Posts tagged novel

I read a review about this book a long time ago. The reviewer said the title aptly describes the book’s plot, which was described as boring and slow. 

I gotta say, this book kept me turning pages. I was at the Beijing’s Bookworm waiting for a friend when I flipped through few pages. I was hooked, and went home and bought the book on kindle. The prose is simple, clear and easy to read—not at all pretentious like some other “literary” books. 

Although I think the Part 2 of the book seems to be dragging on a bit. There are several chapters that the author seems to be escalating the stakes, only to seem to flatten out at end of each chapter. (Spoiler alert: when a high party official took a slight interest in Manna, it would make more interesting plot if he, instead of dropping his interest, followed through, and made things more difficult for Manna and Lin Kong.)

Overall, I liked the book, for it is not like most other Asian American books that creates this neo-orientalism exotic Asian world filled with characters like “Spring Flower” and “Summer Lotus.” The events portrayed seemed very realistic.