American Shaolin Book by Matthew Polly

In this smoothly written memoir 98-pound weakling Polly makes the age-old decision to turn his nerdy self into a fighting machine. Polly's quest for manhood leads this guy from Topeka Kans. to the Shaolin Temple ancient home of the fighting monks and setting for 10 000 chop-socky movies. As much a student of Chinese culture as he is a martial artist Polly derives a great deal of humor from the misunderstandings that follow a six-foot-three laowai (white foreigner) in a China taking its first awkward steps into capitalism after Tiananmen Square. Polly has a good eye for characters and introduces the reader to a Finnish messiah a practitioner of quot;iron crotchquot; kung fu and his nagging girlfriend. We get the inside dope on Chinese dating Chinese drinking games and a medical system apparently modeled on the Spanish Inquisition. The last