an Esquire columnist, was surprised to hear his obnoxious cousin Larry's most recent schemegoing to China to procure a probably illegal replacement kidney and meet his internet mail orderbride.
Rose's editor, wanting a story, underwrote two months of Kafkaesque experience in the Chinese medical bureaucracy with unpleasant and uncooperative Larry, a flirtatious interpreter who was pretty obviously state security, rival patients from the Middle East whose families played badminton in the hallway, wandering hospital hallway peddlers with chicken feet and roasted peanuts, cab drivers, the crew of the local KFC, the mail order bride's extended family, and the moral grey area of the kidney probably coming from an executed criminal.
The title alone explains most of the plot so I'm just going to share some of the story's jokes with you
The new Beijing
Ole BJ has been buttered and Botoxed for the Olympics.
Once a lowlying labyrinth of grainy neighborhoods, it now reminds me of Kryptonopolis in the early Superman comics, a futuristic metropolis with soaring trains and heatstrokeinducing architecture.
Instead of those grandmothers you could still see a quarter century ago shuffling through the rag stalls with bound feet, movie starlets with French pedicures are mobbing the malls, impatiently stamping their designer sandals.
The tour guides have changed, tootwentyfive years ago they were tightlipped and severe, hiding their little hair buns in gray Mao caps.
By contrast, the luxurious Yuhvonne from HappyGoLuck Travel bounces flirtatiously, with nuclear pink highlights in her pageboy thats like the mane of a punk thoroughbred.
Street signs
“Larry, are you okay”
“Not really, Dan, Im upset, Im confused, I cant even read the street signs, ”
“Thats because theyre in Chinese, Larry, ”
Friendly spies
The cloakanddagger stuff was so primitive as to be borderline funny, One evening twentyfive years ago, I came back from a banquet early to use my bathroom and actually caught a sweating hotel clerk with his hands in my luggage, feverishly planting a bugging device.
Later he tried to gain my good graces by giving me a bottle of stickysweet Shandong wine, I was so taken with his grade school antics that it worked: He did gain my good graces, even though from then on, my luggage clicked like a Geiger counter whenever I got near a railway station.
Larry's Kidney is so fantastic that it is hard to believe it is even based on a tiny bit of truth but it is!
Enjoy!
Having helped hospital patients in China while living there, it was interesting to read the comments of someone dealing with it from the other side.
At the same time, parts of the book didn't flow well, and the author made at least mildly racist remarks in a few places.
Daniel Asa Rose is a fantastic writer, What a story! This was an odd book, completely different than what I expected going in, I work for a hospital as part of their kidney transplant program, so the topic of transplant tourism has been covered at conferences and in journal articles, but I'd never read an account of seeking an overseas transplant from the patient and caregiver side.
I figured 'Larry's Kidney' would be all about the bribes and under the table deals Daniel and Larry made in order to buy Larry a new kidney, plus the flak they received back home in the U.
S. for seeking their transplant in this manner, Yes, all of that happened, but I found the book to be more of a cultural picture of China than anything.
This was primarily due to the narrator being Daniel, Larry's cousin, whose loose connections to the country making him the only person Larry could turn to in his time of need.
While Larry is essentially dying, just trying to make it from one dialysis session to the next and doing a lot of resting in between, Daniel is pursuing the leads necessary to make this quest happen, and doing a whole lot of exploring and observing of the world around him in the downtime.
I'm not sure I was completely enamored with Daniel's writing style, and would be curious to learn the opinion of someone who is either originally from China, but completely fluent in English, or another American who has studied recent Chinese history, to see if Rose's portrayal of the speech and mannerisms of the people he encountered in China, while attempting to be humorous, actually comes off as insulting.
In some ways, it helped to understand the challenges he and Larry faced, in that things often get lost in translation, especially since theAmerican men spoke little or no Chinese, but in other ways, it came off as kind of crude, especially seeing how these same people were the ones they depended on to make the kidney arrive in time for Larry.
It wasn't just the Chinese who were made to be a bit strange, but Larry too, with Daniel seemingly transcribing every quirk of Larry's speech pattern and behaviors to make him into a guy I couldn't quite get a feeling for in terms of who he really was.
Granted, I worked foryears in a pharmacy and have met a handful of patients in my current job, so I know patients come from all walks of life, and chronic illness can turn even the greatest person into a shadow of themselves.
To be honest, if this hadn't been confirmed from a number of sources to be a nonfiction work, it felt absurd enough to be a complete fabrication, from the pretty young girl on the dating service site turning out to look like an overweight housekeeper in reality, to badminton tournaments in the hallways of the hospital being played by loved ones of wealthy Middle Easterners also waiting for transplants, to lullabies and WWII era American hits being the soundtrack heard throughout Daniel's travels in China.
