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kemuenz's review against another edition
5.0
Bright and beautiful and impossible to put down, even after the last page. Guo is an amazing writer.
missbookster's review against another edition
4.0
I Am China is the unravelling of a suspenseful and intriguing story between two lovers, Mu and Jian, whom time and circumstances drove apart. Translator Iona Kirkpatrick is in the center of this broken love story and through lost letters exchanged between them, she tries to put the pieces together and unwind their fate, before it's too late.
I really appreciate Guo's unpretentious writing as always, her story and its characters came alive through her words. While reading each chapter, I was invested in finding out what came to be of Mu and Jian, and at some I thought I had it figured out. I was satisfied with the ending she gave to the characters, I think it was beautiful and very realistic. Overall, such an interesting, page-turning piece of fiction. Definitely kept me wanting to read more with every turn of events.
This is the first fiction book I read from the author, as I read her 2017 memoir Once Upon in the East: A Story of Growing Up, which is in the list of my absolute favorite books. If you want to know about the author's life story and be impressed by her resilience and childhood hardships, I also recommend reading that. I didn't know how she would write fiction and I was unsurprisingly pleased!
I really appreciate Guo's unpretentious writing as always, her story and its characters came alive through her words. While reading each chapter, I was invested in finding out what came to be of Mu and Jian, and at some I thought I had it figured out. I was satisfied with the ending she gave to the characters, I think it was beautiful and very realistic. Overall, such an interesting, page-turning piece of fiction. Definitely kept me wanting to read more with every turn of events.
This is the first fiction book I read from the author, as I read her 2017 memoir Once Upon in the East: A Story of Growing Up, which is in the list of my absolute favorite books. If you want to know about the author's life story and be impressed by her resilience and childhood hardships, I also recommend reading that. I didn't know how she would write fiction and I was unsurprisingly pleased!
mazza57's review against another edition
4.0
This is a fabulous, almost undefinable book. It tells the story of Deng Mu and Kublai Jian both in their struggle with China and its political state and in their love. Told by their translator who finds herself submerged into their lives. Beautifully written, evocative, descriptive phrasing that is wonderful and a real tension in the writing. There are loads of things that i would want to pull out of this book.
dianawellejus's review against another edition
3.0
I'm actually uncertain whether I should give I Am China two or three stars. I will think about this and get back to the rating once I get around to review this book.
ruth_miranda's review against another edition
5.0
Damn.
I related more to this novel than I possible could claim - this is not my story, this is not my reality, this is not my world. But at the same time, it is. So much about it was my world, I saw so many of my own experiences reflected in there. I'm not a refugee, but I too once ran from my country to seek soul asylum elsewhere and was broken by it, finding only the cold and the lonesome empty hours inside my own head. I too, experienced loss such as Mu, I too experienced the horror she did. I too, was once Iona, running from the intimacy of love and longing only for the faceless, emotionless aspect of getting laid. I too, was changed by Tianamen.
This isn't my tale, but it resonated with me far too much, it spoke to me far too much - and the writing felt so close and familiar, like finding home somewhere else. Maybe it's because Jian was born one month after me, maybe I felt a connection to him that I had no right to feel but for the odd coincidences between us.
'Not the state, the people.'
And I too, am a person.
I related more to this novel than I possible could claim - this is not my story, this is not my reality, this is not my world. But at the same time, it is. So much about it was my world, I saw so many of my own experiences reflected in there. I'm not a refugee, but I too once ran from my country to seek soul asylum elsewhere and was broken by it, finding only the cold and the lonesome empty hours inside my own head. I too, experienced loss such as Mu, I too experienced the horror she did. I too, was once Iona, running from the intimacy of love and longing only for the faceless, emotionless aspect of getting laid. I too, was changed by Tianamen.
This isn't my tale, but it resonated with me far too much, it spoke to me far too much - and the writing felt so close and familiar, like finding home somewhere else. Maybe it's because Jian was born one month after me, maybe I felt a connection to him that I had no right to feel but for the odd coincidences between us.
'Not the state, the people.'
And I too, am a person.
lilyspunner's review against another edition
5.0
Another fantastic book by a great writer. The story of Jian and Mu was very moving and a good insight into China. I loved every minute of it
ladulcinella's review against another edition
5.0
A beautiful book.
The story of the 2 lovers, written by the way of diary fragments and a collection of notes that unfolds itself as the translator works her way through them, the life of the translator itself, these elements give a special feeling to this book.
The story is not clear from the beginning, the translation of the chinese is not allways unambiguous, the life of the MC’s not clear. The book reads a bit like a detective trying to unravel the love story, the past of it and its devastating consequences.
At the same time, this book is much more than a love story. It is a witness of how people live their lives in uncertain times, in difficult situations, in days of migration and displacement.
The story of the 2 lovers, written by the way of diary fragments and a collection of notes that unfolds itself as the translator works her way through them, the life of the translator itself, these elements give a special feeling to this book.
The story is not clear from the beginning, the translation of the chinese is not allways unambiguous, the life of the MC’s not clear. The book reads a bit like a detective trying to unravel the love story, the past of it and its devastating consequences.
At the same time, this book is much more than a love story. It is a witness of how people live their lives in uncertain times, in difficult situations, in days of migration and displacement.
kentcryptid's review against another edition
2.0
I loved [b:Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth|2420281|Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth|Xiaolu Guo|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320495117s/2420281.jpg|2427461], but this book is so disappointing in comparison it's almost like it was written by a different author.
It's a semi-epistolary novel, where as well as excerpts from the diaries and letters of dissident musician Jian and Mu, a melancholy poet, we also get the direct narration of Mu and Jian as well as that of Iona, an adrift Scottish Londoner who's translating their writings. So it's a complicated structure, with a lot of skipping around in time.
