Scan barcode
pato_myers's review against another edition
3.0
This book didn't really grab me at first, but it does get better. That is sort of the feel of the whole book. Due to the jumping between what is happening and what has already happened, if I didn't particularly enjoy a segment I just had to read a little bit farther into the chapter to get to something I did enjoy. The writing and/or the translation was done well.
daynpitseleh's review against another edition
3.0
I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I didn't know much about Han Han before I started reading this. After a quick search, I found out that he was a Chinese blogger/rally car driver who managed to irritate both Chinese conservatives and Ai Weiwei. I was intrigued.
This book was alright. Certain parts of it were really interesting to me, and there were some great sections of prose. However, other parts of the books were really boring to me (the section about when the main character was a journalist). The depictions of women were somewhat iffy in spots, and I don't feel like the story did enough.
I read some of Han Han's blog posts, and I found those much more interesting and compelling. I wish some more of that had come across in this book.
I didn't know much about Han Han before I started reading this. After a quick search, I found out that he was a Chinese blogger/rally car driver who managed to irritate both Chinese conservatives and Ai Weiwei. I was intrigued.
This book was alright. Certain parts of it were really interesting to me, and there were some great sections of prose. However, other parts of the books were really boring to me (the section about when the main character was a journalist). The depictions of women were somewhat iffy in spots, and I don't feel like the story did enough.
I read some of Han Han's blog posts, and I found those much more interesting and compelling. I wish some more of that had come across in this book.
necksbetrim's review against another edition
2.0
Latest novel by China's enfant terrible and social critique, Han Han. Although I've read many of his satirical essays, this is the first book that I've read by him. The main character is a sarcastic loner who spends the first half of the book entangled with a fast-talking pregnant prostitute who describes the vicissitudes of her trade with candor that oscillates between amusing and stomach-turning. The main character in turn treats the reader to a somewhat out-of-place seeming account of his childhood in the suburbs of a nameless big city (my guess would be Shanghai, Han's hometown). I want to like this book, but I'm having a hard time feeling much of anything for the either of these characters.
--16/8/11 Update ---
Finally finished this book. Can't say it was really a page turner,which is a shame considering I really wanted to like this book after having enjoyed so many of Han's short non-fiction essays. There is quality in this, but it's spotty and haphazard. My final impression was of a poorly planned novel written in short spurts of inspiration that mistakes unlikely coincidences, melodrama and crude humor for clever narrative twists, emotional depth and witty social commentary. The characters feel paper thin and Han drops the 'road trip' plot several times only to end the story with an incredibly lame and anti-climatic twist ending.
--16/8/11 Update ---
Finally finished this book. Can't say it was really a page turner,which is a shame considering I really wanted to like this book after having enjoyed so many of Han's short non-fiction essays. There is quality in this, but it's spotty and haphazard. My final impression was of a poorly planned novel written in short spurts of inspiration that mistakes unlikely coincidences, melodrama and crude humor for clever narrative twists, emotional depth and witty social commentary. The characters feel paper thin and Han drops the 'road trip' plot several times only to end the story with an incredibly lame and anti-climatic twist ending.
More...