About
Rick Zalon first developed an interest in telling this particular story while teaching (as a part-time adjunct) in a progressive “green” MBA program at the now-defunct New College of California in Sonoma County, where he encountered many of the controversies, contradictions, passions and unique personality types/disorders portrayed in “Coyote Point Casino.” Trained as a journalist in the US Air Force during the Vietnam era (he served as a public affairs representative and TV network liaison during the last two Apollo missions), Zalon worked as a financial executive in Silicon Valley, wrote the original business plan for Office Depot, consulted for a number of joint-venture companies in China, and survived stage IV non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. He currently maintains a small tax and consulting practice, coaches CPA exam candidates and teaches part time at Dominican University of California’s more conventional School of Business and Leadership.
Through the Eyes of Maria: Choices
Description
<p>Maria hits the streets of New York in search of the love denied by her alcoholic father and indifferent mother. When Sergio, a dark, worldly stranger, lures her with diamonds, brand-name clothing, and undivided attention, Maria sees a way out of her dysfunctional home. Seduced by Sergio’s charm and the promise of wealth and recognition, Maria ignores her panicked intuition and wanders into his lair.<br /><br />But in a world where ambition and deception go hand in hand, where dreams are shattered and innocence crushed, Maria discovers she’s trapped in a hell much worse than the one she left. And now, there is no escape. The price for betrayal is blood.<br /><br />Destiny intervenes when Maria meets Christian, a handsome law student haunted by a dark family secret. With her life at risk and time running out, will Maria find the strength to save herself and convince Christian to go against all reason and risk everything to help her?</p>
Story Behind The Book
This semi-autobiographical novel is the story of a desperate small-time businessman whose travels through China on the eve of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre take him into a netherworld of corrupt local officials, Hong Kong’s criminal “Triads,” and renegade CIA operatives. Throughout, he is forced to confront his own inner demons from Vietnam, and the larger meaning of his Jewish heritage. The Jingwei Bird realistically portrays the political and economic tensions in China in the late 1980s at the dawn of its re-emergence as a world power. -
Reviews
<p>~~The Jingwei bird is part thriller, part romance, and a large part true experience. An eager young businessman from Northern California tries his hand a making his fortune through investing in newly opened China in the 1980s. He becomes a pawn of Chinese gangs, politicians, and the CIA. Scoundrels abound! Up is down and who can you trust? A fun read.</p>
