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I Am China
In a flat above a noisy north London market, translator Iona Kirkpatrick starts work on a Chinese letter: "Dearest Mu, The sun is piercing, old bastard sky. I am feeling empty and bare. Nothing is in my soul, apart from the image of you. I am writing to you from a place I cannot tell you about yet…"
In a detention centre in Dover exiled Chinese musician Jian is awaiting an unknown fate. In Beijing his girlfriend Mu sends desperate letters to London to track him down, her last memory of them together a roaring rock concert and Jian the king on stage. Until the state police stormed in.
As Iona unravels the story of these Chinese lovers from their first flirtations at Beijing University to Jian’s march in the Jasmine Revolution, Jian and Mu seem to be travelling further and further away from each other while Iona feels more and more alive. Intoxicated by their romance, Iona sets out to bring them back together, but time seems to be running out.
In a detention centre in Dover exiled Chinese musician Jian is awaiting an unknown fate. In Beijing his girlfriend Mu sends desperate letters to London to track him down, her last memory of them together a roaring rock concert and Jian the king on stage. Until the state police stormed in.
As Iona unravels the story of these Chinese lovers from their first flirtations at Beijing University to Jian’s march in the Jasmine Revolution, Jian and Mu seem to be travelling further and further away from each other while Iona feels more and more alive. Intoxicated by their romance, Iona sets out to bring them back together, but time seems to be running out.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published June 5, 2014
About the author
Xiaolu Guo
36 books508 followersXiaolu Guo (Simplified Chinese: 郭小櫓 pinyin:guō xiǎo lǔ, born 1973) is a Chinese novelist and filmmaker. She utilizes various media, including film and writing, to tell stories of alienation, introspection and tragedy, and to explore China's past, present and future in an increasingly connected world.
Her novel A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary For Lovers was nominated for the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction. She was also the 2005 Pearl Award (UK) winner for Creative Excellence.
Her novel A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary For Lovers was nominated for the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction. She was also the 2005 Pearl Award (UK) winner for Creative Excellence.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 190 reviews
July 28, 2015
Seldom do I rue the absence of the solidity of a paperback I can clutch to my chest out of an overwhelming love, memorize the feel of its pages against my fingertips. My priorities lie in knowing what I do not, the means to the end irrelevant in this instance. The advent of the e-reader has negated the problem of the steadily shrinking space on the book shelf and helped me horde books without a care. And yet sometimes a kindle copy just isn't enough. The last time I had felt this familiar pang of kinship with a book right after turning over the last page was when Adichie left me feeling the weight of Biafra's senseless wartime violence (Half of a Yellow Sun). I procured a physical copy right after.
I will do the same with this one too. Because imperfectly characterized and contrived as it is, this is the story I would want to associate modern China with. This is a book I would want to read again someday.
All the cacophony around censorship and forgotten square massacres and totalitarianism aside, Xiaolu Guo's globe-trotting, no doubt most ambitious work till date tries to reclaim the dignity of the individual from the clutches of state ownership - a theme I have been desperately seeking out in my pick of literature from the land with less than satisfactory results.
So far what I have gleaned from the works of writers from the mainland is mostly an overarching sense of dejection and bitterness - a gloomy preoccupation with rubbing old wounds raw.
But unlike the defeated, anguished voices of other contemporary Chinese authors, Guo's brims over with a valiant hope. Her Mu and Jian face the consequences of their political beliefs with an understated courage, hop across geographical boundaries to embrace the challenges of a hitherto unknown world outside their beloved China, even if to find themselves thwarted at various junctures. Driven out of their homeland by forces beyond their control and comprehension, they plunge headfirst into individual journeys of self realization, only their letters to each other tethering them to their shared reality in Beijing. And yet the same restlessness of being, the same grim disillusionment and feeble optimism color their evolving worldviews as they grapple with both hostility and acceptance in the humdrum heart of Europe and America. Experiences dismantle their prejudices about the west and the reckless abandon of youth gradually gives way to true wisdom. While Mu comes to acknowledge the purpose in Jian's subversive punk rock concerts in Beijing and his revolutionary zeal, Jian discovers merit in Mu's pacifist stance, her unrestrained love of life, art and literature.
As a lonely, unsociable Scottish translator unspools the many different threads of their past and present from a collection of letters and journal entries in her London flat, Mu and Jian's discordant voices harmonize in pitch and intensity across the barriers of time and space to meld into a symphony of human triumph. Their unbridled zest for life and liberty comes to symbolize the individual's quest for emancipation, to disentangle oneself from the myth of a national identity. Time, place and circumstances recede into the background. History's tenacious grip loosens. Mu and Jian's enduring love for one another finds its truest expression in the dream of a new China - one freed from the shadow of oppression.
May this very dream survive.
I will do the same with this one too. Because imperfectly characterized and contrived as it is, this is the story I would want to associate modern China with. This is a book I would want to read again someday.
All the cacophony around censorship and forgotten square massacres and totalitarianism aside, Xiaolu Guo's globe-trotting, no doubt most ambitious work till date tries to reclaim the dignity of the individual from the clutches of state ownership - a theme I have been desperately seeking out in my pick of literature from the land with less than satisfactory results.
So far what I have gleaned from the works of writers from the mainland is mostly an overarching sense of dejection and bitterness - a gloomy preoccupation with rubbing old wounds raw.
Outside the bar, the midnight sky was lit by a vast cascade of fireworks, illuminating the solemn and dark Long Peace Avenue, the featureless Heavenly Gate Park, the foreboding Forbidden City, the drumming Bell Tower, and finally creating a fake light of day in Tiananmen Square. A new century of amnesia had arrived on China's earth.
But unlike the defeated, anguished voices of other contemporary Chinese authors, Guo's brims over with a valiant hope. Her Mu and Jian face the consequences of their political beliefs with an understated courage, hop across geographical boundaries to embrace the challenges of a hitherto unknown world outside their beloved China, even if to find themselves thwarted at various junctures. Driven out of their homeland by forces beyond their control and comprehension, they plunge headfirst into individual journeys of self realization, only their letters to each other tethering them to their shared reality in Beijing. And yet the same restlessness of being, the same grim disillusionment and feeble optimism color their evolving worldviews as they grapple with both hostility and acceptance in the humdrum heart of Europe and America. Experiences dismantle their prejudices about the west and the reckless abandon of youth gradually gives way to true wisdom. While Mu comes to acknowledge the purpose in Jian's subversive punk rock concerts in Beijing and his revolutionary zeal, Jian discovers merit in Mu's pacifist stance, her unrestrained love of life, art and literature.
Art is the politics of perpetual revolution. Art is the purest revolution, and so the purest political form there is. A great artist is a great revolutionary.
Revolution = art, and art = perfect freedom. Right now, we have no revolution, no real art and no freedom.
As a lonely, unsociable Scottish translator unspools the many different threads of their past and present from a collection of letters and journal entries in her London flat, Mu and Jian's discordant voices harmonize in pitch and intensity across the barriers of time and space to meld into a symphony of human triumph. Their unbridled zest for life and liberty comes to symbolize the individual's quest for emancipation, to disentangle oneself from the myth of a national identity. Time, place and circumstances recede into the background. History's tenacious grip loosens. Mu and Jian's enduring love for one another finds its truest expression in the dream of a new China - one freed from the shadow of oppression.
I am China. We are China. The people. Not the state.
May this very dream survive.
December 18, 2019
2 "a tad ridiculous, a bit pretentious, really tried to like it...." stars !!
Gosh, this book tried to do so much and achieved very little.
By all means this book coulda and shoulda have been a winner but it failed on so many counts.
It had so many themes that I love in fiction- alienation, romantic love, family history, politics, attempts at cross cultural understanding, myths, dreams etc etc etc. All these ingredients were there and so many more. She kept adding to this International stew- Mongol, Chinese, British, French, American, Greek and in the end all these spices were not blended in a tasty syncretic way but in a way that was just simply yukky.
Is the author intelligent and clever? Of course she is and she shamelessly shows this off but not to good effect. The writing has a few moments of splendor but it is so emotionally empty, unbelievable and somewhat pretentious and ridiculous.
The author writes something prophetic in the book which is the main problem I had with this book.
"I seem to be failing here. I spend my day grappling with the real people, trying to get them to come out. But I feel like I'm not making contact with them. Its like despite all my efforts to make them speak, the remain silent. Or won't speak to me. What can I do? What am I doing? What's the point without that connection?"
This summarizes my experience of this book. Answer those questions Ms. Guo. Please I know you can do so much better.
I can see literati eating this book up but mostly I could not stomach it and keep it down.
Gosh, this book tried to do so much and achieved very little.
By all means this book coulda and shoulda have been a winner but it failed on so many counts.
It had so many themes that I love in fiction- alienation, romantic love, family history, politics, attempts at cross cultural understanding, myths, dreams etc etc etc. All these ingredients were there and so many more. She kept adding to this International stew- Mongol, Chinese, British, French, American, Greek and in the end all these spices were not blended in a tasty syncretic way but in a way that was just simply yukky.
Is the author intelligent and clever? Of course she is and she shamelessly shows this off but not to good effect. The writing has a few moments of splendor but it is so emotionally empty, unbelievable and somewhat pretentious and ridiculous.
The author writes something prophetic in the book which is the main problem I had with this book.
"I seem to be failing here. I spend my day grappling with the real people, trying to get them to come out. But I feel like I'm not making contact with them. Its like despite all my efforts to make them speak, the remain silent. Or won't speak to me. What can I do? What am I doing? What's the point without that connection?"
