White Monkey - Softcover

Hughes, Carlos

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1533366500 ISBN 13: 9781533366504

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016

Synopsis

Darren Finnegan's life is sliding down the toilet, dumped by his first love on the eve of graduating with his sociology degree, with the looming prospect of long term unemployment or joining his dad on his bin lorry back home in Wigan. Darren stumbles upon the idea of teaching English in South Korea as the desperate answer to his prayers whilst searching for jobs online.

However, a seemingly good idea hatched from afar and cold, hard reality clash when Darren arrives in a town in the middle of the Korean countryside to work for his boss, the unrelenting and unforgiving Mr Kim, the self-made owner of 'Kim's Magic English School', a Vietnam Veteran topped with a white Stetson hat who seems to delight in making Darren's life a misery.

Add to the mix disruptive students, scheming, passive aggressive colleagues and all the trials and tribulations of culture shock and adjustment. This is the the story of Darren Finnegan, a British ESL teacher living and working in South Korea over the course of a year. A story that will resonate with the many thousands of expats who have tried their hand at living and teaching, many miles away from home.

About this title

Review:

You've never read a teaching-abroad novel like this comic masterpiece by Carlos Hughes. His naïve ESL teacher isn't like those middle-class narrators who go to Asia to learn life lessons. Darren Finnegan is the desperate son of a binman, whose only future in England is following in his foul-mouthed dad's smelly footsteps. He goes to Korea to teach in a sleazy cram-school run by Mister Kim, an evil cowboy-hatted Korean boss worthy of Evelyn Waugh. Darren's attempts to get along with the expat misfits on the staff, and satisfy the violently racist, money-grubbing Mister Kim, make for wonderful slapstick, with Darren's binman dad providing pithy Northern commentary after every new disaster.If you've lived in one of these TESOL expat enclaves, you'll be delighted with Hughes' brutally honest and hilarious account of life in a group who made themselves unwelcome in their home countries. If you've been lucky enough to avoid that life, you can visit the madhouse,pain-free, as you watch Darren stumble toward the inevitable High Noon with Mister Kim. (John Dolan, author of Pleasant Hell.)


White Monkey: The Way of the Waygook

Ever since dreaming of going to the moon as a little boy, Darren has longed to escape his world. His working-class dad is dead set on seeing his son becoming a binman just like generations of Finnegans before him, but Darren wants something else. He studies hard at school and drinks up books like Don Quixote, nurturing romantic notions of chivalry and adventure.

Although he becomes the first Finnegan to ever graduate from a university, his future immediately after university seems bleaker than ever.Unemployed , betrayed by his friends, dumped by his first love Rachel,and now back living with his mum and dad, he faces the prospect of picking up smelly refuse for a living. Desperation and heartbreak leads him to take the greatest risk of his life: going to teach kids English in Korea.

For this lonely lad from Wigan, Korea might as well be the moon. He knows nothing about the language, culture or people nor does he have a clue about teaching English. All he knows is that his ex-girlfriend is there and he might just have a chance at winning her back.From the moment he steps off the plane, Darren's experiences in Korea are horrifying and hilarious.

His boss Mr. Kim is an unmitigated monster, most of his colleagues are odd (not to say grotesque), and his students are very far from being well behaved little scholars.The hero is subjected to one humiliating experience after another and,when pushed to the limit, is not above getting his own back. But even while laughing and wincing at his painful experiences, we keep cheering for our red-headed hero and hoping that chivalry, love and understanding will triumph.Carlos Hughes' first novel is a wonderful comic gem that will make you laugh out loud and sigh with satisfaction at the ending. (Katherine Dolan, author of Girls of the Empty Quarter)

About the Author:

Carlos Hughes was born in Wigan, Lancashire, England in 1972. He has a BA and MA in Linguistics and TEFL from Swansea University in Wales. He has lived and taught in China, South Korea and Saudi Arabia. White Monkey is his first novel.

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1533366500
• ISBN 13: 9781533366504
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 236
• Editor: Dolan Katherine