At our discussion of Matthew Salesses’ novel, The Sense of Wonder, FFR member Brice Hunt sang (to his own guitar accompaniment) the following verses about the fictional Asian basketball pro Won Lee, Lee’s rival/friend Power Ball (PB), spoiler/journalist Sung, and PB’s wife Brit.

Brice wrote his lyrics to the tune of Scots poet Robert Burns’s poem “A Man’s a Man for All That,” which had been Brice’s introduction to Burns via Paolo Nutini’s rendition of the song.

He titled the song “noraebang,” which, as we all learned from the novel, is Korean for “karaoke.”

He’s Won, an Asian-American; he shoots, he scores, the Man
The skills he use defy the eye! Oh Carrie loves the Man
For he’s the Man, oh he’s the Man, no matter what Sung writes
Linsanity’s wave raids his soul, he knows his place cuz he’s Asian-Man

For PB!s been the Man so long, he knows no other way
But Sung has won Brit’s heart away, he is her Man always
But K’s the toughest of them all, the baddest of all Men
And don’t we know it each of us, the Women are the real Men.

To get all the references and literary cross-talk, you’ll have to read the novel and listen to Burns’s song. You won’t be sorry.

Thanks, Brice.