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| Plot Summary of Lost in Place |
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"As a young teenager in suburban Connecticut, Mark Salzman (Iron and Silk, the Soloist) becomes obsessed with Kung Fu. He dreams of wandering the world as an enlightened martial arts master, even setting up a makeshift Buddhist altar in his family's basement and buying a mail-order "bald head wig" to make him look more like a zen monk. Mark begins to study Kung Fu with Sensei O'Keefe, a frequently drunk young white man with anger management issues. Although he is the smallest person in the class and is terrified of physical violence, Mark perseveres, earns his first belts, and makes some close friends, but eventually realizes that Sensei O'Keefe has no grasp of the philosophy that draw Mark to Kung Fu in the first place. He quits the class and moves through a series of other obsessions, including jazz cello and marijuana. Throughout these years, Mark is guided by his optimistic music teacher mother and his extremely pessimistic amateur astronomer father. At the end of the memoir, Mark has begun college at Yale, where he returns to his first great love and decides to major in Chinese literature. "
Jacqueline West, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Lost in Place |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Kids growing up/acting up?
Yes
Kids:
- general coming of age story
Phys disability/mental struggle?
Yes
Struggle with
- general search for meaning
Period of greatest activity?
- 1950+
Subject of Biography
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- student
Age:
- a teen
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Biography of famous person?
Yes
Ethnicity
- White
Nationality
- American (!)
How sensitive is this person?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Strong but gentle sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other people
Physique
- very athletic
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 4 ()
United States
Yes
The US:
- Northeast
Century:
- 1960's-1970's
Style
Person
- mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
Is book humorous?
Yes
If humorous, kind of humor
- eccentric personalities
- Dry-cynical
- slapstick
- sarcastic/sardonic
- gentle
Lot of foul language?
Yes
Writer's slant towards subject:
- somewhat unfavorable
Story of entire life, or part?
- story of set of events during life
Autobiography?
Yes
Pictures/Illustrations?
- None
How much dialogue in bio?
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
A LOT of info about personal vices?
Yes
How much of bio focuses on most famous period of life?
- 0-25% of book
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Click here for more information about this book
Mark Salzman Resident Scholar Profiles
TOP SCHOLAR:
 Jacqueline West
SCHOLARS:
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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