Chinese New Year - by C E O'Banion (Paperback)

About the Book

The Chinese New Year offers a perspective of the millennial generation's impact and examines the nuance of society's middle ground and exhaustion between current political extremes.

Book Synopsis

In the twilight of the twenty-first century, Alton B. Tapscott battles hurricanes, his children, the trappings of polite society, organized religion, and the inescapable control of technology - his only weapons being his cat, a pair of prescription arthritic socks, and his new WiFi-enabled hearing aide.

With humor and heart, Chinese New Year details the life of an average American Hero of a certain age as he catches an Uber, enters an assisted living facility, sees a baseball game, attends an irreverent celebration of Mass, bingo, and celebrates Chinese New Year. It deals with fate, free will, friendship, and what it might really mean to remember who we want to be.

Getting old feels inevitable, but time runs out quickly on a life well-lived, and for a lucky few before they're back in diapers.

The Chinese New Year is a collection of stories meant to educate those from young adults to the elderly on the treatment our current political and healthcare systems place on our citizens. It shows different walks of life ending in the same situation and their decisions to rise to the occasion or wilt. A story like this on the middle class and the middle of the political spectrum is absent from America's multicultural landscape and currently lacking in the marketplace, offering a perspective of the millennial generation's impact on the world through their relationships with other groups, ideals of the future, outlook on life, and pension for regret, and examines the nuance of the society's middle ground and exhaustion between current political extremes.

Review Quotes

"Mix David Sedaris with John Jeremiah Sullivan and add a dash of the antidote to the sanctimony and disingenuousness of J.D. Vance, and you have O'Banion. His story is intelligent, hilarious, perceptive, and unique. He writes about the South and its oddities with the delicious, heartfelt affection of an insider. The pleasure of reading his prose fulfills a craving I didn't know I'd been missing."-Victoria Patterson, author of Drift.

"It seems that Alton Tapscott, the main character of Chinese New Year, will take to retirement as kindly as a sidewinder in a petting zoo. Joining the tradition of Harry Crews, Casey O'Banion is one of those writers who burns down the house in order to save it. Expect trouble, mayhem, and hilarity, though not necessarily in that order." -Jim Krusoe, The Sleep Garden

"O'Banion's book is fun, fresh, and smart as a whip. Alton Tapscott's biting, cantankerous wit offers readers an engaging, often hilarious glimpse into less than graceful aging, fractious family dynamics, and the powerful bonds between an elderly man and his cat. This is a voice worth paying attention to, and this is a novel worth every moment of your time and attention."-Matthew Blasi, Ph.D., author of Sweet Muffin Ranch.

"C.E. O'Banion blends rollicking action, sharp satire, and tender humanity in unexpected ways. This is a novel like no other."-Ana Maria Spagna, author of Pushed: Miners, a Merchant, and (Maybe) a Massacre.