Review - China Mountain Zhang

[wilderthan]

The same friend as gave me Blankets insisted that I should read this. Another life-changing book, for him, a book that came at the right time. He told me that it wasn't like a lot of SF, that it didn't have some great big plot, that it was just about people getting on with their lives.

I didn't really get into it at first. The narrative voice feels strange to me, something I had to get used to. It almost felt like I was reading it in translation -- which would be appropriate enough, given the setting. The setting doesn't take long to figure out: the domination of the Chinese, the communism. It's all pretty easy to absorb, but at the same time I didn't get very into the novel or the characters. I kept reading more for my friend's sake, to try and see what he saw in it, than anything else.

I'm glad I did. It's not a "traditional" novel, I suppose, with the loosely intertwined stories, most of them without any real resolution, like life. I didn't find it life-changing and I don't really have that much to say about it. I didn't find it life-changing, but it was interesting enough to read once I got a little more interested. It's about ordinary people, despite the sci-fi backdrop.

Comments

[calliopepurple.livejournal.com]

As a random thought - are you taking suggestions for new books to read for this crazy project? I have one that came at an interesting time in my life, but I dunno what category you'd put it in, assuming you haven't read it before, because it's a history of Western philosophy mixed with an Alice in Wonderland type fantasy story.

[wilderthan.livejournal.com]

Ooh. That'd be interesting! I'm definitely taking suggestions.

[calliopepurple.livejournal.com]

It's Sophie's World, by Jostein Gaarder.

[wilderthan.livejournal.com]

That's funny, I just helped Joy put her copy of that on one of the shelves! Hee.

[calliopepurple.livejournal.com]

I'm up to my third copy of it because I keep letting people borrow it and they never return it.