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joellyn's review
1.0
I received this book via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.
After having tortured myself reading this, I have come to a conclusion that I don't understand a single message that the author is trying to convey. I cannot fathom out the purpose of writing this story as well.
This book consists of 300+ pages of Qiu Shui talking about everything during his twenties: his life as a medical student, his undecided future, his military life, his first love, his crush, his medical friends, sex, alcohol and all that shit which I don't care. It isn't to say that they're not interesting but I just don't give a damn about them since they're all coming from Qiu Shui, who is a character that I didn't relate to.
I found myself unbelieving this was the life that medical students in China led during the 1990s. Alcohol, women and sex were all they cared for. Seriously? Did people in China live like that in the past? Not only is Qiu Shui an unrelatable character, but his friends, his crush, almost everyone in the book felt unrealistic. It's difficult for me to believe that college/university students behaved as described in the book.
It took forever for me to finish this. Since it's mostly Qiu Shui rambling about stuffs, it usually gets really boring and slow. If it wasn't for my determination not to DNF a book, then I'd possibly have abandoned it. And yes, a lot of my time has been wasted on this particular book.
I think the writing style the original Chinese version have must be very unique and beautiful. Unfortunately, the translation didn't do much justice to that. There are some lines or poems only Chinese can understand well which English readers might not. It'll be better if this is read in its original language but the storyline isn't something I enjoy.
Despite the many glowing positive reviews I read in Chinese (apparently there IS a message conveyed in the story), I was not able to enjoy this. I'm sorry. No really, I'm sorry. It's just that this is too intelligent for my teenage mind to fully appreciate.
After having tortured myself reading this, I have come to a conclusion that I don't understand a single message that the author is trying to convey. I cannot fathom out the purpose of writing this story as well.
This book consists of 300+ pages of Qiu Shui talking about everything during his twenties: his life as a medical student, his undecided future, his military life, his first love, his crush, his medical friends, sex, alcohol and all that shit which I don't care. It isn't to say that they're not interesting but I just don't give a damn about them since they're all coming from Qiu Shui, who is a character that I didn't relate to.
I found myself unbelieving this was the life that medical students in China led during the 1990s. Alcohol, women and sex were all they cared for. Seriously? Did people in China live like that in the past? Not only is Qiu Shui an unrelatable character, but his friends, his crush, almost everyone in the book felt unrealistic. It's difficult for me to believe that college/university students behaved as described in the book.
It took forever for me to finish this. Since it's mostly Qiu Shui rambling about stuffs, it usually gets really boring and slow. If it wasn't for my determination not to DNF a book, then I'd possibly have abandoned it. And yes, a lot of my time has been wasted on this particular book.
I think the writing style the original Chinese version have must be very unique and beautiful. Unfortunately, the translation didn't do much justice to that. There are some lines or poems only Chinese can understand well which English readers might not. It'll be better if this is read in its original language but the storyline isn't something I enjoy.
Despite the many glowing positive reviews I read in Chinese (apparently there IS a message conveyed in the story), I was not able to enjoy this. I'm sorry. No really, I'm sorry. It's just that this is too intelligent for my teenage mind to fully appreciate.
nicolemillo's review
Net Galley eARC review
(main points in bold)
March 2015
I don't think I can continue with this book. I don't want to be unfair in judging the narrator's sexist voice as infuriating and annoying and childish - maybe that is the intention - but it is unnecessarily overwhelmingly so. If it were toned down, I would still understand that he is a sexist jerk who only thinks of women as sexual objects.
I'm talking about instances where the protagonist is excited about the idea of two women reading his graffiti about them and getting so annoyed that their boobs involuntarily jiggle about...Odd because I'd have thought a medical student would know enough about anatomy to realise how dumb that is. Or things like, "I told her it was pretty straightforward. 'If someone keeps looking at you, and they're male, then they're thinking of how they want to caress your delicate hands and get you in between crisp white sheets of a freshly made bed. If they're female, then their eyes are full of jealousy.'" Which would be fine as something that actually builds his character as a sexist blockhead, but then there's the overload of "her eggplant-shaped breasts were level with my bed. They were still perky. I couldn't see her nipples through the thick white gown." Not convinced it even needs to be mentioned that you couldn't see her nipples... Is it necessary to mention everything that you can't see about her? Or any other character or thing happening in the room? But again....I guess you can just say that's his character, but I'm not convinced. The text is simply littered with this kind of thing.
The female characters so far generally seem completely accepting of this too. There's an indication that this character (and his equally sexist friends) have girlfriends which was surprising to me when I read it. It feels like, instead of looking at them, perhaps the way they see themselves, as 'cool, manly, young dudes', it's sort of pitching them as if they are genuinely cool and that people would just go along with their crap. There is a scene that stands out where he, in an apparent stupor..., asks the female nurses if they'll give him special sexual massages with their breasts and they all respond dimly: Oh what's that? I'm not sure I know what you mean. Rather than telling him where he can go with that shit. But maybe that's a cultural thing...I don't know. "During those two weeks many years ago, when I wasn't eating, I was thinking about Little Red's breasts". (By the way, he and his friends have renamed this girl 'Little Red Hot Meat Xiao Yue'). There are so many examples I could quote. Perhaps it only feels insufferable in context?
The thing about his stunted view of women is that, in the first chapter he is a high schooler I gather and, seven years later, he is no more mature. Ironically there is a point where he says other "more immature" male students would gawk at Xiao Yue as if he is any less immature.
