A Few Suggested China Rhyming Christmas Reads….

Posted: December 17th, 2014 | 1 Comment »

And so it’s the Christmas reading selection again which, as usual, includes no books published by me or written by me and only ones that impressed. Not much of a year for non-fiction I thought as nothing grabbed me especially and there didn’t seem to be much for those of us who exist between the exalted academic tome and the perfunctory Stations of the Cross China book. Still, a few interesting fictional outings I thought….

Lawrence Osbourne’s The Ballad of a Small Player was without doubt the stand out novel of the year that dealt with a China theme…and the China reading/Sinology crowd almost entirely missed it!! An amazing portrait of contemporary Macao and the peculiarities of losing your wallet and your mind in this Chinese gambling mecca. Osbourne writes like a demon possessed and has an uncanny eye for the small stuff that elevates a novel to greatness…and he, unlike few other novelists these days, doesn’t suffer from verbal diarrhea, but rather keeps it tight, taut and concise. It’s been a while since we had a great novel about contemporary China by a non-Chinese – this is it – it may take a while before another comes along I fear.

Susan Barker’s The Incarnations was also an amazing piece of work combining deep research, great writing and genre-bending styles across the story of a Beijing cabbie and his previous lives through Chinese history. Like Osbourne, Barker hasn’t really had quite the level of attention she should have and there have been a few snide and stupid reviews that reflect poorly on the reviewers (OK – this one had some cheap shots) but hopefully this is a book that will build a fan base over the long term. I’m pretty convinced it’ll come to be seen as a great book in time as it grows on people and word spreads.

 

Edward Wilson’s The Whitehall Mandarin was a Le Carre-esque romp through the 1960s and 70s from British spies to the jungles of Vietnam – however, there’s a Chinese twist which makes this worth reading. Wilson is probably the best espionage writer pumping out great books at the moment and this is a good way in….

 

 

 

James Ellroy’s Perfidia was always going to be a must read as soon as it came out – it’s a wild and crazy romp from the noir master set on the eve and aftermath of Pearl Harbor with plenty on the fallout in LA Chinatown….

 

 

 

And, for those who thought it might appear, there will be no recommendation of Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North, despite the literary establishment fawning over it – Flanagan’s Japanese characters are straight out of a 1950s B movie, lack any nuance and are stereotypical. Very, very disappointing. Surely, long after we’ve shown many sides of the German war experience, we can do better representations of the Japanese and their various motivations and experiences – but reading Flanagan, it appears not! Mini-rant over. Merry Christmas.

 

 

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