Tea with the Black Dragon

This is one of the books I share with people I really like. It very nearly defies description. The closest I can come is to say that I know magic when I see it, and this is magic. Mayland Long is an enigmatic oriental gentleman who just might be the human incarnation of a Chinese Dragon. Martha MacNamara is a fiftyish woman who plays fiddle in an Irish jig band, and she just may be the Zen master that Mayland Long has been waiting for. Together, they unravel a mystery that makes San Francisco of the nineteen-eighties seem as sinister and magical as any land ever depicted in a fantasy novel. Tea With the Black Dragon was written twenty years ago, so the computer technology is severely dated, but that doesn't really detract from the story. If you're anything like me, you'll be so swept up in this book that you won't notice anyway. Jeff Edwards, author of "Torpedo: A Surface Warfare Thriller"

I read this book when it first came out in paperback and loved it. The storyline stuck in my mind, especially the character of Mayland Long. Re-read it recently in the e-publish paperback version and still found it a great read. I did notice the "computer" lingo was way out of date and I wish Ruth would update the next edition, and correct the minor flaws that an earlier reviewer pointed out. All in all, STILL a GREAT read, while it's not Shakespeare, it wasn't meant to be... just a fun frolic on a winters day. Me? I'm looking for my own Black Dragon. :-) mary w3

Tea With The Black Dragon may be the most perfect short novel ever written -- in the scant space of some 180 pages, R.A. MacAvoy builds enough tension and suspense for a dozen novels by a lesser author, while breathing life into two of the most memorable characters in all of fantasy fiction.The interplay between the main characters, Martha MacNamara and Mayland Long, showcases MacAvoy's gift for flawless, telling dialogue; they playfully, arfully fence with words, hinting at more than is actually said. In Martha, Mayland finds what he has come to America to seek; in Mayland, Martha finds something she never realized she needed. As they work together to uncover the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Martha's daughter, Elizabeth, their secrets are gradually revealed to each other.A word on Elizabeth's disappearance -- it is in this, perhaps more than any other aspect of the novel, that MacAvoy shows her mastery of craft. Elizabeth is NEVER PRESENT in the first third of the novel, and yet she dominates the story in such a way that when she finally appears, the reader feels that they already know the character. MacAvoy's ability to show without showing that which ISN'T there, as well as that which is, lends the book an intensity that belies its diminutive size.This was cross-genre fiction before such a thing was ever attempted -- MacAvoy artfully combined fantasy elements with a (for the time period) high-tech thriller to produce a masterfully written page turner that leaves the reader fully satisfied, yet wishing for more. The sequel, Twisting The Rope, provides another outing with the characters, but lacks some of the oomph that makes Tea such a tour de force.It is a crime that this book was ever allowed to go out of print.

R. A. MacAvoy has done something very rare and special in this book: written with wisdom, compassion and humor about people who are at once very ordinary and quite extraordinary. Martha is a woman in her middle years who moves through the world with freshness, originality, and a youthful spirit; her friend Mayland Long is incredibly ancient and yet has just been born. Together they struggle with a new, technical wizardry, foreign to them both. As in Peter Beagle's _A Fine and Private Place_, the mundane and the spiritual commingle in beautiful and unexpected ways. From the convolutions and paradoxes which are a part of all our lives, MacAvoy weaves a story which is on one level an exploration of what it means to be human, with human emotions and human responsibilities -- and on another level is simply a ripping good yarn. Whatever you look for in a book, you will find here.

This is a story anyone could fall for. It's just delightful. At first glance it seems to be a fantasy novel, then you think it might be a hard-boiled detective story, but in reality it is a love story. It is fairly typical of MacAvoy's work, all of which is superb. You will find the main characters a little out of the ordinary. On the one hand we have a, middle aged musician, worried Mother and on the other we have a centuries old Chinese dragon transformed into approximately human form. That's as far as I am willing to go into the details. Suffice to say that it is a quirky, delightful and warm story from a writer who knows and thoroughly enjoys the business of writing. And if you love this book, as I know you will, you may also want to try the sequel "Twisting the Rope".