To make up in part for the interruption of posts, I'm going to send
over a couple pieces that I wrote or partially-wrote in the last
couple months and for some reason didn't get put online. It certainly
wasn't quality control, because there's none of that here. This post
is from the very beginning of the semester, right after I finished my
Trans-Siberian jaunt. It's a reading list from the trip, with small
blurbs about each piece. After finishing it, it seemed a bit
superfluous, but considering this a Web site that frequently discusses
chicken wings, I don't think it's too out of place.
BEIJING - With classes starting, it's time to stop pretending that I'm
still travelling and on vacation and start spending some serious time
with those Chinese textbooks. As a way of tying up the trip, I wanted
to run down the books I've been reading in the last few weeks, when
I've been freed from the turgid pages of the "New Classical Chinese
Reader," and had dozen of hours to kill on trains, bus and disco-vans.
1. "A House for Mr. Biswas," by V.S. Niapaul
Acquired: Albany Barnes & Noble
Current Location: Sweet Arbat Hostel, Moscow
When I offered to trade this for someone else's book in Moscow, I
described it as the story of an unsuccessful man, controlled by a
dominering family, as he fails to make a life for himself over four
decades. Those may be the basic plot outlines, but it misses the
spirit of the novel, which is witty, quick and sometimes
laugh-out-loud funny. I couldn't convince the person to take the book,
but hopefully some other travel with find it next to the computer.
2. "The Emperor," Ryszard Kapuscinski
Acquired: Local Bookstore, Warsaw
Current Location: Gave to Caleb in Ulaanbaatar, presumably in Hohhot, China.
Kapuscinski died a couple days before I arrived in Warsaw. Touring the
city with a friend, Dorota, I saw obituarities and tributes posted
outside Warsaw University's Journalism Department. Dorota recommended
this title, about the fall of the last Ethopian emporer.
3. "The Innocence of Loss," by Kirian Desai
Acquired: From my sister, although I gave to her for Christmas. I
bought it Park Slope, Brooklyn.
Current Location:
I heard about this book on a NPR round-up of Booker Mann Prize
Finalists. "The Inheritance of Loss" won the award, and I grabbed in
an excellent New York bookstore. My sister read it quickly, and the
book was free for me to take on the trip.
4. "I Didn't Do It for You,"
Acquired: Barnes and Nobes in Albany.
Current Location: Leo Hostel, Beijing
I got this one because of the subtitle: "How the World Betrayed a
Small African Nation." This account of Eritera from colonialism to
independence suffered from hackeneyed writing and the author's hatred
for Ethiopia. The author finds much to admire in Eritera's rebels, but
fails to mesh that wtih a hatred to current, authoritarian regime.
Probably the lest favorite of the books I read on the trip.
5. "Collected Short Stories, Vol. 3" J. Somerset Magnum
Acquired: From Caleb in Ulaanbaatar.
Current Location: Leo Hostel, Beijing.
Caleb gave this to me as we headed out on our tour of the Mongolian
countryside. I read at night in our gers, before turning off the solar
powered electric light. These are stories about a spy during World War
I, but what's notable is how little "spying" is actually invovled.
Instead these are about characters met and lives described, in full,
well constructed prose. I'd like to read Volume 2 if I can find it,
which features stories set in Malaysia.
6. "The Old Man & The Sea," Ernest Hemmingway
Acquired: English bookshop, Ulaanbaatar.
Current Location: On my shelf. The novella is paired with "The Green
Hills of Africa," which I plan to read later.
Somehow I found the struggle of the Santiago and the massive fish
relavent to the peasants I saw out the sleeper bus window on the way
from the Chinese border to Beijing. Both seemed
7. "Kim," by Rudyard Kipling
Acquired: Borders in Albany.
Current Location: On my shelf. I'm planning to bring it to Leo Hostel
and exchange it for another book soon.
Paul Theroux mentions this book quite a bit in his writing, and
Borders sells a cheap classic edition with helpful footnotes. This is
a wonderful book about a boy drawn to a monastic life and that of a
spy. That the spy ultimately wins out isn't presented as a triumph,
but the result of tough realpolitik decisions.
8. "A Dark-Adapted Eye," by Barbara Vine
Acquired: Leo Hostel in Beijing
Current Location: My desk. I'm reading this when I get bored with
Chinese dialogues.
Leo Hostel had a book swap, the first swap I've seen since New York. I
thought I'd score several sweet books, but this was the only one of
remote interest. The book said it was free with "Country Living"
magazine, and if so, I'd like a subscription. A crime book where the
mystery isn't mentioned until the last 10 pages, and the killer is
known from the first page. Vine reinvents the genre by breaking the
traditional whodunnit rules and focusing exclusively on the
characters.