To be clear, I don't need characters to be relatable to consider a book good, but none of the characters felt believable or fleshed out - just half-assed cardboard cut-out jerks and the dimwitted women of whom they take advantage. It was difficult to find those characters interesting among a story of simultaneously mundane and hyperbolic student life.
I also have issues with the awkward occasional injection of medical body terminology. It might have been intentional to remind the reader that the protagonist is a book-smart medical student, but it reads awkwardly especially amidst the more casual slang style. Many times I could imagine the text with an altered sentence structure while still keeping the medical terminology and slang, and it flowed much better. So I don't know if that's Tang or his translator being awkward there, but it made for a piece that felt like it was trying too hard.
With these major issues of the protagonist's overdone sexist mentality and awkward voice, it makes it difficult to focus on what so far seems to be a bit of an aimless non-story...That said, I'm also not convinced I've gotten far enough into the story to judge where it's going, but there are no indications of direction whatsoever.
I cannot tell if this book is doing these things intentionally (it doesn't seem so...but perhaps??). If so, it is not doing it successfully. I hope that more books from foreign authors are explored and given a chance, but this has none of the finesse or intrigue of, say, Haruki Murakami (the style of whom I got the impression Tang was trying to invoke), but with all of the sexism magnified to beyond problematic levels. Perhaps this isn't blatantly problematic for a Chinese audience (though I would argue it is problematic to both men and women regardless of cultural acceptance), but I would imagine it is a difficult read for western audiences.
I am willing to consider that I may be the one at fault here and that perhaps 47/379 pages isn't enough to rate it the way I have. But I'm getting very strong messages from this book that it's not worth my time to continue and I cannot in good conscience recommend it.
(main points in bold)
March 2015
I don't think I can continue with this book. I don't want to be unfair in judging the narrator's sexist voice as infuriating and annoying and childish - maybe that is the intention - but it is unnecessarily overwhelmingly so. If it were toned down, I would still understand that he is a sexist jerk who only thinks of women as sexual objects.
I'm talking about instances where the protagonist is excited about the idea of two women reading his graffiti about them and getting so annoyed that their boobs involuntarily jiggle about...Odd because I'd have thought a medical student would know enough about anatomy to realise how dumb that is. Or things like, "I told her it was pretty straightforward. 'If someone keeps looking at you, and they're male, then they're thinking of how they want to caress your delicate hands and get you in between crisp white sheets of a freshly made bed. If they're female, then their eyes are full of jealousy.'" Which would be fine as something that actually builds his character as a sexist blockhead, but then there's the overload of "her eggplant-shaped breasts were level with my bed. They were still perky. I couldn't see her nipples through the thick white gown." Not convinced it even needs to be mentioned that you couldn't see her nipples... Is it necessary to mention everything that you can't see about her? Or any other character or thing happening in the room? But again....I guess you can just say that's his character, but I'm not convinced. The text is simply littered with this kind of thing.
The female characters so far generally seem completely accepting of this too. There's an indication that this character (and his equally sexist friends) have girlfriends which was surprising to me when I read it. It feels like, instead of looking at them, perhaps the way they see themselves, as 'cool, manly, young dudes', it's sort of pitching them as if they are genuinely cool and that people would just go along with their crap. There is a scene that stands out where he, in an apparent stupor..., asks the female nurses if they'll give him special sexual massages with their breasts and they all respond dimly: Oh what's that? I'm not sure I know what you mean. Rather than telling him where he can go with that shit. But maybe that's a cultural thing...I don't know. "During those two weeks many years ago, when I wasn't eating, I was thinking about Little Red's breasts". (By the way, he and his friends have renamed this girl 'Little Red Hot Meat Xiao Yue'). There are so many examples I could quote. Perhaps it only feels insufferable in context?
The thing about his stunted view of women is that, in the first chapter he is a high schooler I gather and, seven years later, he is no more mature. Ironically there is a point where he says other "more immature" male students would gawk at Xiao Yue as if he is any less immature.
To be clear, I don't need characters to be relatable to consider a book good, but none of the characters felt believable or fleshed out - just half-assed cardboard cut-out jerks and the dimwitted women of whom they take advantage. It was difficult to find those characters interesting among a story of simultaneously mundane and hyperbolic student life.
I also have issues with the awkward occasional injection of medical body terminology. It might have been intentional to remind the reader that the protagonist is a book-smart medical student, but it reads awkwardly especially amidst the more casual slang style. Many times I could imagine the text with an altered sentence structure while still keeping the medical terminology and slang, and it flowed much better. So I don't know if that's Tang or his translator being awkward there, but it made for a piece that felt like it was trying too hard.
With these major issues of the protagonist's overdone sexist mentality and awkward voice, it makes it difficult to focus on what so far seems to be a bit of an aimless non-story...That said, I'm also not convinced I've gotten far enough into the story to judge where it's going, but there are no indications of direction whatsoever.
I cannot tell if this book is doing these things intentionally (it doesn't seem so...but perhaps??). If so, it is not doing it successfully. I hope that more books from foreign authors are explored and given a chance, but this has none of the finesse or intrigue of, say, Haruki Murakami (the style of whom I got the impression Tang was trying to invoke), but with all of the sexism magnified to beyond problematic levels. Perhaps this isn't blatantly problematic for a Chinese audience (though I would argue it is problematic to both men and women regardless of cultural acceptance), but I would imagine it is a difficult read for western audiences.
I am willing to consider that I may be the one at fault here and that perhaps 47/379 pages isn't enough to rate it the way I have. But I'm getting very strong messages from this book that it's not worth my time to continue and I cannot in good conscience recommend it.
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