The City is a Rising Tide: A Novel

By Rebecca Lee and Rebecca Lee

Book Overview

Early 1990s New York and 1970s Beijing intersect in the memory of Justine, who narrates her own downward spiral into an obsessive, unrequited love.--Publishers Weekly. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743276655
• ISBN13: 9780743276658
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.0" x 1.0" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

Great characters

What a terrific read. Lee's lyrical prose is put to great use in this novel. The characters feel like old friends.

The City is a Rising Tide is a masterful, absorbing novel

Lovely, witty The City is a Rising Tide is full of lyrical prose and insight: "it seems ridiculous that you can just reach out and touch a person whenever you feel like it"; "sleep in its mercy pulling the plug on their personalities." Each short chapter has moments of richly rendered, unconventional wisdom. And each character in the book's absorbing, unusual plot is singular and idiosyncratic, not one of them representative of any idea or genre, only themselves.

lyrical madness

This story is disquieting, off-beat, humorous, thought-provoking, but most of all, it is written in a compelling lyrical voice that slowly draws you in. I'll look for more from Rebecca Lee.

An excellent debut!

This book is an absolute pleasure to read: graceful, intelligent, laugh-out-loud funny. It's the kind of book that makes you look forward to a long commute home from work, and one that leaves you a little sad when you are finished-- knowing that you won't have the pleasure of reading it for the first time. Like many of the best stories, it is incomparable and singular. Drop the book you are reading now, and get this book as soon as possible!

Dazzling, brilliant, funny as hell -- this book will save your life!

I have been a fan of Rebecca Lee's stories in the Atlantic for years and was lucky enough to get my hands on an early review copy of her novel which is if anything even more lyrical and devastating than her earlier work. Imagine hearing the most interesting and personal gossip about the most mysterious and colorful and glamourous people, whispered in your ear by your genius friend who casually cites poetry and is interested above all in how and why we live and love. Besides being hilarious and sharply observed and a page-turner, this book almost off-handedly returns again and again to these questions: Why does life break our hearts? Is it okay to feel this way? What does it mean to love? Nobody else writes like Rebecca Lee -- lyrical and satirical by turns, she delivers a compellingly human story in exquisitely precise and poetic prose.