I think it was Bill Denton who forwarded a post from another
net and the
person was upset. Anyway; somewhere in the message forwarded
was mention of
Wang Shuo. By chance I ran into the book today and thought I
would post the
blurbs; front and back for you enlightenment. The title of
the book is
PLAYING FOR THRILLS and the publisher is Penguin books. It's
a trade
paperback; priced at $12.95 U.S. Translator is Howard
Goldblatt; professor
at Univ. Of Colorado at Boulder.
; On the cover Stephen King (we know he's an expert on
hardboiled) is
quoted: "The most brilliantly entertaining hardboiled novel
of the
'90s...and maybe of the '80s; as well... Most ultimately
cool." (He
majored in lit crit; I see.)
; On the back Newsweek is quoted: "A tripped-out novel of
urban alienation
from "China's literary bad boy"; The main blurb: The narrator
of Wang Shuo's
disembodied; compelling; and ultimately explosive novel may
or may not have
committed a mysterious murder ten years earlier - even he
isn't sure. As
our charismatic antihero careens around the seamy underside
of Beijing; he
tries to find someone who can remind him which girl he was
with and what he
was doing at the time of the murder. Sometimes frightening;
sometimes
hilarious; always astonishing; PLAYING FOR THRILLS is totally
unlike
anything ever published in China.
; The New York Book Review: "Wang Shuo romanticizes young;
alienated rebels
in much the same way that Jack Kerouac did... He explores the
paradoxes and
absurdities of society; as Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut
do. Instead of
criticizing the Communists for being autocratic; he does what
is far more
devastating; he mocks them for being uncool."
; More Stephen King: "Call it China noir... If you can
imagine Raymond
Chandler crossed with Bruce Lee (or maybe Richard Brautigan
crossed with
John Woo; that gives you the flavor...but you have to
experience this is
order to really get it."
; I'll be interested to see what sort of comments it inspires
when
Rara-Avians get around to reading it. It certainly should be
different.
Cheers, Frank Denton
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