just another fork-tongued dragon lady (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
glass_icarus) wrote2010-02-23 04:22 pm
glass_icarus) wrote2010-02-23 04:22 pm
Entry tags:
belated book-blogging
Enormous write-up post is enormous! But not as long as it was (and also not as detailed/spoilery as it could be), as I lost my first draft along with most of my notes and had to rewrite it. D: Sorry!
1. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress- Dai Sijie:
Two young men are sent to a remote village to be re-educated during the Cultural Revolution. They encounter an old acquaintance- who has a suitcase of forbidden books, including translations of Balzac- and a young seamstress, whom they both fall in love with. However, and I think this is my main issue with the book, their love affair with French literature seems much more consuming than their relationships with the seamstress herself- or anyone else, for that matter. The fact that the primary female character in the story was so opaque, more a plot point or a concept than a person, was something I really couldn't appreciate at all. Between that and the starkness of Sijie's writing style- something I might have enjoyed under other circumstances- I was left completely cold.
2. A Good Indian Wife- Anne Cherian:
Okay, so the setup for this one is pretty fabulous- Stanford-graduate doctor Neel, an American diasporian, gets roped into an arranged marriage with sourcelander English teacher Leila when he goes to visit his family in India. However, unbeknownst to Leila, Neel already has a white girlfriend back in California and has a lot of internalized race issues to deal with, thanks in very large part to his past relationship history. Drama ensues!
Things I loved about this book: the diaspora-sourceland disconnect, family/community relationships and expectations, internalized racism and race issues, code-switching, multi-faceted culture shock (on Neel's part, on Leila's, and for various family members and friends on both sides of the world), class differences, interracial relationships, and the contrast between sourcelander and diasporian* expressions of femininity. I really appreciated the way that Cherian teased out various aspects of these issues with all of the layers of her cast, and I felt that she dealt with arranged marriage in a very sensitive and nuanced manner. So, extra-recommended, with the caveat that you may not enjoy it as much as I did if you have a low tolerance for male relationship-douchebaggery.
*I am avoiding the term "Indian-American" because none of the characters explicitly self-identify in this way.
3. Troublemaker and Other Saints- Christina Chiu:
This book is really a series of interconnected stories, and plays on various degrees of separation within the Chinese-American community. "Through a glass darkly" is really the impression I came away with; each narrator chosen- every character, really- reflects something of an Asian-American stereotype, and each character has their own flaws and issues to deal with, their own silences to break or to keep. (The flaws were somewhat weighted towards mental health, but I felt that Chiu chose to engage with it more because it is still such a topic of non-discussion within the Asian-American community.) In the end, though, it wasn't the (re)definition of the word troublemaker that got me so much as the sense that every story was a community story- the unfurling of the relationships between the narrators was ingenious, and the echoes and resonances of each story within the others gave me the shivers. So good!
4. After the Quake- Haruki Murakami:
The first Murakami book I have managed to read! I know, I fail. /o\ I... don't quite know what to say about this one, other than that I loved it; I suspect that I'll have to read more of his work before I can comment on any of it meaningfully.
5. Candy- Mian Mian:
The theme of this book is basically the tagline: sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll, in 1990s* Shanghai. I found it somewhat difficult to read and relate to- the narrator is heavily involved in all of these things, and the narrative itself is quite bald; there isn't a plot so much as there is a record of shifting friendships and relationships (and yes, substance abuses)- but still, the incredible frankness of it floored me. If you're interested in urban nightlife (for lack of a better term) as a social subculture, it is probably worth the read.
*I've since returned the book, so I might be misquoting the time frame.
6. Singer from the Sea- Sheri S. Tepper (reread):
Oh man, I first discovered this book sometime back in- middle school? Freshman year of high school? Somewhere around then. In any case, that was the day that cemented Tepper as one of my science fiction staples- her engagement with gender roles and social and environmental issues is a running theme in pretty much everything I've read of hers, which is pretty awesome. Anyway, Singer from the Sea was my introduction to all of that.
Genevieve is a noble-born daughter (of Maori descent) in an extremely caste-conscious and patriarchal society, trained to be docile and an obedient wife and to not rock the boat. However, shortly after her society debut, she stumbles across state secrets and is forced to flee to safety. Interplanetary politicking and intrigue, ho!
Upon rereading, I realized that Tepper falls into a hell of a lot of race tropes- the Magical (and Earth-conscious!) Native, "my great grandmother was aCherokee Maori Princess," the Servile/Oppressed WOC, as well as some truly depressing Generically Evol and Indistinct Middle-East!fail. I might be missing a few of them, really. :( Tepper is a white (American) feminist, basically, and it shows: her take on feminism and gender equality/gender roles is very white-coded, and her portrayals of WOC femininity are flat and one-note (with the exception perhaps of Genevieve, who reads as assimilated to me). Her portrayal of cultural diversity falls flat because each non-white culture is basically a single story, although the underground resistance movement that appears in the latter half of the book fares a little better (I can't remember if the movement is POC or mixed, though).
