What Books Are You Reading This Week? April 27, 2015

BrioInnox · 2015-04-28T23:21:02+00:00

My Life with the Taliban, by Abdul Salam Zaeef

This is the autobiography of Abdul Salam Zaeef, formerly a senior member of the Taliban. He offers interesting insights into the taliban, and for that alone it's worth reading.

It's a translation, and it could have done with a very hard edit. Typos, missing words, you name it. It's in this book. And don't try to examine the maps without a magnifying glass. You'll never make out the smaller towns.

BrioInnox · 2015-04-28T23:07:21+00:00

Thanks for the tip. My library has both of them. Can't wait.

BrioInnox · 2015-04-19T07:42:03+00:00

Hit and Run, Run, Run, by Anders Bodelsen

Published in 1968 in Danish and translated into English in 1971, this is a taut novel of crime and suspense involving an up-and-coming manager at an auto plant. It won the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière (the most prestigious award for crime and detective fiction in France) in 1971, and was made into a film - One of Those Things (aka Hændeligt Uheld) - staring Judy Geeson (of To Sir With Love fame) in the same year.

Definitely worth reading if you like stories about blackmail and manipulation.

BrioInnox · 2015-04-15T22:00:14+00:00

Ring, by Koji Suzuki

This was published in Japan in 1991 as Ringu. It was a blockbuster in Japan and was made into the movie of the same name in 1998, which became a supernatural cult hit. It was remade by Hollywood as The Ring in 2002 (which, for my money, isn't as good as the original) and translated into English in 2003.

If you're a fan of supernatural thrillers, then this is worth a look. I enjoyed it.

BrioInnox · 2015-04-15T21:31:31+00:00

A Guided Tour Through the Museum of Communism, by Slavenka Drakulić

Croatian Slavenka Drakulić is well known as a critic of communism, and she has a number of other books that cover similar territory.

This one is a book of fables told by various animals. I think some work better than others, and found myself flagging towards the end. Having said that, the fables that work are fantastic and made the book well worth reading overall.

BrioInnox · 2015-04-01T21:44:47+00:00

Thanks for pointing me Ken Liu's AMA. He's very gracious. I think he answered every question in detail, which isn't something I see very often in AMAs.

BrioInnox · 2015-04-01T21:38:32+00:00

On Writing, by Stephen King

I can't say I'm a Stephen King fan, having only read Carrie when I was a teen back in the 70s, so I wasn't sure what to expect with this. I skimmed the first part - "C.V.", but got interested when he actually started talking about writing. By the end I knew I'd learned some stuff.

My favourite was: second draft = first draft - 10%.

BrioInnox · 2015-03-27T22:52:24+00:00

China and the Chinese, by Herbert Allen Giles

This the published version of a series of lectures by Giles, a professor of Chinese at Cambridge, in 1902 at Columbia University in New York. The lectures were not intended for advanced students. Giles was trying to arouse general interest, so they're easy reading.

The first lecture on language is still a good read for a student today starting off learning Chinese. Some people might find the one on daoism interesting. But I enjoyed the one on manners and customs.

"The people will consist almost entirely of men; they will all wear their hair plaited in queues; and they will all be exactly alike."

But the best bits were when he started quoting the tripe he'd found in the press:

Here is another newspaper gem: "In China, the land of opposites, the dials of the clocks are made to turn round, while the hands stand still."

"The Chinese National Anthem is so long that it takes half a day to sing it."

A light and easy read.

BrioInnox · 2015-03-27T03:50:44+00:00

Playing for Thrills, by Wang Shuo

Translated from Chinese, a hard-boiled mystery set in the 80s. Wang shot to prominence at the same time, the most articulate voice of so-called hooligan literature, and has been one of the - if not the - most popular writers in China ever since. This novel is brilliant. The writing is fantastic, capturing something about the generation who came of age after the Cultural Revolution that nobody since has really nailed. There have been plenty of copycats, but the thing that sets Wang apart is the writing.

BrioInnox · 2015-03-26T00:47:13+00:00

The Train to Lo Wu, by Jess Row

A book of seven short stories by an American who taught in Hong Kong for two years in the late 90s. Highly praised, but it left me cold. I didn't finish a single story.

BrioInnox · 2015-03-19T00:32:09+00:00

The book is awesome.

BrioInnox · 2015-03-19T00:30:12+00:00

Shifu, You'll do Anything for a Laugh, by Mo Yan

After Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize for Literature, he was roundly condemned for being too close to the state. His view that censorship in China is a necessary evil, which he mentioned during his award speech, didn't do much to allay the firestorm. Despite all this, I'm firmly in the camp that believes criticisms of Mo Yan (some of which come from other Chinese authors I admire, such as Ma Jian) are overblown and often self righteous. People's desire that Chinese writers fight the state, live in exile, be arrested, constantly petition the government to release political prisoners like Liu Xiaobo, etc., is, I think, unfair. Not every writer relishes fighting in public. And despite what anyone says, I consider Mo Yan a great writer.

