|
Mary Akers
, April 30, 2013
(view all comments by Mary Akers)
Nanking Mansion is a sprawling subdivided house located in an (almost gentrified) area of Washington DC and populated by a host of fascinating multicultural characters whose lives intersect by virtue of their shared space. WHAT THE ZHANG BOYS KNOW gives us a glimpse into these lives, each one more enticing than the last, as the stories accumulate to tell an intricate and multilayered tale of love and loss and the lingering effects of both. The enticing narrative pull of these stories left me feeling as if I were observing the mansion in a thunderstorm, each story a flash of lightning that briefly and brilliantly illuminates the fascinating lives behind its windows, with the final, climactic story its great crescendo.
|