Armand Gunn

Bank of the Dragon: Thetale of a Chinatown Banker Armand Gunn

Bank of the Dragon deals with social and cultural stereotypes, teasing out the flaws of the American legal and banking worlds through the darkly humorous characters of Lazaro and his archrival, Edmundo. Along the way, Lazaro deals with a crazy cast of characters: a Bank President who can't stop touching himself; a hunchback stripper, and a pet shop owner with a special dating service. Bank of the Dragon shares a cynical tone with Nathaniel West's Day of the Locust with its satirical portrayal of a lower middle class anti-hero. Fresh out of law school, Lazaro's involvement with a shady energy company and booming Chinatown bank lead him through a maze of intrigue, double-dealing, and ultimately to a decision that changes his life forever. Bank of the Dragon is a dark comedy that exposes the spiritual poverty which can arise from chasing the American Dream. It is set in Houston in the late 1990's and in the loose corporate culture that spawned the first wave of financial debacles like Enron. A culture that laid the groundwork for the most recent financial crisis and of those still to come.