Notable Books

Nothing new for me to review lately, since I've mostly been buried in end-of-term work. However, the New York Times did put out its list of the year's 100 most notable books.

Though two which would make my list too are Arthur and George, by Julian Barnes, and Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays, by David Foster Wallace.

the Chairman would not be amused...

Ok. Repeat after me.

"I am very glad I never lived in China during the Cultural Revolution. I am especially glad I was never an uneducated Chinese soldier during the 1970's hoping the Russians were not on the verge of attacking."

Got that? Good.

Because if you didn't get it, you will after reading Ha Jin.

I really recommend reading Ha Jin as being able to capture the bloody unfairness of life under a huge monolithic bureaucracy, where people live under the constant threat of being labelled as "counterrevolutionaries". Because there are Rules. Rules which aren't always clearly defined, but which can't be violated. You get a picture of an incredible perverse culture, where people live afraid of being denouced by others as being bourgeois liberals, even though it's not always clear what is necessary to be a True Revolutionary. What really makes the unfairness stick out, though, is that it's almost never explicitly discussed. There's just a big ugly Way Things Are in the background of the entire book.

Ocean of Words is technically a set of war stories, but there's almost no physical fighting that goes on. They're really stories about barely literate Chinese soldiers trying to navigate a world with rather complex norms, while at the same time preparing for an enemy who may or may not attack. There's just so much uncertainty, it's painful. And yet somehow they go on.

Also in the same vein is his more recent novel War Trash, which is a lot grimmer and harder to read than Oceans of Words, which at least leaves you with hope that some of these young soldiers will go on to lead somewhat decent lives. War Trash takes place, for the most part, among Chinese prisoners in Korean POW camps, and you just can't expect any sunshine or fluffy kittens out of that. (Unless, of course, the sunshine is burning your vulnerable flesh as you trek through the desert with no water, and the kittens are actually sabre-toothed tiger kittens who are preparing to tear you limb from limb.)

And the moral is...

Ugly fish is an excellent, if totally amoral, picture book. Ugly fish starts off as king of his tank, and every time a new fishy little friend joins him, he shows off his lovely abode before eating the unfortunate tankmate. Well, once all the friends are eaten, Ugly Fish comes to realize that he is lonely. Perhaps eating all those other fish was a poor idea. Think you smell a moral? Yes, so did I. I could not have been more mistaken.

Ugly Fish is pleased when a new tankmate, Shiny Fish, joins him. He proudly shows off his tank to the much larger Shiny Fish, who likes the tank just fine, thanks, and polishes off Ugly fish in short order. The end.

What, you say? What about character development, learning from mistakes? Couldn't Ugly Fish have found a non-violent solution, and seen the error of his ways? What will this book teach our children? The answer, my friends, is absolutely nothing. They will learn not to make mistakes at all, and go to bed haunted by nightmares of Shiny Fish eating them up because they were mean to the kid sitting next to them in kindergarten. You, however, will be howling with laughter on the floor, which is a very good reason to read this picturebook.