The book's saving grace is the pacing and the layers of intrigue at which Tepper excels; the plot did and still does carry me past the greater part of the racefail, which makes the whole thing not as painful as it otherwise would be. Still, for those of you who are leery of these things- and particularly if you know more about Maori culture than I do- I would advise caution, if not necessarily complete avoidance.
7. A Private Life- Ran Chen:
Niu Niu is a young woman somewhat frozen in time, who doesn't like to leave her house. Most of this book is in fact her backstory, tracing her relationships with her family and friends and neighbors. This was a pretty quiet and introspective read, and I appreciated the exploration of non-heteronormative sexuality, although I'm rather ambivalent about its (somewhat shallow, I felt) presentation. In fact I think ambivalent describes my feelings about the book in general- it was a decent read, but it didn't particularly move me.
8. Raising the Stones- Sheri S. Tepper:
This one's really difficult for me to summarize, so have a relatively unspoilery review from Warpcore SF. (There are a couple of blurbs up on Amazon, but those are really unspecific and barely say anything at all, really.)
Basically, Tepper has a poke at the intersection of gender roles and notions of organized religion. See my notes on Singer from the Sea re: the author's white (American) feminism, and add to that what appears to be a general lack of familiarity with non-Christian religions, I suppose- there were definitely a few things that pinged me, but I'm having trouble pinpointing them. (Possibly because I have never been a particularly religious person; I don't really know enough to elaborate further.) It was an engaging read, if not an unproblematic one. *hands*
9. Paradise of the Blind- Duong Thu Huong:
Hang is a Vietnamese girl who's left her mother's village to work in Russia. Most of this book deals with her family history- the bitter relationships between Hang's mother, aunt, and uncle, and the ways in which their old grievances shaped Hang's life and relationships as well. The author makes mention of the social echelons of village life and the influence of the Communist regime, but in such a way that the reader's focus is never jarred from Hang's personal perspective.
10. Bonus manga! Bus Gamer: The Pilot Edition- Minekura Kazuya:
My cheap Amazon copy of this arrived the other day, so of course I devoured the entire thing in one sitting! *g* Minekura's artwork is so gorgeous, unf. &hearts
Mishiba Toki, Nakajyo Nobuto, and Saitoh Kazuo are a team of "bus gamers," participants in an underground game in which they strive to obtain classified business information in exchange for large sums of money. The setting is somewhat like that of Wild Adapter, except that instead of yakuza scheming there is corporate manipulation. Most of the backstory is as yet undeveloped, and I found it somewhat less engaging than her other series because the character relationships in this one appear to be in their formative stages- much more tentative than the compelling ties in Saiyuki, Wild Adapter, and Stigma. Still, I'd love to see Minekura pick this one up again; I really want to see where it goes!
1. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress- Dai Sijie:
Two young men are sent to a remote village to be re-educated during the Cultural Revolution. They encounter an old acquaintance- who has a suitcase of forbidden books, including translations of Balzac- and a young seamstress, whom they both fall in love with. However, and I think this is my main issue with the book, their love affair with French literature seems much more consuming than their relationships with the seamstress herself- or anyone else, for that matter. The fact that the primary female character in the story was so opaque, more a plot point or a concept than a person, was something I really couldn't appreciate at all. Between that and the starkness of Sijie's writing style- something I might have enjoyed under other circumstances- I was left completely cold.
2. A Good Indian Wife- Anne Cherian:
Okay, so the setup for this one is pretty fabulous- Stanford-graduate doctor Neel, an American diasporian, gets roped into an arranged marriage with sourcelander English teacher Leila when he goes to visit his family in India. However, unbeknownst to Leila, Neel already has a white girlfriend back in California and has a lot of internalized race issues to deal with, thanks in very large part to his past relationship history. Drama ensues!
Things I loved about this book: the diaspora-sourceland disconnect, family/community relationships and expectations, internalized racism and race issues, code-switching, multi-faceted culture shock (on Neel's part, on Leila's, and for various family members and friends on both sides of the world), class differences, interracial relationships, and the contrast between sourcelander and diasporian* expressions of femininity. I really appreciated the way that Cherian teased out various aspects of these issues with all of the layers of her cast, and I felt that she dealt with arranged marriage in a very sensitive and nuanced manner. So, extra-recommended, with the caveat that you may not enjoy it as much as I did if you have a low tolerance for male relationship-douchebaggery.
*I am avoiding the term "Indian-American" because none of the characters explicitly self-identify in this way.
