{"id":36057,"date":"2014-09-22T09:44:32","date_gmt":"2014-09-22T13:44:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=36057"},"modified":"2014-09-22T11:08:42","modified_gmt":"2014-09-22T15:08:42","slug":"the-steady-running-of-the-hour-by-justin-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-steady-running-of-the-hour-by-justin-go\/","title":{"rendered":"The Steady Running of the Hour by Justin Go"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Steady<\/a>Debut novelist Justin Go<\/a> had me riveted until page 447 (or some 16 hours stuck in the ears). With less than 20 pages to go, how did that utter devotion morph into annoyance, disappointment, dare I say, even a sense of\u00a0betrayal? I thought\u00a0\u2013 hoped? \u2013 I had perhaps missed a track, so I frantically hit left arrows but could find no lapses, then\u00a0went back to the book and reread chapters. Alas, I\u00a0had stuck exactly with Go’s\u00a0narrative and missed nothing, even as I felt I missed too much.\u00a0More often than not, I adore stories with open endings\u00a0that leave plenty of room for ongoing dialogues with favorite characters long after the final page. But here, I just felt carelessly abandoned.<\/p>\n

What happened …? Fellow readers, please<\/em> enlighten\u00a0me!<\/p>\n

Tristan Campbell, a recent college graduate from San Francisco, is called to a London solicitor’s office to be told he’s the only possible heir to a vast fortune. He has seven weeks left of\u00a0an 80-year clause\u00a0in\u00a0a mysterious will to prove his direct lineage to the original beneficiary.<\/p>\n

Eighty years before, in 1924, Ashley Walsingham died while attempting to scale Mount Everest; just before he\u00a0began\u00a0his lofty journey, he named a missing woman, Imogen Soames-Andersson, to inherit the bulk of his considerable estate. A letter that suggests Tristan’s link to Imogen surfaces just a couple of months before the unclaimed riches are about to be disbursed among various charities … and thus the ‘steady running of the (11th) hour’ ensues.<\/p>\n

True to his moniker<\/a>, potential\u00a0heir Tristan<\/a>\u00a0immediately embarks on a\u00a0quest for Iseult<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 I mean Imogen\u00a0\u2013 that will take him\u00a0from London to Sweden to France\u00a0to Germany\u00a0to Iceland, from remote island archives to devastated battlefields to forgotten\u00a0farmhouses to small museums and beyond. Dovetailed into\u00a0Tristan’s peripatetic sleuthing is the truncated\u00a0love story of Ashley and Imogen, their chance meeting, their desperate five days before Ashley leaves for the frontlines\u00a0of the Great War, their wrenching separation and their eventual, inevitable losses. The steady running continues … and\u00a0Tristan’s seven weeks pass all too\u00a0quickly.<\/p>\n

According to Go’s fascinating, artful\u00a0website<\/a>,\u00a0Steady<\/em> took six years to finish. Like his quest-driven hero, Go left job, family, friends in 2008 to arrive\u00a0somewhere else. “I was 27 years old. I didn\u2019t know anything about writing books, and this book was complicated. To write it I had to research a million subjects and travel all around the world.” He refers to his drastic life change\u00a0as “THE GAMBLE<\/a>“: goodbye, NYC\u00a0and\u00a0hallo,\u00a0Berlin, never mind not\u00a0even speaking any German. “I knew it was crazy to leave, but I did it anyway.” After thousands of miles and even more pages\u00a0\u2013 he rewrote “the whole book at least seven times”\u00a0\u2013 he finally finished the last chapter in his grandfather’s Tokyo home. “I was sick of looking at [the stories]. Maybe that meant I was done.”<\/p>\n

Go’s gamble certainly paid off. The manuscript sold at auction, made all the ‘can’t-wait’ literary lists, debuted this April, and is being translated into 20 languages. Narrator Steve West<\/a>\u00a0turned out a superb, listening-on-the-edge-of-your-seat,\u00a0audible rendition. The\u00a0critics\u00a0seem to be mostly enthralled<\/a>, with only a few duds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After finishing the dense debut in a single day (when I couldn’t read the page, I multi-tasked aurally), the\u00a0disappointment has regretfully\u00a0dulled all that glitters: serendipitous discoveries seem\u00a0all too convenient, a not-yet\u00a0lover’s concerns feel\u00a0presumptuously nagging, repeated deus-ex-machina<\/em> interventions\u00a0stop being\u00a0believable, superfluous minor characters are\u00a0too many, and that aggravatingly nebulous ending begs\u00a0for\u00a0a rewrite. And still\u00a0… curmudgeonly reactions aside, anticipating Go’s in-progress-novel #2 admittedly promises\u00a0new hope.<\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Debut novelist Justin Go had me riveted until page 447 (or some 16 hours stuck in the ears). With less than 20 pages to go, how did that utter devotion morph into annoyance, disappointment, dare I say, even a sense of\u00a0betrayal? I thought\u00a0\u2013 hoped? \u2013…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36058,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,81,6,197,426,60],"tags":[32,84,6608,58,75,24,5982,13,216,5981,173,45],"class_list":["post-36057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-audio","category-fiction","category-hapa","category-japanese-american","category-nonethnic-specific","tag-adventure","tag-betrayal","tag-bookdragon","tag-coming-of-age","tag-death","tag-historical","tag-justin-go","tag-love","tag-mystery","tag-steady-running-of-the-hour","tag-travel","tag-war"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Steady Running of the Hour by Justin Go - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-steady-running-of-the-hour-by-justin-go\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Steady Running of the Hour by Justin Go - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Debut novelist Justin Go had me riveted until page 447 (or some 16 hours stuck in the ears). With less than 20 pages to go, how did that utter devotion morph into annoyance, disappointment, dare I say, even a sense of\u00a0betrayal? I thought\u00a0\u2013 hoped? \u2013...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-steady-running-of-the-hour-by-justin-go\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-22T13:44:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-09-22T15:08:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2014\/09\/Steady-Running-of-the-Hour.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2112\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmithsonianAPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Steady Running of the Hour by Justin Go - BookDragon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-steady-running-of-the-hour-by-justin-go\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Steady Running of the Hour by Justin Go - BookDragon","og_description":"Debut novelist Justin Go had me riveted until page 447 (or some 16 hours stuck in the ears). With less than 20 pages to go, how did that utter devotion morph into annoyance, disappointment, dare I say, even a sense of\u00a0betrayal? I thought\u00a0\u2013 hoped? \u2013...","og_url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-steady-running-of-the-hour-by-justin-go\/","og_site_name":"BookDragon","article_published_time":"2014-09-22T13:44:32+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-09-22T15:08:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1400,"height":2112,"url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2014\/09\/Steady-Running-of-the-Hour.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@SmithsonianAPA","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-steady-running-of-the-hour-by-justin-go\/","url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-steady-running-of-the-hour-by-justin-go\/","name":"The Steady Running of the Hour by Justin Go - BookDragon","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-09-22T13:44:32+00:00","dateModified":"2014-09-22T15:08:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/a00f6dcfcb279c75f3f992ad2919d51d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-steady-running-of-the-hour-by-justin-go\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-steady-running-of-the-hour-by-justin-go\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-steady-running-of-the-hour-by-justin-go\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Steady Running of the Hour by Justin Go"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#website","url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/","name":"BookDragon","description":"Books for the Diverse Reader","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/a00f6dcfcb279c75f3f992ad2919d51d","name":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79b5f08575e8962bd00388cd126d374b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79b5f08575e8962bd00388cd126d374b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/@SmithsonianAPA"],"url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/author\/riemert\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36057"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36057"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36066,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36057\/revisions\/36066"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}