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A review by ashleylm
Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee (Dee Goong An) by
5.0
So close to perfect. A few chapters felt long/unnecessary, and the torture is a bit much for me (Judge Dee subscribes to the Jack Bauer 24 school of interrogation techniques).
But wow. This is apparently a faithful translation of an 18th century text, and it reads very, very modern to me. The pacing, the ratio of description to dialogue, etc. are so modern it could have been written yesterday, let alone 1949 (when the translation was made) let alone the 18th Century.
I wondered if it were a hoax, but this seems to be legitimate, and there's a lengthy author's afterword (well worth listening to (sorry, I was using Audible) or reading) about how Chinese detective stories are likely to disappoint Western audiences, and why this particular one had the right characteristics to make it work. So it's sort of like the anthropic principle: if the book didn't seem modern and worth reading for Westerners, it wouldn't exist in a form Westerners could read.
I was pleased to see that the torture (which seems awfully gratuitous) and execution (graphic, disturbing) were required elements in Chinese law and stories about them, it wasn't van Gulik's attempt to appeal to prurient interests. Other than that, it's almost a cosy read, really.
There is a bit less actually detection than one might want (in terms of the classic "analyze clues, gather suspects in room, reveal murderer!" approach), but it's certainly enough to qualify as a mystery novel. I'd read some of his follow-ups (written himself, based on the character) as a child, but never the original. Well-pleased I did!
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!
But wow. This is apparently a faithful translation of an 18th century text, and it reads very, very modern to me. The pacing, the ratio of description to dialogue, etc. are so modern it could have been written yesterday, let alone 1949 (when the translation was made) let alone the 18th Century.
I wondered if it were a hoax, but this seems to be legitimate, and there's a lengthy author's afterword (well worth listening to (sorry, I was using Audible) or reading) about how Chinese detective stories are likely to disappoint Western audiences, and why this particular one had the right characteristics to make it work. So it's sort of like the anthropic principle: if the book didn't seem modern and worth reading for Westerners, it wouldn't exist in a form Westerners could read.
I was pleased to see that the torture (which seems awfully gratuitous) and execution (graphic, disturbing) were required elements in Chinese law and stories about them, it wasn't van Gulik's attempt to appeal to prurient interests. Other than that, it's almost a cosy read, really.
There is a bit less actually detection than one might want (in terms of the classic "analyze clues, gather suspects in room, reveal murderer!" approach), but it's certainly enough to qualify as a mystery novel. I'd read some of his follow-ups (written himself, based on the character) as a child, but never the original. Well-pleased I did!
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!