... Reed Andrus
Phoenix, AZ (rising)
Frank D wrote:
>=20
> Hi; Gang;
>=20
> I think it was Bill Denton who forwarded a post from
another net and t=
he
> person was upset. Anyway; somewhere in the message
forwarded was menti=
on of
> Wang Shuo. By chance I ran into the book today and
thought I would pos=
t 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; profe=
ssor
> at Univ. Of Colorado at Boulder.
>=20
> ; On the cover Stephen King (we know he's an expert
on hardboiled) is
> quoted: "The most brilliantly entertaining hardboiled
novel of the
> =9190s...and maybe of the =9180s; as well... Most
ultimately cool." (=
He
> majored in lit crit; I see.)
>=20
> ; On the back Newsweek is quoted: "A tripped-out
novel of urban alienat=
ion
> from "China's literary bad boy"; The main blurb: The
narrator of Wang S=
huo's
> disembodied; compelling; and ultimately explosive
novel may or may not =
have
> committed a mysterious murder ten years earlier =97
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 wha=
t 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.
>=20
> ; The New York Book Review: "Wang Shuo romanticizes
young; alienated re=
bels
> in much the same way that Jack Kerouac did... He
explores the paradoxe=
s and
> absurdities of society; as Joseph Heller and Kurt
Vonnegut do. Instead=
of
> criticizing the Communists for being autocratic; he
does what is far mo=
re
> devastating; he mocks them for being
uncool."
>=20
> ; More Stephen King: "Call it China noir... If you
can imagine Raymond
> Chandler crossed with Bruce Lee (or maybe Richard
Brautigan crossed wit=
h
> John Woo; that gives you the flavor...but you have to
experience this i=
s
> order to really get it."
>=20
> ; 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.
>=20
> Cheers, Frank Denton
>=20
> #
> # To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to
majordomo@icomm.ca.
> # The web pages for the list are at http://www.vex.net/~buff/rara-avis/.
#
# To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to
majordomo@icomm.ca.
# The web pages for the list are at http://www.vex.net/~buff/rara-avis/.