Notes of a Desolate Man
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.28 (758 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0231116098 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 184 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-02-24 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Li-chun Lin's masterful translation brings Chu T'ien-wen's lyrical and inventive pastiche of political, poetic, and sexual desire to the English-speaking world.. Winner of the coveted China Times Novel Prize, this postmodern, first-person tale of a contemporary Taiwanese gay man reflecting on his life, loves, and intellectual influences is among the most important recent novels in Taiwan.The narrator, Xiao Shao, recollects a series of friends and lovers, as he watches his childhood friend, Ah Yao, succumb to complications from AIDS. His feverish journey through forests of metaphor and allusionfrom Fellini
Grady Harp said Moments with a kaleidoscope. Warning: Do not attempt to consume this little novel in a short period of time! Contrary to the small physical size of this book this is not a brief story. Rather, it is a wondrous little tome that blends Eastern vantage and culture with Western philosophy and becomes a multifacted gem reflecting on life, death, love, passion, and sex. I am reminded of my wonder that MEMOIRS O. Remarkable This is the story of a Taiwanese gay man dealing with the death of his best friend from AIDS. His reflections on culture, literature, and life in Taiwan are fascinating. I was reminded of Rabih Alameddine's "Koolaids" at times. In some of the passages, the writing is rough and dull, and I'm not sure whether that's the translation or the original. Overall it's an intriguing voi. one of the best novels in modern Taiwan literature A Customer This novel is one of the most excellent novels in contemporary Taiwan literature. Aesthetically complicated and appealing, it attracts countless readers in Taiwan, gay or not. Please read this book attentively, since this author is a well-known stylist, who knows to play with nuances. This novel is also hotly discussed among the lesbigay activists in Taiwan.
A 1994 winner of the China Times Novel Prize, this dense, intelligent, deliberately paced novel is no less insightful for having been written not by a gay man, but by a woman: an author of 15 previous books and one of Taiwan's leading intellectuals. Her convincing account of Xiao's inner life is a testament to the powers of the creative imagination to transcend difference. T'ien-Wen's narrative intercuts his reflections on the nature of desire with ruminations on culture both high and low--from Fellini and Goethe to Michael Jackson and Barbra Streisand. "I am a sick man I am a spiteful man," cries the narrator of Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Underground. His close childhood friend has recently succumbed to AIDS, and while he remains "unbelievably, amazingly" free from infection, Ah Yao's death has sent him spiraling into depression. The narrator of Chu Tien-Wen's Notes of a Desolate Man might amend that to "I am not a sick man but I am by no means well." Xiao Sh