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A review by michelag
Love in a Fallen City by Eileen Chang
4.0
I can't say I often read works in translation, and this is a moment where I really wish I was fluent enough to read the original with any kind of ease. The prose was so evocative as is, but I'm sure I'm missing out on something in how landscapes and faces and emotions are all described with such a specific flair. Metaphors are rich with history and the smaller details of life, love is fiery and detached all at once; it made me think how baffling we are as beings.
I started with the eponymous Love in a Fallen City (倾城之恋), then went back to read Aloeswood Incense (沉香屑), and I think those two are my favorite. Finding a good match was certainly a theme in these short stories, as well as a tension between 'tradition' and 'modernity' (loaded as these terms are) that I think Zhang was keenly aware of in her own life regarding her mother and father. No death of the author here...
I started with the eponymous Love in a Fallen City (倾城之恋), then went back to read Aloeswood Incense (沉香屑), and I think those two are my favorite. Finding a good match was certainly a theme in these short stories, as well as a tension between 'tradition' and 'modernity' (loaded as these terms are) that I think Zhang was keenly aware of in her own life regarding her mother and father. No death of the author here...