3. Troublemaker and Other Saints- Christina Chiu:
This book is really a series of interconnected stories, and plays on various degrees of separation within the Chinese-American community. "Through a glass darkly" is really the impression I came away with; each narrator chosen- every character, really- reflects something of an Asian-American stereotype, and each character has their own flaws and issues to deal with, their own silences to break or to keep. (The flaws were somewhat weighted towards mental health, but I felt that Chiu chose to engage with it more because it is still such a topic of non-discussion within the Asian-American community.) In the end, though, it wasn't the (re)definition of the word troublemaker that got me so much as the sense that every story was a community story- the unfurling of the relationships between the narrators was ingenious, and the echoes and resonances of each story within the others gave me the shivers. So good!
4. After the Quake- Haruki Murakami:
The first Murakami book I have managed to read! I know, I fail. /o\ I... don't quite know what to say about this one, other than that I loved it; I suspect that I'll have to read more of his work before I can comment on any of it meaningfully.
5. Candy- Mian Mian:
The theme of this book is basically the tagline: sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll, in 1990s* Shanghai. I found it somewhat difficult to read and relate to- the narrator is heavily involved in all of these things, and the narrative itself is quite bald; there isn't a plot so much as there is a record of shifting friendships and relationships (and yes, substance abuses)- but still, the incredible frankness of it floored me. If you're interested in urban nightlife (for lack of a better term) as a social subculture, it is probably worth the read.
*I've since returned the book, so I might be misquoting the time frame.
6. Singer from the Sea- Sheri S. Tepper (reread):
Oh man, I first discovered this book sometime back in- middle school? Freshman year of high school? Somewhere around then. In any case, that was the day that cemented Tepper as one of my science fiction staples- her engagement with gender roles and social and environmental issues is a running theme in pretty much everything I've read of hers, which is pretty awesome. Anyway, Singer from the Sea was my introduction to all of that.
Genevieve is a noble-born daughter (of Maori descent) in an extremely caste-conscious and patriarchal society, trained to be docile and an obedient wife and to not rock the boat. However, shortly after her society debut, she stumbles across state secrets and is forced to flee to safety. Interplanetary politicking and intrigue, ho!
Upon rereading, I realized that Tepper falls into a hell of a lot of race tropes- the Magical (and Earth-conscious!) Native, "my great grandmother was a
The book's saving grace is the pacing and the layers of intrigue at which Tepper excels; the plot did and still does carry me past the greater part of the racefail, which makes the whole thing not as painful as it otherwise would be. Still, for those of you who are leery of these things- and particularly if you know more about Maori culture than I do- I would advise caution, if not necessarily complete avoidance.
7. A Private Life- Ran Chen:
Niu Niu is a young woman somewhat frozen in time, who doesn't like to leave her house. Most of this book is in fact her backstory, tracing her relationships with her family and friends and neighbors. This was a pretty quiet and introspective read, and I appreciated the exploration of non-heteronormative sexuality, although I'm rather ambivalent about its (somewhat shallow, I felt) presentation. In fact I think ambivalent describes my feelings about the book in general- it was a decent read, but it didn't particularly move me.
8. Raising the Stones- Sheri S. Tepper:
This one's really difficult for me to summarize, so have a relatively unspoilery review from Warpcore SF. (There are a couple of blurbs up on Amazon, but those are really unspecific and barely say anything at all, really.)
Basically, Tepper has a poke at the intersection of gender roles and notions of organized religion. See my notes on Singer from the Sea re: the author's white (American) feminism, and add to that what appears to be a general lack of familiarity with non-Christian religions, I suppose- there were definitely a few things that pinged me, but I'm having trouble pinpointing them. (Possibly because I have never been a particularly religious person; I don't really know enough to elaborate further.) It was an engaging read, if not an unproblematic one. *hands*
9. Paradise of the Blind- Duong Thu Huong:
Hang is a Vietnamese girl who's left her mother's village to work in Russia. Most of this book deals with her family history- the bitter relationships between Hang's mother, aunt, and uncle, and the ways in which their old grievances shaped Hang's life and relationships as well. The author makes mention of the social echelons of village life and the influence of the Communist regime, but in such a way that the reader's focus is never jarred from Hang's personal perspective.
10. Bonus manga! Bus Gamer: The Pilot Edition- Minekura Kazuya:
My cheap Amazon copy of this arrived the other day, so of course I devoured the entire thing in one sitting! *g* Minekura's artwork is so gorgeous, unf. &hearts
Mishiba Toki, Nakajyo Nobuto, and Saitoh Kazuo are a team of "bus gamers," participants in an underground game in which they strive to obtain classified business information in exchange for large sums of money. The setting is somewhat like that of Wild Adapter, except that instead of yakuza scheming there is corporate manipulation. Most of the backstory is as yet undeveloped, and I found it somewhat less engaging than her other series because the character relationships in this one appear to be in their formative stages- much more tentative than the compelling ties in Saiyuki, Wild Adapter, and Stigma. Still, I'd love to see Minekura pick this one up again; I really want to see where it goes!