This summarizes my experience of this book. Answer those questions Ms. Guo. Please I know you can do so much better.
I can see literati eating this book up but mostly I could not stomach it and keep it down.
May 11, 2020
While at first I appreciated what the author was doing with the format of this book, I believe that in the end, this is what made me enjoy the book less and less. I found Iona’s character to be rather cold and uninteresting from the beginning, and my detachment from her grew as the story progressed and her sections became more and more boring and depressing.
I think I would have enjoyed this more if Mu’s and Jian’s story had been told in a more traditional form and with more continuity and background information instead of through a mix of translated letters and diary entries broken up by the experience and thoughts of their translator.
It may have been the wrong time for me to read this book but I couldn’t feel for any of these characters, instead of drawing me in, their fragmented stories became less and less interesting to me as the book progressed.
I think I would have enjoyed this more if Mu’s and Jian’s story had been told in a more traditional form and with more continuity and background information instead of through a mix of translated letters and diary entries broken up by the experience and thoughts of their translator.
It may have been the wrong time for me to read this book but I couldn’t feel for any of these characters, instead of drawing me in, their fragmented stories became less and less interesting to me as the book progressed.
May 5, 2023
I Am China is an interesting puzzle of a book. The author, Xiaolu Guo, is a writer and film maker (she graduated from the Beijing Film Academy), which shows in the structuring of this novel that jumps back and forth in time, moving from perspective to perspective in a way that is genuinely cinematic. Born in China, Guo now lives and writes in Britain, and I Am China presents perspectives based in both the country of her birth and her adopted country.
The Chinese perspectives are embodied in the characters Jian and Mu. Jian is a Chinese punk rocker who was imprisoned after releasing a “manifesto” at one of his concerts, and who is now seeking asylum in Europe. Mu is Jian’s off and on (but mostly on) partner of the last twenty years. Both characters have strong political motivations, but Jian’s politics are confrontational, while Mu’s are more subtle and interestingly romantic. Jian finds politics essential to art; Mu doesn’t.
The British perspective comes from Iona, a professional translator living in London, who has been asked to work with a loosely organized group of letters and journal entries written by both Jian and Mu. Readers encounter this material as she does: in random order and without any suggestion of what its overall trajectory might be.
I found this novel absolutely fascinating for the view it offers into alternative communities within contemporary China. I hadn’t realized China has a punk scene; I certainly didn’t know about the different strands of dissident thought represented by the book’s Chinese characters.
I said at the opening that I Am China is a puzzle of a book. It is a narrative that readers must assemble for themselves, looking for related pieces, rearranging information to create a chronology. This structureless structure is actually one of the book’s strengths preventing it from becoming narrower or more dogmatic.
I Am China is most definitely worth a read, both for the characters it introduces and for the glimpses it gives into the lives of a huge segment of the world’s population about whom we generally hear very little.
The Chinese perspectives are embodied in the characters Jian and Mu. Jian is a Chinese punk rocker who was imprisoned after releasing a “manifesto” at one of his concerts, and who is now seeking asylum in Europe. Mu is Jian’s off and on (but mostly on) partner of the last twenty years. Both characters have strong political motivations, but Jian’s politics are confrontational, while Mu’s are more subtle and interestingly romantic. Jian finds politics essential to art; Mu doesn’t.
The British perspective comes from Iona, a professional translator living in London, who has been asked to work with a loosely organized group of letters and journal entries written by both Jian and Mu. Readers encounter this material as she does: in random order and without any suggestion of what its overall trajectory might be.
I found this novel absolutely fascinating for the view it offers into alternative communities within contemporary China. I hadn’t realized China has a punk scene; I certainly didn’t know about the different strands of dissident thought represented by the book’s Chinese characters.
I said at the opening that I Am China is a puzzle of a book. It is a narrative that readers must assemble for themselves, looking for related pieces, rearranging information to create a chronology. This structureless structure is actually one of the book’s strengths preventing it from becoming narrower or more dogmatic.
I Am China is most definitely worth a read, both for the characters it introduces and for the glimpses it gives into the lives of a huge segment of the world’s population about whom we generally hear very little.
March 5, 2017
**Thank you Doubleday/Nan t. Talese and Netgalley for providing this in exchange for an honest review**
3.5 Stars
First off I want to say the book description is kind of misleading. A little over half the story is about the relationship between Mu and Jian. However, a good chunk of the story is about Iona. Iona is hired to translate Mu and Jian's letters and diaries. It is Iona's story that knocked this down from a 5 Star read.
I loved Mu from the start. I feel she was the real heart and soul of this book. Every time she was hit by tragedy, I wanted to cuddle her up in my arms and tell her we'd find a way to make everything ok. She is one of the most realistic characters I've ever come across. She is fiercely loyal and protective of those close to her. She wants to have her voice heard in a country where a good percentage of people still feel women are best seen and unheard. And yet, she is still vulnerable. Her wounds are never given time to heal before life hits her again.
It took me a little while to warm up to Jian. Not because he is a bad character, but because I couldn't relate to him. He is angry. Very, very angry and with good reason. He is not much older then a toddler when life shows just how cruel it can be and life makes Jian her punching bag from then on. When I finally accepted that I would never really "get" him, all I could do is feel for him, I grew to love him. No matter the manner or how many times people try to silence him, he won't allow it. And when I finally got to his manifesto, it almost brought me to tears.
Watching these two people who were so different yet so similar come together was absolutely beautiful and heart wrenching.
Then there was Iona. The one thing I loved about her was her passion for Mu and Jian's story. It is hard to translate Chinese into English. The Chinese language and be interpreted in many way and there are many Chinese words that do not have an English counterpart. Iona goes to great lengths to make sure she is truly translating the real story and not interpreting things the way she wants them to be. That is the only thing I can positive I can say about her. She falls into the third to midlife-white-female-who-is-detached-for-reasons-unknown-consoles-herself-with-string-of-one-night-stands-finds-man-who-is-married-or-unavailable-for-reasons-realizes-she-needs-him-to-make-herself-whole-and-will-get-him-at-whatever-cost cliché. The carcass of this story line should respectfully asks authors to stop beating it.
If you are looking for a loving, happily ever after, this is not the book for you. If you are looking for a an emotionally change, phenomenal story of two people trying to make a difference in the world, then grab this book.
3.5 Stars
First off I want to say the book description is kind of misleading. A little over half the story is about the relationship between Mu and Jian. However, a good chunk of the story is about Iona. Iona is hired to translate Mu and Jian's letters and diaries. It is Iona's story that knocked this down from a 5 Star read.
I loved Mu from the start. I feel she was the real heart and soul of this book. Every time she was hit by tragedy, I wanted to cuddle her up in my arms and tell her we'd find a way to make everything ok. She is one of the most realistic characters I've ever come across. She is fiercely loyal and protective of those close to her. She wants to have her voice heard in a country where a good percentage of people still feel women are best seen and unheard. And yet, she is still vulnerable. Her wounds are never given time to heal before life hits her again.
It took me a little while to warm up to Jian. Not because he is a bad character, but because I couldn't relate to him. He is angry. Very, very angry and with good reason. He is not much older then a toddler when life shows just how cruel it can be and life makes Jian her punching bag from then on. When I finally accepted that I would never really "get" him, all I could do is feel for him, I grew to love him. No matter the manner or how many times people try to silence him, he won't allow it. And when I finally got to his manifesto, it almost brought me to tears.
Watching these two people who were so different yet so similar come together was absolutely beautiful and heart wrenching.
Then there was Iona. The one thing I loved about her was her passion for Mu and Jian's story. It is hard to translate Chinese into English. The Chinese language and be interpreted in many way and there are many Chinese words that do not have an English counterpart. Iona goes to great lengths to make sure she is truly translating the real story and not interpreting things the way she wants them to be. That is the only thing I can positive I can say about her. She falls into the third to midlife-white-female-who-is-detached-for-reasons-unknown-consoles-herself-with-string-of-one-night-stands-finds-man-who-is-married-or-unavailable-for-reasons-realizes-she-needs-him-to-make-herself-whole-and-will-get-him-at-whatever-cost cliché. The carcass of this story line should respectfully asks authors to stop beating it.
If you are looking for a loving, happily ever after, this is not the book for you. If you are looking for a an emotionally change, phenomenal story of two people trying to make a difference in the world, then grab this book.
October 14, 2018
I Am China marks a step back for Guo following her superb earlier novels Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth and A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers. Where her previous novels shined was their capture of tiny people and their tiny lives, which Guo depicted with such loving detail to anchor readers in previously impossible-to-know times and places.
I Am China is unmistakably vaster, as its brazen title might suggest. Gone are Guo's snowglobe settings where the entire tale takes place in a certain Beijing neighborhood or a dark London flat, here the story unfolds on a tour bus spanning the United States, in Beijing and a village in Guangdong, a ship sailing to Crete, a Parisian nightclub, a Swiss detention center, a London pub, and a Scottish island occupied by shepherds. While epic tableaux can sometimes backdrop epic stories, Guo didn't find the right balance here. Her framing device, a British 30-something tasked to translate the mysterious letters of a Chinese couple, distracts from the far more interesting story of the aforementioned couple. And the fact that her translations are accompanied by occasional forays into the minds of the Chinese couple punctures the possibility of suspense: we are made to read the couple's letters, which describe events from a distant time, and then we are occasionally allowed to listen into the emotional reflections of the couple on that distant time. As a narrative device, it's tedious beyond belief.
