"Iris felt as if a unique cultural experience occurred on the back of scooters. She reflected that in America, people drove their cars and rarely even opened their windows. Within cars people tended to be isolated, listening to the radio or maybe talking on the phone to a friend. Cars were people's places of refuge, highly personalized sanctuaries within which Americans often sought escape. Driving a scooter in Vietnam was a completely different experience. In addition to the ease of conversation, the lack of lanes and laws almost mandated that people acted in cooperation. Drivers didn't cut one another off or blast their horns. Though they drove quickly, always looking for the fastest route, if an old woman was trying to cross an impossibly busy street, people braked and weaved around her without a second glance." (Page 184 of ARC)

Iris is just one of the main characters in John Shors' Dragon House and she's had a tough childhood with a mostly absent Vietnam veteran father. Noah, her childhood friend and also a veteran but of the Iraq War, accompanies her to Vietnam as Iris strives to fulfill her father's dream. Through a shifting narrative, readers are shown glimpses of what it means to live on the streets of Vietnam as orphan children with Mia and Minh or as a grandmother Qui raising her leukemia-ridden granddaughter Tam by selling books to American tourists. Dragon House examines how these cultures are misunderstood on both sides and how they clash with one another even in times of peace. Shors deftly mixes sadness with hope to reveal the beauty beneath the grime and compassion inherent in humanity.

"Iris thought about her father, about how he also came home shattered from a war that wasn't of his making. A marriage and a daughter hadn't saved him from his demons. Why would Saigon save Noah? Though Iris was unsure, she knew what her father would say, knew he'd want her to bring Noah." (Page 13 of ARC)

Readers will be blown away by the vivid descriptions of Vietnam and the evolution of the novel's main characters as they find themselves in a foreign land and repurpose their lives to meet the needs of others and fulfill a dream. Shors uses description in a way that conveys deep emotional scaring and how that damage is repaired over time.

"The city was a kaleidoscope of old versus new, memories versus ideas, stone versus chrome." (Page 15 of ARC)

Mia and Minh, who sell fans and gamble with tourists over games of Connect Four, display strength amidst adversity, but like Noah, even the strongest of us have our breaking points. Qui and Tam also display significant strength. In a way these characters offset the deep desolation felt by Noah because they continue to survive and hope, while Noah is steeped in blackness and hopelessness, finding solace in whiskey and pain pills. There is more going on in Dragon House than meets the eye with Iris and Noah preparing a children's center for opening and these children living on the streets. Readers will be absorbed in Shors' world and turn the pages hoping for the best resolution possible. ( )

This was an uplifting tale set in modern day Vietnam. An American women goes to Vietnam to finish the work her Vietnam-vet father started of opening a center for street children. I liked the complex characters that the author brought to this story - the Iraqi war vet who is helping to open the center and trying to get a semblance of his old life back, the conservative Vietnamese police man who is slowly going blind, and especially the man who preyed off the street children even when his mother was a street child and this led to his troubled life. The author showed keen insight into the lives of people who survive war and struggle to live with their scars, both physical and mental. There were a few parts of the book that I found sophomoric, which is why I couldn't give this 5 stars. ( )

This book was hard to get into and slow reading. I thought that a lot of the characters were not very deep, including Iris, Thien, and even Noah. The stories of the children were more interesting and often heart-breaking. Who does not cry when Tam dies? But I think modern readers would appreciate more realism, and less of the fairy-tale bubble.

When Iris’s father dies, she finds that she wants to continue his legacy by establishing his children’s center in Vietnam. The center was not completed and Iris decides to abandon her career as newspaper book reviewer and fly to Vietnam to help. She takes her neighbor Noah with her, a man impaired both physically and mentally from his experience in the Iraq War, in the hopes that a purpose will give his life meaning and direction. In Saigon, Iris and Noah are amazed by the kindness and warmth of the Vietnamese and the clever street children, who quickly realize the goals of the center and wish to be enrolled. In this cutthroat world, however, it isn’t all as easy as it should be, and Iris and Noah find themselves fighting to save the children they come to love.

It seems to me that this is a book about hope. Iris hopes to build a center beyond all the others, to truly educate girls and make them into productive and happy citizens. Noah eventually learns to hope again through Thien, who is at peace with the universe. The children all hope to be let into the center, so they have a chance for a brighter future. Everyone is making something better, whether it’s themselves or society, and the entire book has a bright, cheerful message in the end.

While Iris and Noah are admirable people, it is really the street children who make this book the wonderful read it is. There are three children who are really focused on, Minh, Mai, and Tam. Minh and Mai are brother and sister; Minh doesn’t talk, has only one hand, and plays connect four with tourists to earn money, while Mai acts as his voice and sells fans. They are bright, innovative children and it’s impossible not to completely fall in love with them and hope that they can seize a brighter future through Iris and Noah. Unfortunately, they have a more powerful man who has them under his thumb and who insists on making things difficult. Tam is a very sick girl who is mostly cared for by her grandmother, and it’s here that the tragic aspect of the book makes its mark. Tam is suffering from childhood leukemia and 90% of children survive it if they get care early enough. Unfortunately, Tam did not, given that they live on the street, and while her personality is almost completely obscured by her illness, the love between her and her grandmother is so touching, as is the attitude of all the other characters towards them.

Saigon itself (as it is called in the book) almost acts as a character; since Minh and Mai are poor they move around quite a lot and allow descriptions of most of the city, as well as the hovels in which they and Tam live. I really enjoyed the descriptions in the book and felt that the author did an admirable job contrasting wealth and poverty and getting across the feel of both the city and the Vietnamese people. The plot is not particularly tight, especially in the beginning, but it doesn’t seem to matter because I was too busy enjoying the characters and descriptions and hoping for something better to come their way.

Dragon House is completely different from John Shors’s other work, but I really enjoyed my time spent with it. It is both a charming story and inspires us to do something better in the world by exposing the evils he’s seen. I definitely recommend it. ( )

Dragon House is a story of being lost and then finding yourself. Each character of this book is lost somehow in the beginning. Iris, the lost daughter of the man with the dream but died, has a career as a reviewer, but she doesn’t seem to attach much to it. Noah, the boy who had a “crush” on Iris but when she rejects him, he joins the Army, goes to Iraq and sees and feels the worst aspects of war. He lives, missing a leg and bereft of any purpose or love in him. Those who live in the street; Mai and Minh; Tam and Qui have nothing to begin and are preyed upon by those even lower. The picture is a vicious, ugly world. Not all are affected by this world, but they seem to work above, through and with the worst of this world. The story slowly unfolds, not all characters survive, but some do and that is what counts.

I was slow to connect with this story. What was occurring was in a good girl, bad boy and slow redemption pattern. Half way in I became more interested. This was not a boy-girl story, but different. I work with people who suffer physically, mentally and spiritually from war’s effects. I began to see felt Noah was one of those. Everyone else in this story also suffered, some rose above the suffering, others did not. This was a survival story – physical, mental and spiritual survival. Everyone survived, in their own way. The author has a message, a good one. One he deeply cares about. I wanted him to give me more of the characters - more of Iris, Noah, Thien. I wanted the plot more developed.

The author truly writes from his heart. I wanted more about the characters, more than just thoughts. I wanted more complexity of the life there. I wanted to see the streets of Saigon. Nonetheless, this book gives a small view of a world we never see. I give this book four stars. ( )