Cover Photograph: Hansel Mieth (Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)
BOOKS READ 18: LOVE IN A FALLEN CITY BY EILEEN CHANG
Once my dad and I were talking about the film, “Lust, Caution”. I told him I really enjoyed it and he said that the book that it is based on, the author was one of those weird Chinese ladies who holes themselves up in some obscure place and at the height of her fame, shuns everyone and was slightly crazy.
I imagined her to be this short woman with big bug-eyed dark sunglasses and tacky clothes, garish lipstick and smoked all the time and never ate and when she spoke, would be totally incoherent.
She seemed cool.
Weird.
I liked that.
I was in a used book store and had spotted this book because of the design. The new designs for the Penguin Modern Classics absolutely kill, such good image choices and the title and author set in big type looks so good. I started looking for books with these designs, and this is the first one I’ve purchased so far.
I really enjoyed this book. It’s a bunch of short stories and they are set in Shanghai and Hong Kong pre and during World War II, when the Chinese were making that transition to becoming more Westernized. It is classy, cool, and so cheesy. That was the thing that I loved about the stories in this book, so melodramatic, cheesy (the Chinese really tend to do this, and to this day, still do), but it’s done with such seriousness, respect, and with that typical Chinese deep love for honor, that I couldn’t help but totally enjoy it.
Plus all of the stories’ main theme is love.
And it’s totally unabashed about it, the build-up, the excitement, the heartbreak, the regrets.
There was one story that I couldn’t get through though, The Golden Cangue (and what by the way, is a Cangue?) and funnily enough it was the only one that the author had translated herself into English. It reminded of me whenever I was in Asia and I’d be flipping through the channels on TV and then I’d be at a channel with a Chinese drama set in whatever dynasty and I’d instantly go, “Bleh, boring” and go to the next channel. There was too much, first sister, second sister, fifth brother, sixth brother’s mother in-law drama going on, and being basically white, my mind just shut off because it was hard to keep all the characters straight. Plus the story didn’t have as much of the bitterness and depth of the other stories, and I think it is one of the author’s earlier work, so I don’t think I am missing much.
If I am, you can tell me all about it.