And yet, if you remove the translator framing device, you'll find Guo's most political book yet. The Chinese couple involves a punk rocker critical of the government seeking asylum in Europe and his supportive but pragmatic wife, torn between love and comfort. Guo not only delivers sharp criticism of China but also of inhumane immigration policies in Europe. Wherever your eye can see, she seems to say, there is something ugly.
Love and art saved Guo's protagonists in her early novels. She shirks simple explanations in I Am China. It's certainly a more complicated, more thoughtful work, but it sacrifices hard-earned truths for ambiguity. Perhaps a more realistic tone for our era but less enjoyable and more forgettable for me at the end of the day.
I Am China is unmistakably vaster, as its brazen title might suggest. Gone are Guo's snowglobe settings where the entire tale takes place in a certain Beijing neighborhood or a dark London flat, here the story unfolds on a tour bus spanning the United States, in Beijing and a village in Guangdong, a ship sailing to Crete, a Parisian nightclub, a Swiss detention center, a London pub, and a Scottish island occupied by shepherds. While epic tableaux can sometimes backdrop epic stories, Guo didn't find the right balance here. Her framing device, a British 30-something tasked to translate the mysterious letters of a Chinese couple, distracts from the far more interesting story of the aforementioned couple. And the fact that her translations are accompanied by occasional forays into the minds of the Chinese couple punctures the possibility of suspense: we are made to read the couple's letters, which describe events from a distant time, and then we are occasionally allowed to listen into the emotional reflections of the couple on that distant time. As a narrative device, it's tedious beyond belief.
And yet, if you remove the translator framing device, you'll find Guo's most political book yet. The Chinese couple involves a punk rocker critical of the government seeking asylum in Europe and his supportive but pragmatic wife, torn between love and comfort. Guo not only delivers sharp criticism of China but also of inhumane immigration policies in Europe. Wherever your eye can see, she seems to say, there is something ugly.
Love and art saved Guo's protagonists in her early novels. She shirks simple explanations in I Am China. It's certainly a more complicated, more thoughtful work, but it sacrifices hard-earned truths for ambiguity. Perhaps a more realistic tone for our era but less enjoyable and more forgettable for me at the end of the day.
July 8, 2019
Two star-crossed lovers intersect beneath the eyes of a translator, who, like the reader, is increasingly drawn into the whirlpool of their love, the swirls gradually enveloping them as they drown beneath the tragic fate which Guo creates for them. 'I Am China' covers a number of themes; from the loneliness of the long-distance translator, the morose Iona, lumbering lachrymosely beneath a haze of emotional emptiness, only to be jolted to life via translating the epistolary romance between two strangers, Mu and Jian. Equally, Mu and Jian are labouring beneath the unbearable weight of alienation; firstly the political angst felt by Jian, whose recalcitrance against the totalitarian Chinese state .leads to his exile and a deeper sense of isolation as he find himself far away from the familiar sights and smells of China and more importantly his lover Mu.
Stripped of it's obvious political machinations, the novel is about characters who are desperately in search of meaning; whether it be slam poetry, punk rock or Russian literature, each character pirouettes between one ideal to another, desperate to find and forge their path in the world, whether it be in a rain-soaked French town, or the gloomy skies of a London sky sundering a man from his lover. However, the most meaningful connection the characters are able to crate with one another is love; the love of Mu and Jian jolts Iona from her isolated and somewhat empty existence, the gradual disintegration of their relationship acting as the mystery which she is desperate to unravel.
Indeed, the stronger, more sympathetic and rounded characters are the Chinese ones; from the disaffected Chinese restaurant worker who longs for home and a path of earth, to Mu and Jian and their explorations of the West, there is a sense of superficiality in the characterisation the English characters, a sense of emptiness permeates he milieu in which they exist. 'I am China' is a powerful rejoinder against totalitarianism, against the isolation of immigration, of the emptiness of life beneath the bright city lights and nacreous London sky whose superficial sky disguises the absence of love which has punctuated the lives of the characters.
Stripped of it's obvious political machinations, the novel is about characters who are desperately in search of meaning; whether it be slam poetry, punk rock or Russian literature, each character pirouettes between one ideal to another, desperate to find and forge their path in the world, whether it be in a rain-soaked French town, or the gloomy skies of a London sky sundering a man from his lover. However, the most meaningful connection the characters are able to crate with one another is love; the love of Mu and Jian jolts Iona from her isolated and somewhat empty existence, the gradual disintegration of their relationship acting as the mystery which she is desperate to unravel.
Indeed, the stronger, more sympathetic and rounded characters are the Chinese ones; from the disaffected Chinese restaurant worker who longs for home and a path of earth, to Mu and Jian and their explorations of the West, there is a sense of superficiality in the characterisation the English characters, a sense of emptiness permeates he milieu in which they exist. 'I am China' is a powerful rejoinder against totalitarianism, against the isolation of immigration, of the emptiness of life beneath the bright city lights and nacreous London sky whose superficial sky disguises the absence of love which has punctuated the lives of the characters.
May 19, 2019
A book of three voices: dissident Mongolian- Chinese musician Jian, his poet girlfriend Mu, and their Scottish translator Iona. Mu and Jian's disjointed story is told through diary entries, letters, newspaper clippings and Iona's research, as the translator becomes obsessed with her subjects, and their tragic tale emerges through her translations.
Maybe it is because Xiaolu Guo is writing about her native land - thinking in Chinese, mentally translating - that the language of the story often feels so stilted and so odd. At times - especially in the early chapters - I felt I was reading a poor translation: it reminded me of English translations of Chinese books one found in bookshops in Cuba, in the days before it all changed there, when everything was on the ration and you could still pick such books out of the trash. I lived in Cuba, immersed amongst the Cubans, for many years and the political culture of this novel - though harsher by far than anything I experienced, directly or by proxy - was familiar to me, I knew where Jian and Mu were coming from, though their political life and exile is only part of the tale, and to me, the least fascinating. The best of this novel is a simple mystery: Iona's search for Mu and Jian - an assemblage of clues that make up the disparate tales of two strangers and a cursed relationship, discovered in a pile of photocopied sheets, some letters and a diary, thrust into the hands of a publisher visiting China.
I Am China should be, and often is, a fascinating tale, but there's something profoundly lacking in it: a coldness, a lack of heart. It is a very slow burn; it took me a long time to get into the story. Eventually it becomes a quietly fascinating tale; there are no twists or sudden surprises. Iona's search for Mu and Jian's story only began to really grip me once they became separated, left China and were forced to engage with their new worlds, but even then, Mu and Jian remained characters to me, I never truly engaged with them, or their translator; nothing about the ending shocked me because I never warmed to any of them. Jian was the firmer, more solid character, the most fascinating, the only one with something real to say. Mu seemed to waft though the book like a breeze, amorphous, colourless, still occasionally interesting. Iona was by far the weakest, her story makes up a full third of the tale and I never really understood her at all. The lurid details of her icy, promiscuous, disengaged life seemed intended merely as a foil for Mu and Jian's warmth and passion. Maybe she was just another sly dig at 'miserable cold England': the food, the weather, the people - this book is full of that. The whole British experience - for Iona, as much as Jian - seems very negative. One can't help but wonder if this reflects Xiaolu Guo's actual feelings about her adopted homeland. She doesn't much seem to like it here, which makes one wonder why she has chosen to stay.
Maybe it is because Xiaolu Guo is writing about her native land - thinking in Chinese, mentally translating - that the language of the story often feels so stilted and so odd. At times - especially in the early chapters - I felt I was reading a poor translation: it reminded me of English translations of Chinese books one found in bookshops in Cuba, in the days before it all changed there, when everything was on the ration and you could still pick such books out of the trash. I lived in Cuba, immersed amongst the Cubans, for many years and the political culture of this novel - though harsher by far than anything I experienced, directly or by proxy - was familiar to me, I knew where Jian and Mu were coming from, though their political life and exile is only part of the tale, and to me, the least fascinating. The best of this novel is a simple mystery: Iona's search for Mu and Jian - an assemblage of clues that make up the disparate tales of two strangers and a cursed relationship, discovered in a pile of photocopied sheets, some letters and a diary, thrust into the hands of a publisher visiting China.
I Am China should be, and often is, a fascinating tale, but there's something profoundly lacking in it: a coldness, a lack of heart. It is a very slow burn; it took me a long time to get into the story. Eventually it becomes a quietly fascinating tale; there are no twists or sudden surprises. Iona's search for Mu and Jian's story only began to really grip me once they became separated, left China and were forced to engage with their new worlds, but even then, Mu and Jian remained characters to me, I never truly engaged with them, or their translator; nothing about the ending shocked me because I never warmed to any of them. Jian was the firmer, more solid character, the most fascinating, the only one with something real to say. Mu seemed to waft though the book like a breeze, amorphous, colourless, still occasionally interesting. Iona was by far the weakest, her story makes up a full third of the tale and I never really understood her at all. The lurid details of her icy, promiscuous, disengaged life seemed intended merely as a foil for Mu and Jian's warmth and passion. Maybe she was just another sly dig at 'miserable cold England': the food, the weather, the people - this book is full of that. The whole British experience - for Iona, as much as Jian - seems very negative. One can't help but wonder if this reflects Xiaolu Guo's actual feelings about her adopted homeland. She doesn't much seem to like it here, which makes one wonder why she has chosen to stay.
