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hpoppe's review
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
benrogerswpg's review
Backstreet Boys
This was an interesting story.
I found it very reminiscent of the writing of [a:Kōbō Abe|6526|Kōbō Abe|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1652258871p2/6526.jpg].
Artistic, poetic, and imaginative - but coated in paranoia with social-outcast undertones.
[a:Darren Byler|20140721|Darren Byler|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] was a great translator, and I am so glad to have read this book from its' original language.
I also highly recommend his books too
[b:Terror Capitalism: Uyghur Dispossession and Masculinity in a Chinese City|57047985|Terror Capitalism Uyghur Dispossession and Masculinity in a Chinese City|Darren Byler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1652308989l/57047985._SY75_.jpg|89270662]
and
[b:In the Camps: China's High-Tech Penal Colony|59880482|In the Camps China's High-Tech Penal Colony|Darren Byler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1648421389l/59880482._SX50_.jpg|91588660]
Check it out!
3.8/5
This was an interesting story.
I found it very reminiscent of the writing of [a:Kōbō Abe|6526|Kōbō Abe|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1652258871p2/6526.jpg].
Artistic, poetic, and imaginative - but coated in paranoia with social-outcast undertones.
[a:Darren Byler|20140721|Darren Byler|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] was a great translator, and I am so glad to have read this book from its' original language.
I also highly recommend his books too
[b:Terror Capitalism: Uyghur Dispossession and Masculinity in a Chinese City|57047985|Terror Capitalism Uyghur Dispossession and Masculinity in a Chinese City|Darren Byler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1652308989l/57047985._SY75_.jpg|89270662]
and
[b:In the Camps: China's High-Tech Penal Colony|59880482|In the Camps China's High-Tech Penal Colony|Darren Byler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1648421389l/59880482._SX50_.jpg|91588660]
Check it out!
3.8/5
xoxojillzian's review
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
existential dread am I really real?
captain_trips's review
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.0
A difficult book to rate. On one hand it's a unique and vividly well written perspective on an oppressed minority not often seen by Westerners. But on the other it's also a dour, dreary, and repetitive read.
"I don't know anyone in this strange city, so it's impossible for me to be friends or enemies with anyone."
This phrase is repeated multiple times throughout the book. The story slowly unfurls through our protagonists stream of conscience thoughts and experiences. He walks about the city hyper focused on the oppressive fog, smells, and numbers of passing houses and license plates that he tries to make sense out of.
His life story is gradually revealed in small snippets of memories that he shares - his time at university in Beijing, his alcoholic father, elementary school, etc. and it paints a tragic picture.
The protagonist is essentially a ghost. A person desperately trying to find any semblance of humanity in the wasteland of the city. He isn't connected to anything or anyone. He is constantly surprised and confused by the hostility that he encounters even until the very end.
Perhaps the story behind the story is more interesting. I'm glad I read this work, but also relieved to be out of the fog.
"I don't know anyone in this strange city, so it's impossible for me to be friends or enemies with anyone."
This phrase is repeated multiple times throughout the book. The story slowly unfurls through our protagonists stream of conscience thoughts and experiences. He walks about the city hyper focused on the oppressive fog, smells, and numbers of passing houses and license plates that he tries to make sense out of.
His life story is gradually revealed in small snippets of memories that he shares - his time at university in Beijing, his alcoholic father, elementary school, etc. and it paints a tragic picture.
The protagonist is essentially a ghost. A person desperately trying to find any semblance of humanity in the wasteland of the city. He isn't connected to anything or anyone. He is constantly surprised and confused by the hostility that he encounters even until the very end.
Perhaps the story behind the story is more interesting. I'm glad I read this work, but also relieved to be out of the fog.
kiramke's review
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Unremittingly bleak and painful, but also such a beautiful testament to alienation and philosophy of identity. I feel grateful that we have access to this work.
smsr's review
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
nickdleblanc's review
5.0
Powerful stuff here. A really good insight into a population that has not had the opportunity to represent themselves in the US. The narrator is obsessed with numbers and clearly mentally unwell, certainly a symptom of their environment. I don’t want to say too much beyond that it should be read.
fishnchipsbusan's review
dark
informative
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
roxanamalinachirila's review
3.0
I never want to see this book again in my life.
It isn't badly written; on the contrary, I think it accomplishes what it meant to accomplish quite well: reading it, you feel like walking endlessly through a fog, trying to find meaning, disconnected from anyone and anything, lost, alienated.
