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This is a book about the morally upstanding people of Five Spice Street and their unhealthy obsession with "Madame X. I will never know. Thus we have a parody of the Chairman Mao era of community meetings, re-education and self-criticism. Was it just me? The novel, for me, also hinted at satire. I happen to love it.
If someone at Yale UP reads this, please try to edit this novel and reprint it! The author deserves it. Aug 13, Brendan rated it really liked it. Five Spice Street is a pretty polarizing piece of literature; people either love it, or love to hate it. I happen to love it. The book chronicles the rise, imminent fall, and slight resurgence of Madame X as an object of curiosity, astonishment and resentment by the denizens of Five Spice Street. Though Five Spice Street goes on for three miles, it seems that, strangely enough, all of Madame X's neighbors equally share the same vantage point into her wild and slightly hedonistic ways.
X's neighb Five Spice Street is a pretty polarizing piece of literature; people either love it, or love to hate it.
X's neighbors ponder her peculiarities her age, her origins, her activities, her sexual life to the point of obsession, effectively yet unintentionally shifting their quotidian as to make X the centerpiece of all communal activity. Through the novel's disregard of space, time and logic, Five Spice Street pulls the reader into a whirlwind conglomeration of dark humor and self-constructed chaos.
Xue's humor and wit sugar coat this critical commentary on post-Mao Chinese society, making this a book with a little something for every kind of reader. Jan 29, Janalyn Guo rated it it was amazing Shelves: before I actually didn't put it down for days Dec 06, Hubert rated it really liked it Recommends it for: those interested in Chinese postmodern fiction. Shelves: asian-interest , international-writers-book-club , humor. A most curious text - There is very little in terms of plot: a group of neighbors who live on Five Spice Street gossip about an affair that takes place between a certain Ms.
X and Mr. The writer takes a quizzical postmodern approach to characterization, observing the actions of the subjects through the lens of the neighbors, but after reading for a while, we get the sense that none of the characters, including the writer, are reliable. The text might also serve as a commentary on post-Cultural A most curious text - There is very little in terms of plot: a group of neighbors who live on Five Spice Street gossip about an affair that takes place between a certain Ms.
The text might also serve as a commentary on post-Cultural Rev. The writer does a good job of creating the sense of claustrophobia amongst the various characters who live on this Street. The novel, for me, also hinted at satire.
The work could be edited - probably doesn't need to be as long and dense as it presently stands. Some other posters have commented on weaknesses in the translation, but I can't speak to that. View 1 comment. Mar 28, Ferris added it. I read a third of this book. I loved a quarter of this book.
Then it fizzled, and in a rare fit of frustration, primarily with the author, secondarily with myself, put it down and did not finish two thirds of this book. It started out with such surreal, humorous, profound promise! Was it just me? I will never know. A mystery forever unsolved. Perhaps the Eighth Wonder of the World? Not that important in the big scheme of life Can Xue captured the minutiae of l I read a third of this book.
Can Xue captured the minutiae of life on one street in a neighborhood of the most human humans you could possibly meet, with the introduction of the dread Thus begins the romp of absurd, wonderful gossip, speculation, assumptions, wild postulations.
Oh well. Feb 12, Chris rated it liked it Shelves: x1f It was disgraceful. I loathe mediocrity. Mocked every single soul on the entire human planet. But I prefer imbuing such a farce with at least the beauty of Chinese language unless she also intend to mock the linguistic tool mastered by her? The narration was not so much a put-off that I can admire or rather endured this avant-garde style defying the literary world, civilized society, and intellectual mind.
Sep 30, Christina rated it it was ok. It might have been a good book, I just couldn't get into it. Didn't care about Madame X after a while. Apr 13, Nabil rated it liked it Shelves: fiction , translation. The mysterious Madam X! How old is she really? This avant-garde novel is stitched together from the collective consciousness of the residents of Five Spice Street and their suppositions about Madam X. What is she up to?
What could she be doing at night with all those mirrors? Are there occult practices at work or is she just playing mind games? I was greatly impressed with Xue's ability to make me feel like a village gossip. As the villagers of Five Spice Street investigate the doings of Madam X, the reveal more about themselves, and call into question their own ideas about gender relations, sex, and politics.
Xue's style is decidedly eccentric. As her narrator explains in the book itself, "We couldn't objectively narrate this in a routine way: Traditional styles wouldn't work; we had to innovate. Mar 02, Moira Downey rated it it was ok. I clearly missed the majority of this, and it's hard to say whether this was because something was lost in the prose translation or the cultural translation or a mix of both!
There are hints of a Lynch-ian exploration into the uncanny underside of society and the polite collective, but there's also just not very much that It's a lot of words that describe nothing happening, though. School bags Pencil Cases Globes. Binders Document folders.
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Frontier Author Can Xue. Dialogues in Paradise Author Can Xue. Sounds great, right? There are currently more than seven dozen books in the series, with more forthcoming. We have some recommendations of our favorites for you to browse. In addition to being an associate professor at New York University, Antoon is an Iraqi novelist who translated his novel from the original Arabic into English.