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The Cutting Season | 
enlarge | Author: Arthur Rosenfeld Publisher: YMAA Publication Center Category: Book
List Price: $21.95 Buy Used: $3.61 You Save: $18.34 (84%)
New (19) Used (17) Collectible (1) from $3.61
Avg. Customer Rating: 35 reviews Sales Rank: 410390
Media: Hardcover Number Of Items: 1 Pages: 306 Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5 Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 1594390827 Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54 EAN: 9781594390821 ASIN: 1594390827
Publication Date: June 25, 2007 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Shipping: Expedited shipping available Shipping: International shipping available Condition: Buy from the best: 4,000,000 items shipped to delighted customers. We have 1,000,000 unique items ready to ship today!
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description Dr. Xenon Pearl cuts brains for a living, and he's as good as it gets. His direct, sometimes abrasive style is forgivable in light of his skill with a scalpel, and tempered by his compassion for his patients and his friends. He is a dutiful son to his widower father, a doting grandchild to a grandfather who was once a rabbi, and he has even met the girl of his dreams. Everything is on-track for this medical golden boy. The other side of this motorcycle-riding, brilliant doctor facade is a side that Xenon (aka Zee) hides even from his father. Secretly trained since childhood by his Chinese nanny, Wu, Tie Mei--herself a martial warrior of shadowy lineage--Dr. Xenon Pearl is also a martial arts expert who loves the sword as much as the scalpel. Through Tie Mei's training of Zee, we see the philosophical and spiritual practice of a warrior, and how it guides his every step. Now his past is showing up to literally haunt him. His dead teacher reappears, reminding him of the warrior lives he has lived before, and demands he fulfill his destiny. Xenon must use his skill with a blade to protect the innocent, face down the Russian mob, protect the blade mistress who loves him, and stay one step ahead of a smart cop; he is set to lose everything unless he can cut just one more time.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 30 more reviews...
Dexter as a martial artist? November 13, 2008 The locale is the same (S. Fla.) as are the instruments (blades) used to exact retribution. I would not want to go so far as to equate Dexter (the psycho killer of book and TV fame) with a somewhat nutzy Jewish surgeon, BUT ... there are several similarities, though more differences. Still, not a very satisfactory tale involving a martial artist.
Simply a great story November 1, 2008 The Cutting Season is simply a great story. The characters have depth and the relationships are complex as in life. The martial arts and the mind set of the martial artist are well stated. I look forward to thenext book.
The Interesting, Cynical, Yet Compelling Story of Dr. Xenon Pearl. August 7, 2008 I really enjoyed this book! Dr. Xenon Pearl is guided by a complex set of morals, mores, and childhood training & inculcation. I won't try to trump the positive remarks of the other reviewers but I was impressed by the detailed descriptions of martial arts use, firearms, and edged weapons. Drawing from his own experience and/or having done his homework Arthur Rosenfeld paints very realistic scenarios and exchanges between his characters and explains them in terms that the layperson can and will easily understand. In my opinion this is an an excellent work of fiction and I can't wait for the next installment.
-- Jeffrey-Peter A.M. Hauck, JD,PI, Entrepreneur, Professional Consultant and Trainer, Former U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Infantry Pathfinder, and 15 year retired Municipal Police Sergeant.
A Review of the Cutting Season June 27, 2008 Dr. Xenon Pearl is a brilliant young neurosurgeon. He rides around south Florida on a motorcycle and secretly practices an ancient form of martial arts. When he presses an inquiry into the beating death of a 14-year-old boy, he ends up in an escalating battle with the Russian mafia.
The characters are vivid. Rosenfeld opens and transitions between scenes with many unexpected and surprising images. Rosenfeld writes with a skillfulness that parallels the personality of his lead character, meticulously describing such things as neurosurgery, motorcycle repair and swordsmithing.
On one level, The Cutting Season is in the tradition of American action/thrillers: a tight-lipped loner, a beautiful woman, and an array of unappetizing villains. On another level, Dr. Pearl, "Z", is visited by his dead Chinese martial arts trainer who calls him to take vengeance on a variety of wrong-doers and be the warrior he is destined to be through many reincarnations. While Pearl ruminates about life after death and the unseen forces at play in relationships and personality, his metaphysical questions are not resolved. Clearly, the action drives the plot.
If you take the story seriously, there is a moral ambiguity to The Cutting Season that I find difficult to reconcile. While he is in many ways an admirable individual, Dr. Pearl lies and keeps secrets from the people who care about him. His vigilante actions are increasingly violent and not all of this violence is justified by the context. I found it troubling that the spirit of his former trainer would be leading him toward violence and revenge rather than balance and harmonious relationships - another part of the Chinese tradition. Pearl is not a person at peace with himself or his world.
Nonetheless, it tells you something when you are still struggling with a book several weeks after you finished reading it! The Cutting Season is very entertaining and memorable and well worth reading.
The Cutting Season June 20, 2008 The Cutting Season is a fast-paced mystery involving the brilliant neurosurgeon Xenon Pearl, who is also a skillful martial artist trained in the ancient art of sword fighting. After the son of a Russian mobster dies on his operating table, Xenon becomes intertwined between the spirit world and reality. His former nanny, Wu Tie Mei, begins haunting him, urging him to remember his past lives as a warrior. Zee begins a quest for the perpetrator who killed his patient, which leads him to commit vicious acts of his own and question his sanity. The story will grab you and you won't want to put the book down.
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