There are moments of dark comedy in the Jian sections that I did enjoy, particularly when he's dealing with the insane vagaries of the British asylum claimant system after fleeing China. On the other hand, I have three major issues with the book. Firstly, the story is set up to have a mystery element, because Iona receives the letters and diaries as a confused bundle and is trying to figure out Mu and Jian's lives from them. The reader, however, knows more than Iona does because of reading the chapters from the other two characters' perspectives, so there's very little actual tension or desire to know more from the translations.
Secondly, Iona is a paper-thin and exasperating character, in whose head the reader is constrained for large sections of the book. She doesn't seem like a real person. She doesn't appear to have any friends, or a life outside of translation, occasional unsatisfying hook ups, and contemplating how miserable she is. As a side note, it's somewhat tiring that a woman having a lot of sex is still being used as a literary short cut to indicate that she's in some way damaged.
Finally, the book meanders along for 300+ pages, then screeches towards a resolution which depends on a frankly ridiculous coincidence and feels unearned.
It's a semi-epistolary novel, where as well as excerpts from the diaries and letters of dissident musician Jian and Mu, a melancholy poet, we also get the direct narration of Mu and Jian as well as that of Iona, an adrift Scottish Londoner who's translating their writings. So it's a complicated structure, with a lot of skipping around in time.
There are moments of dark comedy in the Jian sections that I did enjoy, particularly when he's dealing with the insane vagaries of the British asylum claimant system after fleeing China. On the other hand, I have three major issues with the book. Firstly, the story is set up to have a mystery element, because Iona receives the letters and diaries as a confused bundle and is trying to figure out Mu and Jian's lives from them. The reader, however, knows more than Iona does because of reading the chapters from the other two characters' perspectives, so there's very little actual tension or desire to know more from the translations.
Secondly, Iona is a paper-thin and exasperating character, in whose head the reader is constrained for large sections of the book. She doesn't seem like a real person. She doesn't appear to have any friends, or a life outside of translation, occasional unsatisfying hook ups, and contemplating how miserable she is. As a side note, it's somewhat tiring that a woman having a lot of sex is still being used as a literary short cut to indicate that she's in some way damaged.
Finally, the book meanders along for 300+ pages, then screeches towards a resolution which depends on a frankly ridiculous coincidence and feels unearned.
jillkt13's review against another edition
3.0
I Am China marks a step back for Guo following her superb earlier novels Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth and A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers. Where her previous novels shined was their capture of tiny people and their tiny lives, which Guo depicted with such loving detail to anchor readers in previously impossible-to-know times and places.
I Am China is unmistakably vaster, as its brazen title might suggest. Gone are Guo's snowglobe settings where the entire tale takes place in a certain Beijing neighborhood or a dark London flat, here the story unfolds on a tour bus spanning the United States, in Beijing and a village in Guangdong, a ship sailing to Crete, a Parisian nightclub, a Swiss detention center, a London pub, and a Scottish island occupied by shepherds. While epic tableaux can sometimes backdrop epic stories, Guo didn't find the right balance here. Her framing device, a British 30-something tasked to translate the mysterious letters of a Chinese couple, distracts from the far more interesting story of the aforementioned couple. And the fact that her translations are accompanied by occasional forays into the minds of the Chinese couple punctures the possibility of suspense: we are made to read the couple's letters, which describe events from a distant time, and then we are occasionally allowed to listen into the emotional reflections of the couple on that distant time. As a narrative device, it's tedious beyond belief.
And yet, if you remove the translator framing device, you'll find Guo's most political book yet. The Chinese couple involves a punk rocker critical of the government seeking asylum in Europe and his supportive but pragmatic wife, torn between love and comfort. Guo not only delivers sharp criticism of China but also of inhumane immigration policies in Europe. Wherever your eye can see, she seems to say, there is something ugly.
Love and art saved Guo's protagonists in her early novels. She shirks simple explanations in I Am China. It's certainly a more complicated, more thoughtful work, but it sacrifices hard-earned truths for ambiguity. Perhaps a more realistic tone for our era but less enjoyable and more forgettable for me at the end of the day.
I Am China is unmistakably vaster, as its brazen title might suggest. Gone are Guo's snowglobe settings where the entire tale takes place in a certain Beijing neighborhood or a dark London flat, here the story unfolds on a tour bus spanning the United States, in Beijing and a village in Guangdong, a ship sailing to Crete, a Parisian nightclub, a Swiss detention center, a London pub, and a Scottish island occupied by shepherds. While epic tableaux can sometimes backdrop epic stories, Guo didn't find the right balance here. Her framing device, a British 30-something tasked to translate the mysterious letters of a Chinese couple, distracts from the far more interesting story of the aforementioned couple. And the fact that her translations are accompanied by occasional forays into the minds of the Chinese couple punctures the possibility of suspense: we are made to read the couple's letters, which describe events from a distant time, and then we are occasionally allowed to listen into the emotional reflections of the couple on that distant time. As a narrative device, it's tedious beyond belief.
And yet, if you remove the translator framing device, you'll find Guo's most political book yet. The Chinese couple involves a punk rocker critical of the government seeking asylum in Europe and his supportive but pragmatic wife, torn between love and comfort. Guo not only delivers sharp criticism of China but also of inhumane immigration policies in Europe. Wherever your eye can see, she seems to say, there is something ugly.
Love and art saved Guo's protagonists in her early novels. She shirks simple explanations in I Am China. It's certainly a more complicated, more thoughtful work, but it sacrifices hard-earned truths for ambiguity. Perhaps a more realistic tone for our era but less enjoyable and more forgettable for me at the end of the day.
qingyigeshu's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
This book was soooooo slow. Given that it was that slow, you’d think I’d be bothered to care about the characters, but they mostly remain lifeless and archetypical.