Scan barcode
jensbrede's review against another edition
4.0
This one is a challenge to read and even more so to review. I'll get back to it, hopefully, for now I'll just say the translation reads well, the portrayal of violence is gruesome and certainly not for the faint of heart, the stories are highly complex and challenging, more traditional Chinese story genres are twisted, there is refreshing little obvious moral and ethical messages but instead a challenge to the reader to make up her own mind, and at least a good basic idea of Chinese history and in recent events (cultural revolution) are certainly in order to grasp some of stories portrayals. Lot's of parallels to Western big-shots in fiction can probably also be drawn (for me, someone who is annoyed like hell by Kafka and alike, this is really the best though). Anyhow, for now, it's 5 stars, as the collection left me confused and feeling that I need to look up a lot of things and reflect on the stories more before I can say anything about them. I might revert my statement and down-vote the whole thing as I did for e.g. Kafka as "I don't get it" but for now, my mind is blown.
rencordings's review against another edition
Eh.
I read through (well more like crawled my way through) almost one-half of this book. It's not that it's bad. The translation is somewhat strange at some sentences, but overall the writing was powerful - graphic in a poetic way, I might say. The stories themselves are not what I'm into. If you like horror, the occult, and graphic depictions of bodily harm, you'll enjoy this. But this is just not my cup of tea.
I read through (well more like crawled my way through) almost one-half of this book. It's not that it's bad. The translation is somewhat strange at some sentences, but overall the writing was powerful - graphic in a poetic way, I might say. The stories themselves are not what I'm into. If you like horror, the occult, and graphic depictions of bodily harm, you'll enjoy this. But this is just not my cup of tea.
More...