January 13, 2015
I Am China, by Xiaolu Guo, is an intriguing love story saturated with political angst. The prelude begins with Kublai Jian’s letter to his girlfriend Deng Mu, written in 2011, in which he recounts his walk to Tiananmen Square the night after the massacre in June 1989: “If you looked closely you could see the blood had soaked into the gaps between the stones.”
I was deeply engrossed by the poetic language and attention to details. The prose is elegant and smooth. At times the mood and atmosphere is so strong it overrides the story. The novel could be condensed at certain parts, although the chattiness also adds to the atmosphere.
Not all diary entries are realistic. Even an artist doesn’t write about her feelings in such painstaking detail, unless she anticipates her diary will be published someday and read by others. However, I grew used to the stylistic choice and suspended my disbelief.
I Am China is a unique, urgent, and passionate love story with a confident voice that cries out for the artists in an oppressive regime like China. What will you choose: to hold fast to your ideology or lead a humdrum conformist life? Are you willing to sacrifice a family life for your artistic conscience? Many fenqing, a Chinese term for the angry youth, or shit youth (a derogatory term), do go on to lead productive and conformist lives. Jian, being true to his ideals, chooses another path.
I would recommend I Am China to readers who are looking for an original narrative structure and strong political views. While the framed story is a bit slow to begin, once you learn the structure, it draws you in and doesn’t let go. It’s a book that is easy to put down and pleasurable to pick up again. The prose is witty and sensual, though it could use some tightening. I was sad that Jian doesn’t try harder to be with Mu. The personal choice makes it a feminist story, where love takes a back seat to politics and artistic freedom.
For the complete review, see:
http://tinyurl.com/kc62b9a
I was deeply engrossed by the poetic language and attention to details. The prose is elegant and smooth. At times the mood and atmosphere is so strong it overrides the story. The novel could be condensed at certain parts, although the chattiness also adds to the atmosphere.
Not all diary entries are realistic. Even an artist doesn’t write about her feelings in such painstaking detail, unless she anticipates her diary will be published someday and read by others. However, I grew used to the stylistic choice and suspended my disbelief.
I Am China is a unique, urgent, and passionate love story with a confident voice that cries out for the artists in an oppressive regime like China. What will you choose: to hold fast to your ideology or lead a humdrum conformist life? Are you willing to sacrifice a family life for your artistic conscience? Many fenqing, a Chinese term for the angry youth, or shit youth (a derogatory term), do go on to lead productive and conformist lives. Jian, being true to his ideals, chooses another path.
I would recommend I Am China to readers who are looking for an original narrative structure and strong political views. While the framed story is a bit slow to begin, once you learn the structure, it draws you in and doesn’t let go. It’s a book that is easy to put down and pleasurable to pick up again. The prose is witty and sensual, though it could use some tightening. I was sad that Jian doesn’t try harder to be with Mu. The personal choice makes it a feminist story, where love takes a back seat to politics and artistic freedom.
For the complete review, see:
http://tinyurl.com/kc62b9a
November 5, 2020
This is a heart wrenching love story, powerful socio political critique and a poignant reflection on cultural identities meshed masterfully into one. This book was a delight to read - the multiple layered were built upon another delicately yet they formed a coherent structure that flowed with ease. I don't know how to precisely describe it but it was the kind of reading experience, where you'd slow down in order to be able to savour the narrative and you'd stop to let the taste of the prose linger on your mind that little longer.
The story takes shape in form of letters and diary entries that have, as a big unorganised bundle, ended in the hands of English Publisher Jonathan Barker and later handed to young translator Iona Kirkpatrick in London. It is up to her to piece the puzzle together: The story opens with a letter signed by Chinese man "Jian" to his absent lover "Mu". Apparently he is a musician, who was at Tiananmen Square in 1989, who is going away but is convinced that he will soon be reunited with her. Through Iona's translation and contemplations is how we make sense of the stories.
It is part detective story, part mystery, and as we sieve through the myriad of materials; some coherent and even poetic while others are undated and partially incomprehensible, we learn a little bit about Jian, Mu, Iona and contemporary China. It is a little bit like watching the painting of a portrait; with each turn of the page is akin to a brush stroke that add a little detail to the painting and gradually the true character of the portrait emerges.
The story touches on challenging themes such as the folly of the protest, the comfort of ignorance as well as cultural disenfranchisement. I was impressed with Guo's ability to not only keep the voices of the multiple narrators distinct, but also her ability to demonstrate their growth and evolution with every new letter or diary entry. You can hear them grow wiser, discontented, disillusioned, enlightened and so on as the story progresses. I have also enjoyed the reflections on Western art and culture from the eyes of the non Western (Ginsberg, Saite) and how they have been refracted into the politics and behaviour of the individual characters.
Having sung all these praises, I do believe that this book is not for everyone. Some readers may be annoyed by what seems like a structure that is anything but coherent. Some may dislike the contemporary prose. Some may be gravely disappointed by what seemed like a dragged ending. But those who don't mind will draw so much reading pleasure out of it. High recommended.
The story takes shape in form of letters and diary entries that have, as a big unorganised bundle, ended in the hands of English Publisher Jonathan Barker and later handed to young translator Iona Kirkpatrick in London. It is up to her to piece the puzzle together: The story opens with a letter signed by Chinese man "Jian" to his absent lover "Mu". Apparently he is a musician, who was at Tiananmen Square in 1989, who is going away but is convinced that he will soon be reunited with her. Through Iona's translation and contemplations is how we make sense of the stories.
It is part detective story, part mystery, and as we sieve through the myriad of materials; some coherent and even poetic while others are undated and partially incomprehensible, we learn a little bit about Jian, Mu, Iona and contemporary China. It is a little bit like watching the painting of a portrait; with each turn of the page is akin to a brush stroke that add a little detail to the painting and gradually the true character of the portrait emerges.
The story touches on challenging themes such as the folly of the protest, the comfort of ignorance as well as cultural disenfranchisement. I was impressed with Guo's ability to not only keep the voices of the multiple narrators distinct, but also her ability to demonstrate their growth and evolution with every new letter or diary entry. You can hear them grow wiser, discontented, disillusioned, enlightened and so on as the story progresses. I have also enjoyed the reflections on Western art and culture from the eyes of the non Western (Ginsberg, Saite) and how they have been refracted into the politics and behaviour of the individual characters.
Having sung all these praises, I do believe that this book is not for everyone. Some readers may be annoyed by what seems like a structure that is anything but coherent. Some may dislike the contemporary prose. Some may be gravely disappointed by what seemed like a dragged ending. But those who don't mind will draw so much reading pleasure out of it. High recommended.
December 27, 2016
After reading two books about genocide ( Rwanda and Serbia respectively) I thought I was in for another round of senseless killing when I pulled out the title I am China from the jar (trust me my jar has a cruel sense of humour - whenever I'm totally busy the 500 pagers crop up, last july it thought that it would be a good idea for me to read all my non fiction books in one consecutive month etc) anyway this book was marvelous. Multi layered, well written and one excellent plot.
Iona translates Chinese documents, however one day her publisher mails a diary and series of letters, hoping that she can translate them so that they could be published. Once she starts to work on it she unravels a story about two lovers who must battle Chinese politics, Western attitudes and their own personal problems. As Iona reaches the end of the translating job she discovers that she has problems that must be faced as well.
What can I say? One of those surprises that crop up. Go read it ASAP. Trust me.
Iona translates Chinese documents, however one day her publisher mails a diary and series of letters, hoping that she can translate them so that they could be published. Once she starts to work on it she unravels a story about two lovers who must battle Chinese politics, Western attitudes and their own personal problems. As Iona reaches the end of the translating job she discovers that she has problems that must be faced as well.
What can I say? One of those surprises that crop up. Go read it ASAP. Trust me.
June 20, 2023
Deeply moved by this book. A lot to think over. Would like to read more books by this author.
20.6.23 - The story is told from different perspectives. There are of course the diaries of Jian and Mu, the letters that they exchanged which Iona is translating. We thus read haphazard parts of events. There is also the omniscient narrator who fills in the intervening portions. This is interesting structurally because we the readers get to know what the translator, who has become involved and invested in the story of these people, doesn’t get to know. This is what happens in life; we think we know the whole story of a person, we fail to realise that we see only parts of the whole,that we can at best only catch fleeting glimpses of people and events at any one moment or even for years. From a YouTube video I saw of the author, I gathered that it has autobiographical details. What it is to live in a country where you have no personal freedom, no choice, no opinion that you can air, where you bow down to the State..that was frightening because here in my country,under our present political dispensation it seems to me that we are being cajoled in that precise direction. A deep sense of loss, loss of familial ties,of being in a known particular space, loss of ideals held dear, loss of trust ,is also embedded in this story. But it is also a story of hope, that things will go on, change will come, that understanding can be gradually arrived at…
20.6.23 - The story is told from different perspectives. There are of course the diaries of Jian and Mu, the letters that they exchanged which Iona is translating. We thus read haphazard parts of events. There is also the omniscient narrator who fills in the intervening portions. This is interesting structurally because we the readers get to know what the translator, who has become involved and invested in the story of these people, doesn’t get to know. This is what happens in life; we think we know the whole story of a person, we fail to realise that we see only parts of the whole,that we can at best only catch fleeting glimpses of people and events at any one moment or even for years. From a YouTube video I saw of the author, I gathered that it has autobiographical details. What it is to live in a country where you have no personal freedom, no choice, no opinion that you can air, where you bow down to the State..that was frightening because here in my country,under our present political dispensation it seems to me that we are being cajoled in that precise direction. A deep sense of loss, loss of familial ties,of being in a known particular space, loss of ideals held dear, loss of trust ,is also embedded in this story. But it is also a story of hope, that things will go on, change will come, that understanding can be gradually arrived at…
August 30, 2014
The Great Firewall of China
I Am China by Xiaolu Guo
Review by Chris Craddock
I Am China by Xiaolu Guo begins with Iona Kirkpatrick, a Scottish woman described as resembling Winona Ryder, receiving a package of letters and journals in Chinese for her to translate. She is newly graduated but up to the task, though it takes a while for the characters to emerge, and for their story to make sense. Iona was named for the Scottish Isle, and she herself is also a rocky and isolated island. Though she goes in for semi regular one night stands with strangers, she makes no emotional attachments whatsoever. Meanwhile, into the empty vessel that is Iona, the passionate emotions of the mysterious Chinese couple begin to pour.
