Summary of Matthew Polly's American Shaolin

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Sample Book Insights:

#1 I was accepted to Princeton, but I was so busy trying to fit in that I didn’t have time for intellectual activities. When I went back to school that fall, I started the Spanish club at my high school so I could demonstrate leadership potential.

#2 I had been taking kungfu classes since freshman year, because when I was nine years old I had seen a rerun of David Carradine’s Kung Fu and was never the same again. I had been studying Chinese culture and religion, and I wanted to learn real kungfu.

#3 I had decided to fly to China and ask around until I found someone who knew the answer. That’s the way quest heroes did it in the fantasy novels I favored. Maybe I’d chance upon an old crone who’d give me a magical artifact to help me on my journey.

#4 I was extremely ashamed of myself, and I couldn’t tell my father that I had been the boy that bullies loved to hate. I requested a leave of absence from Princeton, and began making preparations for my journey.