Review - China Mountain Zhang
Jul. 20th, 2009 06:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wilderthanThe 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.
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.
