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nschank's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
a lot of really sad stories and some that were hard to stomach but a very engaging read
sakichan's review
4.0
Boy in the Twilight: Stories of the Hidden China is different from the other books I've read by Chinese authors, probably because it's a collection of short stories rather than a chronicle of one person or family. The stories are blunt and speak of universal problems and real people. Nothing is sugar-coated or overly sentimental. Wives cheat on husbands and husbands on wives, and a lack of basic communication can lead to the disintegration of a seemingly strong marriage. The subtitle Stories of the Hidden China isn't implying dark secrets of a Communist regime but the truth that the "hidden China" is just the same as any other country.
One of my favorite stories describes a man trying to get to a destination by bus, and how he strategizes to make sure he's at the front of the crowd at the bus stop and estimates where he needs to be standing in order to be first to get through one of the bus doors. I experienced just this same thing while I was living in Shanghai - anxious people standing in the street to wait for the bus, the frantic surge when it finally arrives, the general lack of any etiquette at all.
The translator, Allan H. Barr, does a fantastic job. The writing is beautiful and fluid, a great complement to the richness of the stories written by Yu Hua. And although the stories have some depth to them, the book is not difficult to read. My galley comes in at a slim 197 pages; I read it in just a few hours.
An excellent book for those who enjoy short stories and are interested in trying out one of China's most acclaimed authors.
More reviews at Book Lust.
One of my favorite stories describes a man trying to get to a destination by bus, and how he strategizes to make sure he's at the front of the crowd at the bus stop and estimates where he needs to be standing in order to be first to get through one of the bus doors. I experienced just this same thing while I was living in Shanghai - anxious people standing in the street to wait for the bus, the frantic surge when it finally arrives, the general lack of any etiquette at all.
The translator, Allan H. Barr, does a fantastic job. The writing is beautiful and fluid, a great complement to the richness of the stories written by Yu Hua. And although the stories have some depth to them, the book is not difficult to read. My galley comes in at a slim 197 pages; I read it in just a few hours.
An excellent book for those who enjoy short stories and are interested in trying out one of China's most acclaimed authors.
More reviews at Book Lust.
2shainz's review
3.0
Shaina's rating: ★ ★ ★ ½
I still find myself mulling over the macabre "Appendix," which is impressive considering it's one of the shortest pieces in the collection. I enjoyed "Their Son" for its depiction of the generational disconnect between parents and their children. Overall, a solid collection of short stories, though only a couple were major standouts for me.
I still find myself mulling over the macabre "Appendix," which is impressive considering it's one of the shortest pieces in the collection. I enjoyed "Their Son" for its depiction of the generational disconnect between parents and their children. Overall, a solid collection of short stories, though only a couple were major standouts for me.
holmesstorybooks's review
3.0
It took me a long time to read this book.
It took me a long time to read this book because this collection of short stories has parts that are so unimaginably cruel, I had to put it down. His characters are not just unkind, they are callous, cold-blooded and bestial.
Hua's writing is unflinchingly honest, wrought part with disaster, part satire and the darkest kind of humour I can imagine. Often, when authors are writing unlikeable characters, the reader can sometimes feel they're doing it to be edgy or because they can, but with Hua, it's something completely different all together.
When this author starts a short story, I have no idea if it will end well or in total chaos, and I probably won't know until the last paragraph, and that's something that I found really captivating about his writing. I would read a paragraph, my stomach would drop, I'd close the book in protest, only to open it up again.
Yu Hua writes stories of people in China, the peasants, the poor, the factory workers, the beaten women. He walks over them and makes characters beat each other until you're crying out for them to stop. Men and women wax poetics about their greatest achievements, but Yu Hua also writes them vomiting, hacking up phlegm, smoking, shitting and cursing their way through their lives.
While most of it's true, I have to ask myself, do I want to read stories like that? I think, as an author, it would be a challenge to write stories with few likeable characters, where happy endings rarely happen. All of the 'formulas' I've been taught for writing are thrown out the window and Yu Hua's characters just come to life.
Where are the characters you want to root for? They're there, sometimes. Or they're not.
I have to wonder, how many observations did Yu Hua make to write this collection? How many fierce and unlikeable moments did he witness? That's what it feels like, not a collection of fiction but a series of moments strung together to tell us who we really are.
I didn't like this collection, but I'm fascinated by his writing and am compelled to keep reading his work.
It took me a long time to read this book because this collection of short stories has parts that are so unimaginably cruel, I had to put it down. His characters are not just unkind, they are callous, cold-blooded and bestial.
Hua's writing is unflinchingly honest, wrought part with disaster, part satire and the darkest kind of humour I can imagine. Often, when authors are writing unlikeable characters, the reader can sometimes feel they're doing it to be edgy or because they can, but with Hua, it's something completely different all together.
When this author starts a short story, I have no idea if it will end well or in total chaos, and I probably won't know until the last paragraph, and that's something that I found really captivating about his writing. I would read a paragraph, my stomach would drop, I'd close the book in protest, only to open it up again.
Yu Hua writes stories of people in China, the peasants, the poor, the factory workers, the beaten women. He walks over them and makes characters beat each other until you're crying out for them to stop. Men and women wax poetics about their greatest achievements, but Yu Hua also writes them vomiting, hacking up phlegm, smoking, shitting and cursing their way through their lives.
While most of it's true, I have to ask myself, do I want to read stories like that? I think, as an author, it would be a challenge to write stories with few likeable characters, where happy endings rarely happen. All of the 'formulas' I've been taught for writing are thrown out the window and Yu Hua's characters just come to life.
Where are the characters you want to root for? They're there, sometimes. Or they're not.
I have to wonder, how many observations did Yu Hua make to write this collection? How many fierce and unlikeable moments did he witness? That's what it feels like, not a collection of fiction but a series of moments strung together to tell us who we really are.
I didn't like this collection, but I'm fascinated by his writing and am compelled to keep reading his work.
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