Book Buzz

WEI HUI

Shanghai describes  the self-obsession of the young modern Chinese. At times I found it difficult to visualize this being China. It seems more like LA or New York than what I thing about China. It gives readers a glimpse of what the young in Shanghai think about life today.

The story is semi-autobiographical, about a young writer’s love affairs with a Chinese and a German. She loves her Chinese boyfriend, but he is impotent. He is also a drug addict. She describes sexual frustration but when she meets a married German businessman  she finds herself having sex with him. The story centers on her obsession with both men and what they represent to her. The impotence of the Chinese and the virility of the German is an interesting juxtaposition.

It an interest new look at China but definitely not a must read.

MARGARET ATWOOD

Literary to the n’th degree. It is Margret Atwood after all. And her dry sense of humour shines through out. Witty in the extreme. Interestingly her musings on debt were published just before the financial crisis. The work was prepared for the Massy Lectures heard on CBC. The final section is a rewriting of Dicken’s A Christmas Carol. Her version has the spirits of Earth Days past, present and future. It is from far from the only funny part of the book but certainly the funniest. Some parts need skimming. Especially those of us less literary than Atwood.

MARGARET ATWOOD

one word: DISAPPOINTING. Much to my surprise and dismay. I love Atwood’s writing. What got me with this book is that it did not live up to it’s hype. The hype being that FLOOD starts off where Oryx and Crake left off. I kept waiting for that to happen. It does around page 350. Before that she is exploring the life of a couple of characters before the apocalypse. All very interesting. All superbly written. I am likely the only one in all of Canada who was left embittered by this novel. Be for warned. I wish I had been. I could have enjoyed it more.

MARGARET ATWOOD

Since Atwood’s newest novel starts where ORYX ends, I thought I would refreshen my mind by reading this excellent saga. Wow what a book. No punches held. Not post- apocalypse, this novel tackles the devastation from before and during as well as post. Snowman is the last human left alive after an engineered virus designed by Crake is dispatched to the populous.  Crake spared Snowman to take care of his new species: a humanoid creation made by splicing different DNA.

It is a dark look at our future. It reminds me of the song (first line ) I Can Ride My Bike with No Handlebars. Starts off as simple braging but graduates into a megalomaniac ready to destroy the world.

I can hardly wait to read The YEAR of the FLOOD.