekends, and yet still keeping the details a series of delightful and moving and sometimes shocking surprises.The emotional vulnerability of both of the main characters in this story touched me deeply. Mai is in his early twenties, living and working on his adoptive family's farm in DeKalb, dealing with the emotions of being Thai and gay in this midwestern rural life. Faced with the imminent loss of that farm, his pain and anger are palpable. Vin is the same fascinating and heartwrenching character we meet in the first book; full of love and his own deep well of pain, driven to help the men he chooses become Found Kings while enduring his own Lost King existence. His love of words, the way he throws himself into the challenge of kinging, his exuberant love for these men and struggle with himself all make me love him as much as he loves his Found Kings.I love the references to early internet connections, with the AOL chatrooms, especially the reference to one in which Found Kings meet and share their stories. The way Vin engaged the people of the town was fantastic, and the ultimate outcome, especially the epilogue, was perfection. I have a dream now, that all of Vin's Found Kings are going to band together by the final chapter of this series and turn the tables; helping Vin become the Found King he so deserves to be. I'm looking forward to reading more of Vin's journey as we get there. less

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