At first, I thought that calling a book that's barely 113 pages long a "novel" is a bit inappropriate. Surely, it would be better described as a novella? Especially since it has a fairly long introduction? But no. Having read it, it feels longer, all-encompassing, endless. There is no escaping the fog in Ürümqi.
So, what's it about?
"I don't know anyone in this strange city, so it's impossible for me to be friends or enemies with anyone."
An Uyghur man gets a job in Ürümqi, the capital city of the Xinjiang region in China. His office doesn't provide him with a place to stay, so one night he wanders off to find one. What we get is his journey through the fog. People pretend not to notice him, or they're openly hostile. He tried to get directions, but only gets fear and aggression in return. And all the while, he's walking the streets and thinking of a random piece of paper with numbers on it; he found it on the floor at the office and he's been trying hard to interpret it ever since. Some numbers look like his height, or his age.
As he walks, he also remembers things from his childhood, or his time as a student in Beijing, his time at the office. His father getting drunk, the superstition of always starting a journey with one's right foot, the smiling man who makes him write a letter at work, the isolation in Beijing. I'm making this sound more like a story than it is - instead, these memories come over him like people walking in through the fog, disconnected, timeless, one on top of the other, starting and ending without going anywhere, sometimes repeating or rewriting themselves as he walks along and mixes life and philosophy and madness.
The book's honestly quite great at creating the feeling of loss and despair. Everything is significant, including numbers randomly seen on papers; nothing is significant. The sentence that appears over and over, "I don't know anyone in this strange city, so it's impossible for me to be friends or enemies with anyone", feels at first like a statement of truth, then like one of isolation, and finally like a shield. How can people hate him, when he doesn't know anyone? But they do.
It's honestly the introduction that makes this book worthwhile. Explaining the context in which it was written (by an Uyghur man, about the Uyghur experience in China, influenced by his European studies, read by Uyghur men who find themselves in his work, and probably incarcerated by the Chinese government some time after writing this book, presumably to be released in 17 years) gave it a meaning I don't think it would have had for me otherwise.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Columbia University Press for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
It isn't badly written; on the contrary, I think it accomplishes what it meant to accomplish quite well: reading it, you feel like walking endlessly through a fog, trying to find meaning, disconnected from anyone and anything, lost, alienated.
At first, I thought that calling a book that's barely 113 pages long a "novel" is a bit inappropriate. Surely, it would be better described as a novella? Especially since it has a fairly long introduction? But no. Having read it, it feels longer, all-encompassing, endless. There is no escaping the fog in Ürümqi.
So, what's it about?
"I don't know anyone in this strange city, so it's impossible for me to be friends or enemies with anyone."
An Uyghur man gets a job in Ürümqi, the capital city of the Xinjiang region in China. His office doesn't provide him with a place to stay, so one night he wanders off to find one. What we get is his journey through the fog. People pretend not to notice him, or they're openly hostile. He tried to get directions, but only gets fear and aggression in return. And all the while, he's walking the streets and thinking of a random piece of paper with numbers on it; he found it on the floor at the office and he's been trying hard to interpret it ever since. Some numbers look like his height, or his age.
As he walks, he also remembers things from his childhood, or his time as a student in Beijing, his time at the office. His father getting drunk, the superstition of always starting a journey with one's right foot, the smiling man who makes him write a letter at work, the isolation in Beijing. I'm making this sound more like a story than it is - instead, these memories come over him like people walking in through the fog, disconnected, timeless, one on top of the other, starting and ending without going anywhere, sometimes repeating or rewriting themselves as he walks along and mixes life and philosophy and madness.
The book's honestly quite great at creating the feeling of loss and despair. Everything is significant, including numbers randomly seen on papers; nothing is significant. The sentence that appears over and over, "I don't know anyone in this strange city, so it's impossible for me to be friends or enemies with anyone", feels at first like a statement of truth, then like one of isolation, and finally like a shield. How can people hate him, when he doesn't know anyone? But they do.
It's honestly the introduction that makes this book worthwhile. Explaining the context in which it was written (by an Uyghur man, about the Uyghur experience in China, influenced by his European studies, read by Uyghur men who find themselves in his work, and probably incarcerated by the Chinese government some time after writing this book, presumably to be released in 17 years) gave it a meaning I don't think it would have had for me otherwise.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Columbia University Press for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.