A book, a book, a pulpable book!

[liukaiqin]

Well, I had to give my Beijing slapper book back to the Edinburgh library, but then I realised that Dublin kind of almost has a Chinatown on Parnell Street. It should be pedestrianised, it's not very nice. Maybe one day... Anyway, there's a library slash bookshop there, and after much deliberation, and staring at the spines of books with gimlet

Comments

[bokane]

Oh, man, not Shanghai Baby! Not Shanghai Baby! It'll teach you vocabulary like "ketamine" and "I write about Henry Miller to sound deep while talking about my empty, shallow sex life." Better than the stuff about Deng Xiaoping thought, I guess, but not quite as interesting. It's one xerox-generation better than Beijing Doll, but is still kind of a spiritual heir of Mian Mian's work, most of which has in fact been copies of her first novel, Tang ('Candy'), which wasn't that great to begin with. And Mian Mian's kind of a cautionary tale; I met her at a friend's party a couple of years ago, and while she was very nice indeed - she asked if I'd be interested in translating her next thing, though I'm sure she doesn't remember it - she had a gravelly, deep voice that I could only assume was the result of years of partying too hard

[liukaiqin]

I remember now, I had to stop reading Shanghai Baby in translation because I felt sick. I-will-do-as-you-say. Well, I'll see if I can swap it for something else next time I'm in Dublin, like when I pick up my visa. Maybe they'll have something by Han Shaogong lying around. How did you come across him? I won't hold my breath, though, since the shop seemed more like a sort of pooling of everyone's extra reading matter in an attempt to stay literate against the odds.

Luckily reading is so new for me that anything can seem interesting, as long as I only grab the dictionary twice per page... When I reach your stage I'll have a big party. And in two months I'll be in Dalian anyway. Ta muchly :)

[goreism]

Happy birthday!

Have you read The Deer and the Cauldron? (In translation, perhaps?) If not, do so fortwith.

[liukaiqin]

Thanks very much! No I haven't, I'll look for it.

[rwillmsen]

I swapped Shanghai Baby for something called 水男 by 高吉永.

You have developed very abstract reading habits!

[liukaiqin]

I take it you're just seeing question marks. Ha ha, yes. Great book, that. ???? really knows how to ????? his ???????s.