First is Kublai Jian. He is a Chinese of Mongolian background. He is a punk rock musician who has been swept up in the political turmoil and is seeking asylum. This character is clearly modeled on Cui Jian, who is the 'father of Chinese Rock' and also had his share of differences with the People's Republic of China. Though he is modeled on him, Kublai Jian is not supposed to be him.
Neither is Deng Mu, a poet who performs under the sobriquet Sabotage Sister, supposed to be the author, Xiaolu Guo, though they also share certain aspects of their respective Curriculum Vitae. Both the fictional character and the actual author perform an Allen Ginsberg poem with the word China substituted for America.
China I've given you all and now I'm nothing.
Along with the tribulations of any couple, there is also the conflict between choosing to express your disagreements with the state metaphorically while continuing to live a semi normal life, or more direct confrontation, leading to political martyrdom. Kublai Jian has chosen the latter, and has been arrested for trying to distribute his manifesto at a huge concert, subsequently shut down by the state police. He has been exiled, and the Chinese State has hidden the fact that he ever existed behind 'the Great Firewall of China.' As Iona begins to piece together their story, she seeks to help the lovers reunite. But will her help arrive in time?
Xiaolu Guo has really written a most impressive novel, given the fact that she wrote it in English, not her native tongue of Chinese. All the characters come vividly to life, especially Kublai Jian, who Mu nicknames Peking Man. He calls her the moon faced girl, and at one point comments that her name means tree, and the Chinese character for 'tree' is a picture of a tree. Against the backdrop of star crossed lovers the book also includes a fascinating glimpse of Chinese politics, culture, and poetry, and their nexus. Hai Zi, one of the Misty Poets, is mentioned, and there are numerous quotes from Classical Chinese Poetry. Many of the Misty Poets were jailed after the 1989 demonstrations of June 4th in Tiananmen Square. A banned Russian novel, Life and Fate, by V. Grossman, also plays a pivotal role, and there is even an appearance by John Lydon, AKA Johnny Rotten, as China ushers in the new millennium. Did this meeting between the seminal punk and 'the father of Chinese Rock' actually happen? Did they party like it was 1999? Will Jian and Mu find each other? And what exactly does Jian's manifesto say? For the answers to these and other questions, read I Am China.
China why are your libraries full of tears?
I Am China by Xiaolu Guo
Review by Chris Craddock
I Am China by Xiaolu Guo begins with Iona Kirkpatrick, a Scottish woman described as resembling Winona Ryder, receiving a package of letters and journals in Chinese for her to translate. She is newly graduated but up to the task, though it takes a while for the characters to emerge, and for their story to make sense. Iona was named for the Scottish Isle, and she herself is also a rocky and isolated island. Though she goes in for semi regular one night stands with strangers, she makes no emotional attachments whatsoever. Meanwhile, into the empty vessel that is Iona, the passionate emotions of the mysterious Chinese couple begin to pour.
First is Kublai Jian. He is a Chinese of Mongolian background. He is a punk rock musician who has been swept up in the political turmoil and is seeking asylum. This character is clearly modeled on Cui Jian, who is the 'father of Chinese Rock' and also had his share of differences with the People's Republic of China. Though he is modeled on him, Kublai Jian is not supposed to be him.
Neither is Deng Mu, a poet who performs under the sobriquet Sabotage Sister, supposed to be the author, Xiaolu Guo, though they also share certain aspects of their respective Curriculum Vitae. Both the fictional character and the actual author perform an Allen Ginsberg poem with the word China substituted for America.
China I've given you all and now I'm nothing.
Along with the tribulations of any couple, there is also the conflict between choosing to express your disagreements with the state metaphorically while continuing to live a semi normal life, or more direct confrontation, leading to political martyrdom. Kublai Jian has chosen the latter, and has been arrested for trying to distribute his manifesto at a huge concert, subsequently shut down by the state police. He has been exiled, and the Chinese State has hidden the fact that he ever existed behind 'the Great Firewall of China.' As Iona begins to piece together their story, she seeks to help the lovers reunite. But will her help arrive in time?
Xiaolu Guo has really written a most impressive novel, given the fact that she wrote it in English, not her native tongue of Chinese. All the characters come vividly to life, especially Kublai Jian, who Mu nicknames Peking Man. He calls her the moon faced girl, and at one point comments that her name means tree, and the Chinese character for 'tree' is a picture of a tree. Against the backdrop of star crossed lovers the book also includes a fascinating glimpse of Chinese politics, culture, and poetry, and their nexus. Hai Zi, one of the Misty Poets, is mentioned, and there are numerous quotes from Classical Chinese Poetry. Many of the Misty Poets were jailed after the 1989 demonstrations of June 4th in Tiananmen Square. A banned Russian novel, Life and Fate, by V. Grossman, also plays a pivotal role, and there is even an appearance by John Lydon, AKA Johnny Rotten, as China ushers in the new millennium. Did this meeting between the seminal punk and 'the father of Chinese Rock' actually happen? Did they party like it was 1999? Will Jian and Mu find each other? And what exactly does Jian's manifesto say? For the answers to these and other questions, read I Am China.
China why are your libraries full of tears?
July 14, 2014
This was very gratefully received as an ebook from Random House UK/ Vintage Publishing via NetGalley.
Iona is a lonely Chinese translator who is one day given a parcel of letters and diaries with no information about who they belong to. The fragments are jumbled and some hard to read,but she pieces together the stories of Jian and Mu. Jian, a popular Chinese punk musician is in exile in Europe after releasing his ‘manifesto’ into the crowd at a concert. He writes to his love, Mu, and to himself in his diary as he tries to make sense of what has happened to him as he gets moved from various detention centres for asylum seekers and then finds himself free in Paris. Mu is trying to make a new life for herself as a performance poet, on the road in America for much of the novel, but struggling to emotionally break from Jian.
The protagonists’ stories are told to us in bits and pieces, sometimes first person in letters and diaries, sometimes a third person narrator observes what they are doing, with Iona’s life in the space in between. I’m not always a fan of this sort of switching point of view, but it works quite well here. Iona is an odd person, seeking fulfilment in a series of one night stands, I never really warmed to her. Mu too is hard to crack but once you learn more about her story, she becomes more sympathetic. Jian is a compelling character. His voice is poetic and passionate as he rails against the Chinese state and is desperate for Mu’s love. It is a tragic book, showing how the personal, political and cultural spheres can clash with devastating consequences.
4 stars
Iona is a lonely Chinese translator who is one day given a parcel of letters and diaries with no information about who they belong to. The fragments are jumbled and some hard to read,but she pieces together the stories of Jian and Mu. Jian, a popular Chinese punk musician is in exile in Europe after releasing his ‘manifesto’ into the crowd at a concert. He writes to his love, Mu, and to himself in his diary as he tries to make sense of what has happened to him as he gets moved from various detention centres for asylum seekers and then finds himself free in Paris. Mu is trying to make a new life for herself as a performance poet, on the road in America for much of the novel, but struggling to emotionally break from Jian.
The protagonists’ stories are told to us in bits and pieces, sometimes first person in letters and diaries, sometimes a third person narrator observes what they are doing, with Iona’s life in the space in between. I’m not always a fan of this sort of switching point of view, but it works quite well here. Iona is an odd person, seeking fulfilment in a series of one night stands, I never really warmed to her. Mu too is hard to crack but once you learn more about her story, she becomes more sympathetic. Jian is a compelling character. His voice is poetic and passionate as he rails against the Chinese state and is desperate for Mu’s love. It is a tragic book, showing how the personal, political and cultural spheres can clash with devastating consequences.
