Marrying Buddha - Wei Hui
Synopsis (from amazon):
Her second semi-autobiographical novel of desire and lust in a new city far from China... According to the author, Marrying Buddha is the continuation of her first novel Shanghai Baby, the international bestseller which was banned in China and catapulted her to fame and notoriety in the country of her birth. As in Shanghai Baby, the protagonist is Coco, a young successful female novelist who decides to leave Shanghai for New York. Coco embarks on the next leg of life's journey, a road that leads her through love, desire, and spiritual awakening. In Manhattan she meets Muju. Muju and Coco share a deep, intense passion, experimenting and exploring their desires at every available opportunity. But into this relationship enters glamorous, wealthy and impossibly urbane New Yorker Nick. And when as a result her relationship with Muju is threatened, Coco returns to China, to the tiny temple-studded island of Putu, the place of her birth. It is on Mount Putu where Coco finds some inner peace - but once back in Shanghai she is visited by both Muju and Nick and is once again caught up in the intensity and passion of the two relationships. After both men leave Coco discovers she is pregnant, but has no idea of whether it is Muju or Nick who is the father...
Other books suggested by HZ were: Never let me go, by Kazuo Ishiguro; Silk, by Alessandro Baricco; Ghostwritten by David Mitchell
We met on Tuesday, 11th July 1006 in Regents Park. Rating:AS:4.0, RB:4.0, CP:3.0, AM:1.5, ZH:5.0, BH:3.0, SB:n/a
AM: "...she [wei hui] has to explore her literature awakening rather than her sexual awakening"
posted by dragontree @ 9:04 pm
5 comments
5 Comments:
surpised..
definately marketted for women. i would never have picked this book up in a million years. In fact i was going to miss this one completely , what with me sunning on the italian riviera . ( this was compounded by the fact that i had just finished the bell jar by sylvia plath and didnt want to spoil the after glow (highly recomended (a ten ruth!!)
anyhow. got back to london. borrowed book from silke... (thanks, will give you when we meet next) and settled in to read.
well, read in a couple of hours, was pleasantly surprised. more readable than i though. would try and read her third novel ( if their is one) but still wont waste money on it!!
raing ( a very high ( maybe slightly dubious 4)
Well. After Han surprised us all with an erotic list of reading, book clubbers picked Wei hui's tale of sexual awakening....
It is readable, but then again so is the Metro on the tube when you need some brain fodder to distract you from the boredom of your journey.
The book is sluggish and for an emancipated Western woman it all sounds terribly deja vu. Indeed, this seems like Sex and the City for the Chinese woman.
For me, it seemed like the author never truly got into the book as the novel never flows and despite it being autobiographical it seems as though it was an effort to write.
If you are a Chinese woman living in China and not in one of the major cities, this novel may be daring and new.
I am not and so it comes across as childish and flippant to me, I give it a 3.5.
The evening was fab though with an unusual pick of the inner Circle cafe in Regents Park. Anjan got some delicious rose because Ruth had a rotten day, we slagged the book off, had a giggle at Anjan's story about rescuing a bird on a bus, ate a pizza. I love these book clubs!
Cris x
Guys I am jelous now! Not for not having read the book though! But I do miss our meetings. They're always fun despite the quality of the novel!
I am looking forward for the next choice! Don't leave me out! I have been thinking about it and decided that I should not influence the voting system since I am not able to find/get all the selected books. But I would like to be informed of your choices and contribute at a distance!
son xxx
Didn´t know you could time travel too (1006!!). Gosh! What am I missing out!
I agree with all the comments, unfortunately, the auther couldn't carry the spark from her first book (shanghai baby)into this one. enough has said about this book, but I do recommend her first book if any of you have time. Shanghai baby is still a bit deja vu for people live in the west, but with a sense of innocent and did show the frustration of chinese young generation in this confusing transformation period of old and new, east and west, good and bad....
Han
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