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A review by joellyn
Beijing, Beijing by Michelle Deeter, Feng Tang
1.0
I received this book via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.
After having tortured myself reading this, I have come to a conclusion that I don't understand a single message that the author is trying to convey. I cannot fathom out the purpose of writing this story as well.
This book consists of 300+ pages of Qiu Shui talking about everything during his twenties: his life as a medical student, his undecided future, his military life, his first love, his crush, his medical friends, sex, alcohol and all that shit which I don't care. It isn't to say that they're not interesting but I just don't give a damn about them since they're all coming from Qiu Shui, who is a character that I didn't relate to.
I found myself unbelieving this was the life that medical students in China led during the 1990s. Alcohol, women and sex were all they cared for. Seriously? Did people in China live like that in the past? Not only is Qiu Shui an unrelatable character, but his friends, his crush, almost everyone in the book felt unrealistic. It's difficult for me to believe that college/university students behaved as described in the book.
It took forever for me to finish this. Since it's mostly Qiu Shui rambling about stuffs, it usually gets really boring and slow. If it wasn't for my determination not to DNF a book, then I'd possibly have abandoned it. And yes, a lot of my time has been wasted on this particular book.
I think the writing style the original Chinese version have must be very unique and beautiful. Unfortunately, the translation didn't do much justice to that. There are some lines or poems only Chinese can understand well which English readers might not. It'll be better if this is read in its original language but the storyline isn't something I enjoy.
Despite the many glowing positive reviews I read in Chinese (apparently there IS a message conveyed in the story), I was not able to enjoy this. I'm sorry. No really, I'm sorry. It's just that this is too intelligent for my teenage mind to fully appreciate.
After having tortured myself reading this, I have come to a conclusion that I don't understand a single message that the author is trying to convey. I cannot fathom out the purpose of writing this story as well.
This book consists of 300+ pages of Qiu Shui talking about everything during his twenties: his life as a medical student, his undecided future, his military life, his first love, his crush, his medical friends, sex, alcohol and all that shit which I don't care. It isn't to say that they're not interesting but I just don't give a damn about them since they're all coming from Qiu Shui, who is a character that I didn't relate to.
I found myself unbelieving this was the life that medical students in China led during the 1990s. Alcohol, women and sex were all they cared for. Seriously? Did people in China live like that in the past? Not only is Qiu Shui an unrelatable character, but his friends, his crush, almost everyone in the book felt unrealistic. It's difficult for me to believe that college/university students behaved as described in the book.
It took forever for me to finish this. Since it's mostly Qiu Shui rambling about stuffs, it usually gets really boring and slow. If it wasn't for my determination not to DNF a book, then I'd possibly have abandoned it. And yes, a lot of my time has been wasted on this particular book.
I think the writing style the original Chinese version have must be very unique and beautiful. Unfortunately, the translation didn't do much justice to that. There are some lines or poems only Chinese can understand well which English readers might not. It'll be better if this is read in its original language but the storyline isn't something I enjoy.
Despite the many glowing positive reviews I read in Chinese (apparently there IS a message conveyed in the story), I was not able to enjoy this. I'm sorry. No really, I'm sorry. It's just that this is too intelligent for my teenage mind to fully appreciate.