4 stars
February 19, 2020
"quando l'Esercito di Liberazione popolare spara sul suo stesso Popolo allora vuol dire che abbiamo perso tutti"
Kublai Jian è un musicista punk nella Cina post Tiananmen, durante un concerto lancia dei volantini con il suo manifesto e questo gli vale l'espulsione, la sua ragazza Deng Mu tiene un diario e colleziona le sue lettere dai vari centri di detenzione/accoglienza per richiedenti asilo in Inghilterra prima e in Svizzera poi, da Parigi e da una nave sul Mediterraneo
un giorno capita in Cina un editore inglese a cui Mu consegna le lettere e i diari, sperando di far luce sulla scomparsa del suo amato e Iona decodifica gli scritti dei due giovani appassionandosi alla loro storia...si tratta di una storia di lotte politiche, di dolore, di amore mai realmente vissuto, di persone non libere nemmeno di pensare un mondo differente...di un figlio di un altissimo funzionario che odia suo padre e la terra dei suoi genitori, la sua durezza e la sua mancanza di libertà, di democrazia, di amore per i suoi figli
la parte dei diari è quella più avvincente, sia pure intrisa del dolore e della disillusione di chi si scopre ad amare la terra da cui è stato esiliato per il semplice fatto di non concordare con la visione che il governo ha del futuro dei suoi giovani...ma come ha detto anche Ha Jin, un altro cinese della diaspora, "quando l'Esercito di Liberazione popolare spara sul suo stesso Popolo allora abbiamo perso tutti"
mentre del romanzetto tra Iona e l'editore se ne poteva anche fare a meno ;-)
Kublai Jian è un musicista punk nella Cina post Tiananmen, durante un concerto lancia dei volantini con il suo manifesto e questo gli vale l'espulsione, la sua ragazza Deng Mu tiene un diario e colleziona le sue lettere dai vari centri di detenzione/accoglienza per richiedenti asilo in Inghilterra prima e in Svizzera poi, da Parigi e da una nave sul Mediterraneo
un giorno capita in Cina un editore inglese a cui Mu consegna le lettere e i diari, sperando di far luce sulla scomparsa del suo amato e Iona decodifica gli scritti dei due giovani appassionandosi alla loro storia...si tratta di una storia di lotte politiche, di dolore, di amore mai realmente vissuto, di persone non libere nemmeno di pensare un mondo differente...di un figlio di un altissimo funzionario che odia suo padre e la terra dei suoi genitori, la sua durezza e la sua mancanza di libertà, di democrazia, di amore per i suoi figli
la parte dei diari è quella più avvincente, sia pure intrisa del dolore e della disillusione di chi si scopre ad amare la terra da cui è stato esiliato per il semplice fatto di non concordare con la visione che il governo ha del futuro dei suoi giovani...ma come ha detto anche Ha Jin, un altro cinese della diaspora, "quando l'Esercito di Liberazione popolare spara sul suo stesso Popolo allora abbiamo perso tutti"
mentre del romanzetto tra Iona e l'editore se ne poteva anche fare a meno ;-)
June 6, 2016
I received an unsolicited review copy of I Am China last year and shelved it indefinitely for lack of interest. I’m so glad it didn’t end up in my giveaway pile! The book is about a politically idealistic Chinese punk guitarist, the poet he loves, and a British translator tasked with extracting a cohesive narrative of their lives from a bundle of letters and diary entries spanning two decades. This is Guo’s first English-language book and it is beautifully written. The story unfolds at a perfect pace and I became deeply invested in the lives of the three main characters.
December 5, 2017
la storia e le vicende di jian e mu sono meravigliose, anche se ti squartano in due da quanto fanno male. le vicende della traduttrice iona, invece, sono prevedibili e interessanti come una gara di sbadigli e l'autrice poteva pure risparmiarcele.
March 27, 2015
what did i think? i am not finished processing the read in my mind yet, but i wanted to get some thoughts down in this space while it's fresh.
so... i found much about this novel fascinating. i have read very little fiction that shines a light on post-tiannamen square china. so the cultural insights were very interesting. as well, i liked the format of the novel: a translator based in london receives a mess of letters and journals and it's up to her to not only translate the work from chinese to english, but to also makes sense of the papers and get them into some coherent order. the papers alternate voices between jian - a punk singer and political activist, and mu - a poet and jian's partner. the translator - iona - gets much time in the novel too. she becomes completely immersed in jian and mu's relationship, but while she is working, we learn a bit about her life and her past. so this format, alternating between the different writings of different characters, coupled with iona in the present, does give a bit of disjointed feel to the work. and i think that helps to reinforce the tone of the novel which is fairly melancholy through lack of physical connections. though it's clear jian and mu had a deep love at one time, life is complicated and life in china is portrayed as adding even further challenges, especially for those who are creatively inclined - poets, musicians, painters... does art only exist as a prop for political beliefs?
guo has a lovely style to her prose. some of her sentences are just beautiful. at other times though, i felt they were a bit overwritten. but the odd experience for me is that i felt kept at a distance while i read. for all the potential in the story, i was never fully immersed, the way iona was. now this may be intentional on guo's part. several times in the book characters are protecting themselves from love. or loving. they want to remain protected. they don't want to be vulnerable. so i get that about the story. but it leaves a bit of an emotional void. i also felt iona wasn't quite as fully realized as she could have been.
having said that, though, i was keen to turn each page and follow guo, wherever she was going. i am still debating the ending... it wasn't surprising, but i find it questionable. so... i think that this is quite an ambitious novel that almost succeeds. while there is much i appreciated, the things that niggled at me became too hard to overlook, to tip this into 4- or 5-star territory.
oh - should note that this book was longlisted for the 2015 bailey's women's prize for fiction. i think it is a good inclusion on the list, and i am curious to see whether it will advance to the shortlist. this it the 5th book (out of 20) which i have read from the longlist. so far... i haven't been in love with any of the five, though they have all been alright. (ringing endorsement... i know! heh! but i am still quite optimistic i will find a gem in the 15 remaining reads.)
edited to add: new interview with xiaolu guo: http://penguinblog.co.uk/2015/03/27/i...
so... i found much about this novel fascinating. i have read very little fiction that shines a light on post-tiannamen square china. so the cultural insights were very interesting. as well, i liked the format of the novel: a translator based in london receives a mess of letters and journals and it's up to her to not only translate the work from chinese to english, but to also makes sense of the papers and get them into some coherent order. the papers alternate voices between jian - a punk singer and political activist, and mu - a poet and jian's partner. the translator - iona - gets much time in the novel too. she becomes completely immersed in jian and mu's relationship, but while she is working, we learn a bit about her life and her past. so this format, alternating between the different writings of different characters, coupled with iona in the present, does give a bit of disjointed feel to the work. and i think that helps to reinforce the tone of the novel which is fairly melancholy through lack of physical connections. though it's clear jian and mu had a deep love at one time, life is complicated and life in china is portrayed as adding even further challenges, especially for those who are creatively inclined - poets, musicians, painters... does art only exist as a prop for political beliefs?
guo has a lovely style to her prose. some of her sentences are just beautiful. at other times though, i felt they were a bit overwritten. but the odd experience for me is that i felt kept at a distance while i read. for all the potential in the story, i was never fully immersed, the way iona was. now this may be intentional on guo's part. several times in the book characters are protecting themselves from love. or loving. they want to remain protected. they don't want to be vulnerable. so i get that about the story. but it leaves a bit of an emotional void. i also felt iona wasn't quite as fully realized as she could have been.
having said that, though, i was keen to turn each page and follow guo, wherever she was going. i am still debating the ending... it wasn't surprising, but i find it questionable. so... i think that this is quite an ambitious novel that almost succeeds. while there is much i appreciated, the things that niggled at me became too hard to overlook, to tip this into 4- or 5-star territory.
oh - should note that this book was longlisted for the 2015 bailey's women's prize for fiction. i think it is a good inclusion on the list, and i am curious to see whether it will advance to the shortlist. this it the 5th book (out of 20) which i have read from the longlist. so far... i haven't been in love with any of the five, though they have all been alright. (ringing endorsement... i know! heh! but i am still quite optimistic i will find a gem in the 15 remaining reads.)
edited to add: new interview with xiaolu guo: http://penguinblog.co.uk/2015/03/27/i...
March 10, 2016
It's been a few days since I read this, and I could just leave this, but I'm trying really hard to review every book I read this year, so here goes...
This was a strange book, in that, I don't know whether I enjoyed it or not. I have read three other books by Xiaolu Guo, but that was too long ago to remember whether I liked her style, her prose, or her plots. I picked this up on name recognition alone, though, so she must have left some sort of impression on me.
I'm wavering on whether to give this a solid 3, or just a 2.5. I think I enjoyed it more than I expected to, and the writing definitely captured my imagination, lovely as it was.
The main problem I had with I am China, is that I didn't really like any of the characters, I didn't care about them, and they weren't interesting enough. Probably the most enigmatic was Jian. If this story was just about his life, or even his life with Mu, it would have gotten a higher rating from me.
Iona is a total non-starter for me. There's something cold and detached about her, and while I can understand getting lost in stories and the lives of other people to the detriment of your own, she never felt like a real character to me. She never felt like anything but a person reading and translating letters, rather than a main character in her own right. Her storyline bored me, to be completely honest.
In fact, the whole book may have been more interesting if Iona was taken out of the equation completely and the story was allowed to be told naturally. As it is, it left me detached and never really getting in to the story properly.
Even Mu, unfortunately, could have been so much more. There were sparks of potential, but plot points were quickly introduced and then never brought up again; her character never felt as fully explored as Jian. I thought certain background characters would have more to do/say, but they faded from view.
Every character has this innate sadness to them, and each chapter is laced with a sort of melancholy. After reading the author's acknowledgments (her comments about the deaths of her parents to cancer, and how hard the year had been prior to writing this book), the themes of love, loss, death, and even fate, seem to make more sense.
I liked how small the chapters were, as it allowed me to put down the book when I had to, and at other times, race ahead. The pervading sense of gloom stopped me from really liking this book, though.
