The novel opens in March 2003 when Gordon is fifty-five and decides to disappear during a flight delay in Tokyo. The ensuing publicity sends him into a self-imposed exile for several years, including from all his friends. An opportunistic young Chinese writer learns of this, she approaches him to write a book (Honey Money) about his decision, and upon publication it becomes a minor cult success. When Gordon turns fifty, he tells Harold, a tax lawyer, that he wants to give all his money away. New York is the perch from which she examines the shifting balance of power between China and the U.S., set against a tale of lifelong friendships between Gordon Ashberry - “Gordie” or “Hui Guo 灰果” - and his two best friends Harold Haight and Larry Woo and their families. In THAT MAN IN OUR LIVES, Xu Xi extends the fictional universe of her earlier novels. “Xu’s engrossing, whirlwind metafictional tale effectively demonstrates the far-reaching effects of politics and culture on the smallest, most personal aspects of our lives.”
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