The transplant itself took up such a small portion of the book, as it was the journey to get there that was the true story, with Daniel seeming to be the main character as opposed to Larry, as he reconnects with both his estranged cousin and a country that left him with a bad taste in his mouth after a previous visit decades ago.
Would I read another book by this author Probably not, as it was the premise that drew me in, but a writing style that I didn't love.
The title pretty much sums it up, The book started out with the mildly amusing details of how Rose was contacted by his cousin Larry and how he became involved in Larry's life again.
Then the book quickly went downhill from there,
Rose's dialogue writing style was inane, tedious, and the stories were farfetched, punchedup to try to hold the reader's attention, but boring.
And Larry's stories were not only implausible, but put me to sleep,
Larry is a racist and Rose mocks not only his cousin with a speech impediment, but the Chinese people he encountered, who showed him undeserved patience and kindness.
Yes, I read the disclaimer in the front of the book, but Rose crossed the line and demeaned the Chinese.
Rose is a perfect example of the ugly American,
It's explained to Larry that he will be receiving a kidney from an executed prisoner, who in all likelihood could have been an innocent political prisoner.
Complete and total lack of consciousness,
There were a few oddities that stuck out for me:
His kids, boys, ages nine and twelve, actually slept in the same bed with their parents on vacation And they were too rowdy and undisciplined to be quiet while their father was talking on the phone
What was the real reason for Rose signing up on the website where Larry found his "mailorder bride"
Rose's relationship with Jade that he described as "fatherdaughter" was anything but.
I was grossed out. It was completely inappropriate.
Even if I dont like or agree with an author personally, I will acknowledge it when he or she has told a good story.
Perfect example: Deborah Rodriguez, author of Kabul Beauty School,
Bottom line, these guys are a couple of egotistical idiots, This book would have received one star, but somehow, and I'm not sure how, by some miracle I made it through, so I forked over an extra star more for my effort to make it to the end than the merits of the book.
what i found most interesting about this book is that it slightly changed my views on chinese culture, i know that the govt oppresses the people, but i had trouble understanding why the citizens were the way they were.
i guess i understand them better now and admire their sense of communal unity that we lack here in the US.
oh, and i found larry to be an annoying shit, i almost wanted him to die, What a ride. Once I got going I couldn't stop! Laugh out loud descriptions of the discrepancies, idiosyncrasies, and anomalies that are China.
And a tale to beat the band, His rendering of China, the Chinese people, the Chinese language and his cousin Larry was beautiful, haunting, and hilarious, Couldnt get into this book, Maybe it was too overthetop or the author was trying too hard to be funny, Too much dialogue. Didnt finish the book In this amusing, fascinating and aggravating memoir, Daniel Rose tells, in highly comedic tones, of his adventure in China attempting to find a kidney for his dying cousin.
Frankly, Larry is so annoying that I was tempted to put the book down, a rare event indeed, But I hung in and I am glad that I did, You will not come to love Larry, probably not even like him, But you will enjoy and learn from Roses portraits of China,
It is remarkable how the pair stumbles their way into an actual kidney, It is also alarming how it is obtained, That issue is addressed in the book, and dispensed with by noting that when it comes to family people will be more than willing to sideswipe a few ethical considerations.
It is a dark stain that permeates this otherwise upbeat story, I suppose it is honorable that the subject is addressed head on, But still
That major consideration noted, Rose tells a tale with diverse and interesting characters, Larry heading the list, with several locals occupying prominent roles.
Can the people Larry and Dan encounter really be that considerate Well, maybe, Some, of course, might be con artists, potential kidnappers or government informants and that adds spice to the tale, You will get a picture of China quite different from what one might catch in Olympic coverage, My favorite part of Roses travel log was his late night walks through the city in which the transplant was to be done.
Those were magical. He does not fail to note that the stinging pollution dissolved his contact lenses, The book is, at times, laugh out loud funny, Not as much, I believe, as it hopes to be, But it is definitely an amusing read, He offers insightful observations about China, people, himself, others, the sort of thing you would want a thoughtful person to offer about a foreign experience.
And his relationship with his cousin holds its own mysteries and its own growth, Frankly, these were of less interest than the portraits he paints of the place and the people, It is a worthwhile read, but there are times when you may want to hold your ethical nose,
EXTRA STUFF
June,Medical tourism has extended to stem cell treatments, This eyeopening NY Times article looks at what happened to one wealthy medical tourist with more money than good sense sitelinkA Cautionary Tale of Stem Cell Tourism by Gina Kolatajune
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Inspect Larrys Kidney: Being The True Story Of How I Found Myself In China With My Black Sheep Cousin And His Mail-Order Bride, Skirting The Law To Get Him A Transplant--and Save His Life Developed By Daniel Asa Rose File Paper Edition
Daniel Asa Rose