This was a strange book, in that, I don't know whether I enjoyed it or not. I have read three other books by Xiaolu Guo, but that was too long ago to remember whether I liked her style, her prose, or her plots. I picked this up on name recognition alone, though, so she must have left some sort of impression on me.
I'm wavering on whether to give this a solid 3, or just a 2.5. I think I enjoyed it more than I expected to, and the writing definitely captured my imagination, lovely as it was.
The main problem I had with I am China, is that I didn't really like any of the characters, I didn't care about them, and they weren't interesting enough. Probably the most enigmatic was Jian. If this story was just about his life, or even his life with Mu, it would have gotten a higher rating from me.
Iona is a total non-starter for me. There's something cold and detached about her, and while I can understand getting lost in stories and the lives of other people to the detriment of your own, she never felt like a real character to me. She never felt like anything but a person reading and translating letters, rather than a main character in her own right. Her storyline bored me, to be completely honest.
In fact, the whole book may have been more interesting if Iona was taken out of the equation completely and the story was allowed to be told naturally. As it is, it left me detached and never really getting in to the story properly.
Even Mu, unfortunately, could have been so much more. There were sparks of potential, but plot points were quickly introduced and then never brought up again; her character never felt as fully explored as Jian. I thought certain background characters would have more to do/say, but they faded from view.
Every character has this innate sadness to them, and each chapter is laced with a sort of melancholy. After reading the author's acknowledgments (her comments about the deaths of her parents to cancer, and how hard the year had been prior to writing this book), the themes of love, loss, death, and even fate, seem to make more sense.
I liked how small the chapters were, as it allowed me to put down the book when I had to, and at other times, race ahead. The pervading sense of gloom stopped me from really liking this book, though.
November 10, 2014
Bluntly put: I absolutely bloody loved this book! I had studied twentieth century Chinese history in the past and so I had some context to the historical events that were pin-pointed, and found the ideas that were put forward concerning the Chinese Communist Party really interesting. That being said, even if you have no prior knowledge of Chinese history I still recommend this book to you. It is wonderfully written with a gripping storyline. It was one of those books that I put off reading the ending because I simply just didn't want it to end. It definitely stands as one of my top reads this year.
September 25, 2014
I loved this book. I didn't want it to end! I am going to miss Kublai Jian, Mu and Iona! Fantastic book from such an insightful writer.
December 9, 2017
A beautiful book.
The story of the 2 lovers, written by the way of diary fragments and a collection of notes that unfolds itself as the translator works her way through them, the life of the translator itself, these elements give a special feeling to this book.
The story is not clear from the beginning, the translation of the chinese is not allways unambiguous, the life of the MC’s not clear. The book reads a bit like a detective trying to unravel the love story, the past of it and its devastating consequences.
At the same time, this book is much more than a love story. It is a witness of how people live their lives in uncertain times, in difficult situations, in days of migration and displacement.
The story of the 2 lovers, written by the way of diary fragments and a collection of notes that unfolds itself as the translator works her way through them, the life of the translator itself, these elements give a special feeling to this book.
The story is not clear from the beginning, the translation of the chinese is not allways unambiguous, the life of the MC’s not clear. The book reads a bit like a detective trying to unravel the love story, the past of it and its devastating consequences.
At the same time, this book is much more than a love story. It is a witness of how people live their lives in uncertain times, in difficult situations, in days of migration and displacement.
August 8, 2022
2.5
Not a story to be told from a Scottish woman's point of view. Intriguing storyline but overall shallow and dislikeable characters.
Not a story to be told from a Scottish woman's point of view. Intriguing storyline but overall shallow and dislikeable characters.
July 30, 2015
I can't praise Ziaolu Guo and the masterpiece that is I Am China enough. Her prose are poetic, her subjects tugged at my heartstrings, and the glimpse into the mind of a Chinese revolutionist shed light on the country that is China. The story follows three people: Iona, a Scottish translator living in London who is commissioned to translate the diaries and letters of an interesting Chinese couple; Jian, a Chinese punk rock revolutionist pulled between the love of his country and the love of his life; and Mu, a meek Chinese poet in love with a man who can never make her happy. The story is written like a movie: jumping between time settings, countries, letter/diary readings, and character points of view; but, Guo masterfully pulls the story together and makes the randomness work. She is not only an author, but filmmaker as well. I Am China has been long listed for the 2015 Baileys Women's Prize For Fiction and Xiaolu Guo was named as one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists in 2013.
The only pitfall in I Am China is the fact that Guo attempts to tackle too many topics. She talks about political revolution, the good and bad of communism, patriotism, the contrast between the Chinese and Chinese Americans, domesticity of women, the eternal influence of family, what it means to be free, the suffering of love, and much more. There are too many subjects for one tiny book and like other reviewers, I believe I Am China would have greater influence if Guo had trimmed the topics to one or two. That being said, I enjoyed learning her opinions. I felt as if Guo poured her very heart and soul into this novel: as if by reading I Am China I was getting to know Xiaolu Guo on a personal level, and to me that is brilliant writing. That is what distinguishes talent.
Guo's prose are succinct and beautiful. She transports the reader into her world with few well chosen words.
"As I went onstage, I took a quick glance at those kids - mostly twenty-somethings, cheeks still plump with baby fat, their ignorant but confident faces shining with huge ambition, their eagerness for power radiating from behind their thick glasses. I didn't feel good at all in a room full of overfed goldfish."
I Am China is a relatively quick read, but has considerable take-home value. This is a book I could easily read twice and walk away from the second reading with different feelings and thoughts. Guo's faculty for writing is inspiring; I will be reading her other novels very soon.
I Am China is a political statement wrapped in a story of intense but misplaced love peppered with the author's ideologies and glimpses of hidden Chinese culture. I immediately connected with Jian and Mu's love story, holding out hope they would find each other after years of separation, rooting for a happy ending. Iona's small story of loneliness and self-estrangement from her roots also piqued me. Guo transports the reader into the political communist mess within China but maintains a passion and love for China. I was frustrated with China and her politics, but also drawn to China: through Guo's writing I could feel the pull China has on her characters and herself.
"You won't know about this. Too young. But places and people, old and dead, get under your skin, when age weights you down... you get and urge to return, like haunted by a ghost. And you want to see for the last time what you left and lost..."
Layered and complex I was left with many thoughts about the three main characters. Iona at first seemed cold and dull. But then we see the lovers story touch Iona; she awakens and finds a zest for life. When we meet Jian he's a motivated political activist, willing to do/sacrifice anything to spread his manifesto. He struggles between loving China and Mu, he can't have both. When the choice is made for him, Jian slowly sinks into despair realizing his mistake.
"If longing always brings disappointment and desire connects to a sense of emptiness, then love really is a melancholy affair."
Mu is the rock Jian can always rely on. She supports him and pines for him. As her story is told we realize she has her own hurts and she struggles to maintain the stable presence Jian relies on. These character depictions are only a fragment of their depth; they are exemplary creations by Guo, another testament to her skill.
I highly recommend I Am China. The novel is inspiring, thoughtful, and unique. Xiaolu Guo is an author with considerable talent; an aspiring writer should leap at the chance to learn from her. I am excited to read her past books and eagerly await another great read from Xiaolu Guo.
"Everything happens in time. They say time is a great valley stretching into the distance; out lives are the great valley's lakes and rivers, each with high and low points, depressions and hilltops."
The only pitfall in I Am China is the fact that Guo attempts to tackle too many topics. She talks about political revolution, the good and bad of communism, patriotism, the contrast between the Chinese and Chinese Americans, domesticity of women, the eternal influence of family, what it means to be free, the suffering of love, and much more. There are too many subjects for one tiny book and like other reviewers, I believe I Am China would have greater influence if Guo had trimmed the topics to one or two. That being said, I enjoyed learning her opinions. I felt as if Guo poured her very heart and soul into this novel: as if by reading I Am China I was getting to know Xiaolu Guo on a personal level, and to me that is brilliant writing. That is what distinguishes talent.
Guo's prose are succinct and beautiful. She transports the reader into her world with few well chosen words.
"As I went onstage, I took a quick glance at those kids - mostly twenty-somethings, cheeks still plump with baby fat, their ignorant but confident faces shining with huge ambition, their eagerness for power radiating from behind their thick glasses. I didn't feel good at all in a room full of overfed goldfish."
I Am China is a relatively quick read, but has considerable take-home value. This is a book I could easily read twice and walk away from the second reading with different feelings and thoughts. Guo's faculty for writing is inspiring; I will be reading her other novels very soon.
I Am China is a political statement wrapped in a story of intense but misplaced love peppered with the author's ideologies and glimpses of hidden Chinese culture. I immediately connected with Jian and Mu's love story, holding out hope they would find each other after years of separation, rooting for a happy ending. Iona's small story of loneliness and self-estrangement from her roots also piqued me. Guo transports the reader into the political communist mess within China but maintains a passion and love for China. I was frustrated with China and her politics, but also drawn to China: through Guo's writing I could feel the pull China has on her characters and herself.
"You won't know about this. Too young. But places and people, old and dead, get under your skin, when age weights you down... you get and urge to return, like haunted by a ghost. And you want to see for the last time what you left and lost..."
Layered and complex I was left with many thoughts about the three main characters. Iona at first seemed cold and dull. But then we see the lovers story touch Iona; she awakens and finds a zest for life. When we meet Jian he's a motivated political activist, willing to do/sacrifice anything to spread his manifesto. He struggles between loving China and Mu, he can't have both. When the choice is made for him, Jian slowly sinks into despair realizing his mistake.