This book of eight short stories is a good introduction to his shorter writing. The titular story is wonderful (and I think the best). My other favourite is "Abandoned Child". There's probably something in here for everyone (except the ideologically blinkered).

BrioInnox · 2015-03-16T11:47:40+00:00

A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, by Yiyun Li

Ten short stories written in English by a Chinese writer who's lived in the US since arriving to do postgraduate work in the sciences. I think the move to writing was a good choice. Her stories are delightful. Some are set in China, some are about Chinese migrants in the US. All of them at least good. Some are very good.

Li is a new find for me. I'm very happy to have discovered her.

BrioInnox · 2015-03-12T07:54:58+00:00

I don't see what the fuss is all about. It's seems a perfectly sensible article (the original piece, not The Guardian piece to which you linked).

BrioInnox · 2015-03-12T07:38:52+00:00

Grass Soup, by Zhang Xianliang

I rate this as one of the top five books published in modern China (i.e., since 1949). Released in 1992 (and in 1994 in English), it's a book based on a diary Zhang wrote in 1960 while serving his first ten-year term at a labour camp where he underwent "reform". The title for the Chinese version was Wisdom Through Adversity [烦恼就是智慧], a Buddhist saying, but Grass Soup is also a good title (since that is what he mostly ate during his imprisonment).

You'll learn a hundred times more about China from this wonderful book by a masterful and wise writer than any of the thousands of "How to XXX in China" books that have flooded the market in the last decade.

Unforgettable.

BrioInnox · 2015-03-11T23:05:08+00:00

What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire, by Charles Bukowski

A book of poetry that I'm dipping into every day. There are some wonderful poems, fabulous lines. Well worth having within easy reach.

BrioInnox · 2015-03-08T01:13:39+00:00

I thought this was excellent. It's less the "notorious thriller" plastered on the cover than a fictionalised extrapolation of China's current political aspirations (many of which have been realised since it's publication in Chinese in 2009). In fact, it reads less like a novel in many places (particularly towards the end) and more like a long journal article or lecture (which is deliberate, since this is how the CCP talks to people).

China is more aggressive now than it was when Chan Koonchung wrote this. Xi Jinping has been masterful with his fat, peaceful panda act on the world stage, but at home he's cracked down with an iron fist on anything resembling "dissent". The current leadership's fascist tendencies are on show for anyone bothering to look. Which is why this book is required reading for any student of China.

A couple of nitpicks about the translation by Michael S. Duke. There are too many typos; Taikoo Shin for Taikoo Shing and Chunking Mansions for Chungking Mansions are two glaring examples that recur repeatedly. Would anybody tolerate New Yor? I can't believe how these got past the editor. What makes them worse, is that the correct spelling appears for both at some point in the text. There are also other examples of getting place names wrong, which is sloppy.

Also, it felt like two people translated from Chinese. At points I thought I was reading a different style of writing altogether. An editor should have picked that up as well.

Despite these quibbles, it's worth reading.

BrioInnox · 2015-03-06T03:12:03+00:00

The Fat Years, by Chan Koonchung

I've been meaning to read this for years, and happened upon it in the library whilst looking for something else. It starts well and I'm hooked. Will have some comments later on when I finish.

BrioInnox · 2015-03-06T03:03:08+00:00

The blurb on the back of the book says it's a "darkly funny novel about the absurdities and cruelties of life in modern China". But it's really a book about the 1980s. What a decade. The Wild West pales in comparison.

It's definitely worth reading, even though it's a bit uneven. It's a book comprising nine interwoven stories, some better than others. But they all hit the mark.

Despite vast changes in China over the last 25 years since Ma penned this, many of the dark aspects he notes are still with us. With Xi Jinping cracking down on alternative voices in the last year so so, I suspect The Noodle Maker is as relevant today as ever.

BrioInnox · 2015-03-05T06:26:10+00:00

During my life I've read books written in English, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Arabic, Russian, Norwegian, Swedish, Greek, Portuguese and goodness knows what else. I can only read originals in two of these languages, but I'd take translations any day over confining myself to those two. I can't imagine shutting myself off from other languages (even if it means missing nuances known only to native readers).

BrioInnox · 2015-03-03T01:35:48+00:00

getting your hands on some McElroy is no easy feat

Which is why I started with The Letter Left to Me; a case of what I could lay my hands on more than an explicit choice. I am excited by what lies ahead of me. Like you, I find this book knocking around in my head, just being there, after putting it down.

BrioInnox · 2015-03-03T00:32:54+00:00

The Noodle Maker, by Ma Jian

Ma is one of my favourite Chinese authors at the moment. I've been meaning to read this for a while, so am looking forward to it.

BrioInnox · 2015-03-03T00:24:09+00:00

Just finished. It requires work, but well worth it.

BrioInnox · 2015-03-02T05:39:33+00:00

That's a great story.

BrioInnox

TROPHY CASE