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Wei Hui--Shanghai Baby

Things I liked:

Overall, the book was well-written. There was some excellent imagery and several artistic phrase-turnings. The characters were interesting, the plot hung together farely well for a semi-true-story, and I didn't get bored.

Things I didn't like:

Quotes and pop-references were a bit overused. The author sounded like she had something to prove.

The book doesn't work out of its cultural context. To the Chinese, it may indeed be revolutionary and groundbreaking. To me, it's just a story about a bunch of selfish, immature beatniks of the type that are a dime a dozen in America. Hui doesn't provide us with a strong characterization of the older generation (unlike, for example, Amy Tan), so we're forced to judge the new generation on its own. And my judgement, I'm afraid, isn't very positive.

I couldn't relate to anybody in the story. I didn't like any of them, but I didn't even hate any of them. Frankly, I didn't care about them, and that's a fatal problem.

Sex was overused. The only real purpose it served, I suppose, is to illustrate the decadence of the characters. Which, okay, was a valid purpose, but it didn't say anything interesting or new. "Not saying anything interesting or new" was my main complaint against the book.

It felt like I was reading the diary of a person I couldn't particularly relate to; I'm extremely hesitant to judge them personally, but if I don't then there's not much left in the book. There's no deep philosophy or challenging ideas.

All that said, I did manage to read the book straight through in one night, and my standards are high. I thought it was worthwhile having read it, if only because it gives me a small glimpse into the minds of young Chinese. So I found out they're just like young Americans... but hey, I wouldn't have known that otherwise.

Rating: 2.5/5