

Adventures of the Karaoke King
Author: Harold Taw
Narrator: James Chen
Unabridged: 15 hr 3 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: 09/27/2011
Categories: Fiction, Literary Fiction
Author: Harold Taw
Narrator: James Chen
Unabridged: 15 hr 3 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: 09/27/2011
Categories: Fiction, Literary Fiction
At Harold Taw’s birth, a Burmese monk prophesied that if he fed monkeys on every birthday, his family would prosper. For forty years, the author has complied, and his achievements are many: Graduating Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California at Berkeley; being a Fulbright Scholar in rural Thailand, where he studied the spread of AIDS; earning a degree from Yale Law School; serving as law clerk to federal trial and appellate judges; and working as a corporate attorney. An Artist Trust GAP Award allowed him to travel to Thailand and Burma to research his second novel, Saturday’s Child. Taw earned recognition from the 2010 British Feature Screenplay Competition, the 2010 Beverly Hills Film Festival, the 2010 Canada International Film Festival, and more, for his screenplay Dog Park. Adventures of the Karaoke King is the author’s debut novel.
Wow, a lot of the reviews mentioned the amount of sex in this book, so the first thing I have to say is that I didn't think it was either an excessive amount or too graphic. Adults have sex, get over it. Yes, it may have been a suprise that the adventures took a turn towards prostitutes, strippers a......more
Adventures of the Karaoke King is quirky and brilliant. Taw is a new writer who has an incredible mastery of character. This story takes the reader on a journey with Guy Watanabe. It is a strange cultural odyssey indeed visiting vivid and sometimes underworld settings in Western U.S. and Asia. Taw's......more
Wow, what an awful book. The story was slow and choppy, and I cared so little about the characters that I had a hard time even remembering who was who. The only reason I've almost finished it is because I can't stand to leave a book unfinished once I start. This, however, may be an exception.......more
an okay book that went unexpected places but you don't fall in love with or really care deeply about any of the characters along the way. It was okay, better than I thought it would be at the start, but not amazing.......more
“Reading Adventures of the Karaoke King causes Adrian Tomine and The Dude Lebowski to wander into the same area of one’s brain. Even as my head was exploding, I couldn’t put down Harold Taw’s hilarious and heartbreaking page-turner. I said to no one in particular: ‘I’m ready to follow Guy Watanabe anywhere.’ Guy Watanabe took that literally, and off we went.” —Anya Ulinich, author of Petropolis“Adventures of the Karaoke King defines a new literary oeuvre shaped by America’s ethnically confused melting pot. It is a marvel of cunning humor, horrific atrocities, and heart-rending whimsy, and more than a pastiche of American naiveté, brutal racism, and cheeky sex, proving that first-time novelist Harold Taw is today’s Mark Twain and contemporary literature’s King of Sly.” —Skye Moody, author of The Good Diamond“Adventures of the Karaoke King is the book I’ve been waiting to read—funny, original, and smart as hell. Harold Taw has created a new genre of “global noir”—an international odyssey tale replete with provocative characters, detention centers, and an eye-opening ocean ride. Traveling from Seattle to Shanghai, small town bars to Karaoke conglomerates, Taw brings a sparkling consciousness to the page and an exciting new voice to American fiction. A stellar debut.” —Susan Rich, author of The Alchemist’s Kitchen