"If longing always brings disappointment and desire connects to a sense of emptiness, then love really is a melancholy affair."
Mu is the rock Jian can always rely on. She supports him and pines for him. As her story is told we realize she has her own hurts and she struggles to maintain the stable presence Jian relies on. These character depictions are only a fragment of their depth; they are exemplary creations by Guo, another testament to her skill.
I highly recommend I Am China. The novel is inspiring, thoughtful, and unique. Xiaolu Guo is an author with considerable talent; an aspiring writer should leap at the chance to learn from her. I am excited to read her past books and eagerly await another great read from Xiaolu Guo.
"Everything happens in time. They say time is a great valley stretching into the distance; out lives are the great valley's lakes and rivers, each with high and low points, depressions and hilltops."
January 27, 2022
Love the sense of adventure and fantasy in this novel. I'm a fan of intersection of cultures so this is a lovely read. The act of translation is pivotal to this book's plot and theme and the execution of that idea is almost perfect.
June 16, 2015
"I Am China" follows Iona Kirkpatrick (a young, reclusive translator living in London) as she translates a series of Chinese documents that were given to her by a London publishing house. The publisher doesn't know what he's looking for in these documents - they were handed to him by a mysterious young Chinese woman during a book conference in Beijing.
Thus begins Iona's journey through the private diaries and letters of Kublai Jian and Deng Mu, two separated lovers. Jian is a revolutionary punk musician before mysterious events lead him to be exiled from China, and Mu is a poet and a literature student. The letters and diary entries appear out of order, and sometimes Guo leaves Iona's perspective and directly enters the perspectives of Jian and Mu.
On Iona:
Many reviewers prefer Jian and Mu's story to Iona's. Although I agree that Jian and Mu are the soul of the novel (especially Mu), I didn't find Iona's story as weak as most other readers. I loved that this woman from the tiny Isle of Mull in Scotland ended up being the one to translate this epic Chinese love story. I thought it was refreshing to read about a character with few friends who's clearly lonely, but also has no desire to live a social life. What Iona really wants is a few meaningful relationships - including, ideally, a romantic one. I did find certain parts of Iona's self-discovery heavy-handed, like when she would read about Jian and Mu's love and realize that she had intimacy issues. Guo tried a little too hard to make this translating experience life-changing for her main character, and I found it hard to believe that someone as thoughtful and self-reflective as Iona wouldn't have discovered these things about herself long ago, without the help of this translation project.
On the history:
I know almost nothing about contemporary China, and I Am China didn't fill in any historical gaps in my knowledge. Guo mentions important events (like the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 and the 2011 Chinese Jasmine Revolution), but she mostly focuses on how state censorship and ideology-obsessed education affect the day-to-day lives of average people. I Am China poses questions about the possibility of true revolution in the face of such a powerful state, and about the value in protesting when one must sacrifice personal love and happiness to do so. It also explores intersections between China and the West, with some pretty unflattering observations about Europe and the United States:
Jian: "Europe is a grim continent: they think everything starts from here, from themselves, from their land."
Mu: "Americans don't seem to really believe that there are other people in the world, and so, when they see you in their country, it's like you've stepped straight out of a television set."
On the reading experience:
Guo's writing is elegant and heavily descriptive, which made this both a beautiful and frustrating read. It's the kind of book that I look back on and think, "I'm so glad I read that," but when I was actually reading it, it wasn't the most enjoyable experience. The first two-thirds of it flew by, but then the static, pensive tone of the book began weighing me down, and I found it harder and harder to continue. Still, I'm coming away from this book with some gorgeous moments in my mind. At its heart, I Am China is about the improbable intersections of vastly different cultures and lives. If you're willing to forgo lots of action and dialogue for a few hundred pages, I recommend it.
You can find my full review (with pretty pictures) at http://legicomp.blogspot.com
Thus begins Iona's journey through the private diaries and letters of Kublai Jian and Deng Mu, two separated lovers. Jian is a revolutionary punk musician before mysterious events lead him to be exiled from China, and Mu is a poet and a literature student. The letters and diary entries appear out of order, and sometimes Guo leaves Iona's perspective and directly enters the perspectives of Jian and Mu.
On Iona:
Many reviewers prefer Jian and Mu's story to Iona's. Although I agree that Jian and Mu are the soul of the novel (especially Mu), I didn't find Iona's story as weak as most other readers. I loved that this woman from the tiny Isle of Mull in Scotland ended up being the one to translate this epic Chinese love story. I thought it was refreshing to read about a character with few friends who's clearly lonely, but also has no desire to live a social life. What Iona really wants is a few meaningful relationships - including, ideally, a romantic one. I did find certain parts of Iona's self-discovery heavy-handed, like when she would read about Jian and Mu's love and realize that she had intimacy issues. Guo tried a little too hard to make this translating experience life-changing for her main character, and I found it hard to believe that someone as thoughtful and self-reflective as Iona wouldn't have discovered these things about herself long ago, without the help of this translation project.
On the history:
I know almost nothing about contemporary China, and I Am China didn't fill in any historical gaps in my knowledge. Guo mentions important events (like the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 and the 2011 Chinese Jasmine Revolution), but she mostly focuses on how state censorship and ideology-obsessed education affect the day-to-day lives of average people. I Am China poses questions about the possibility of true revolution in the face of such a powerful state, and about the value in protesting when one must sacrifice personal love and happiness to do so. It also explores intersections between China and the West, with some pretty unflattering observations about Europe and the United States:
Jian: "Europe is a grim continent: they think everything starts from here, from themselves, from their land."
Mu: "Americans don't seem to really believe that there are other people in the world, and so, when they see you in their country, it's like you've stepped straight out of a television set."
On the reading experience:
Guo's writing is elegant and heavily descriptive, which made this both a beautiful and frustrating read. It's the kind of book that I look back on and think, "I'm so glad I read that," but when I was actually reading it, it wasn't the most enjoyable experience. The first two-thirds of it flew by, but then the static, pensive tone of the book began weighing me down, and I found it harder and harder to continue. Still, I'm coming away from this book with some gorgeous moments in my mind. At its heart, I Am China is about the improbable intersections of vastly different cultures and lives. If you're willing to forgo lots of action and dialogue for a few hundred pages, I recommend it.
You can find my full review (with pretty pictures) at http://legicomp.blogspot.com
February 1, 2016
Borrowed this from the library on the strength of ‘A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary For Lovers’, which I read a few years ago. It’s a strong, thoughtful, extremely diverting piece of work, one which I breezed through in several lengthy sessions on my commute to and from the office. It ultimately lacks a certain coherence, and I’m not sure I would get much out of re-reading it, but certainly I enjoyed my time with this book.
The structure is a kind of epistolary frame narrative. Iona, a young Scottish woman living in London, is working as a translator when she receives a package of letters and diary extracts in Chinese between two people, Mu and Jian. He is an aspiring punk musician, and she shares his interest, but strays more towards poetry and academia; for a while they build a life together, but at some point, they separate for reasons that are initially unclear. Jian ends up a refugee, first in France, then in England and Switzerland; Mu finishes her higher education, and ends up touring America with a kind of punk-performance group. The excerpted documents follow their relationship over a period of many years, but they’re arranged out of sequence, and so we have to piece together the arc of their love affair as Iona works through the material.
On a formal level, this sounds simple enough, but it’s complicated somewhat by the additional perspectives on offer: from time to time we go directly into the thoughts of Jian and Mu, and we also follow Iona as she works. At first hers is a lonely existence, if one of relative privilege compared to her subjects; for a good many pages she mooches about, has a bit of casual sex, and thinks idle thoughts about the nature of her work. It isn’t until about halfway through the book that a narrative twist gives fresh impetus to her translations. Some might find Iona irritating and a distraction, but I rather enjoyed the gentle rhythm that her passages lent to the novel as a whole; she provides a sort of anchor in time from which we can consider the lives of the other two.
It might be that there’s another version of this novel (the Hollywood adaptation?) where Iona becomes a sort of hero on the run, trying to bring the truth of the Chinese state to the waiting Western world. But here, it’s all just a bit more complicated than that. While there’s an element of protest about the whole thing, it’s couched in a context of empathy that novels (not punk rock) are generally known for providing.
From time to time I was reminded of Neel Mukherjee’s brilliant recent book ‘The Lives of Others’ in that both novels detail the lives of ordinary people in complex multi-cultural societies influenced by Marxism with strongly repressive (and oppressive) elements. In both, there’s a sense of reading as a process of constant learning and understanding, and here in particular the reader’s journey towards a deeper knowledge of the subject is neatly mirrored in Iona’s character, who begins as a kind of audience surrogate but ends up as a well-defined figure in her own right. Compared to Mukherjee’s novel, ‘I Am China’ is not nearly so complex or encyclopaedic in its ambitions, but it’s a worthwhile and wholly evocative piece of well-crafted fiction regardless.
The structure is a kind of epistolary frame narrative. Iona, a young Scottish woman living in London, is working as a translator when she receives a package of letters and diary extracts in Chinese between two people, Mu and Jian. He is an aspiring punk musician, and she shares his interest, but strays more towards poetry and academia; for a while they build a life together, but at some point, they separate for reasons that are initially unclear. Jian ends up a refugee, first in France, then in England and Switzerland; Mu finishes her higher education, and ends up touring America with a kind of punk-performance group. The excerpted documents follow their relationship over a period of many years, but they’re arranged out of sequence, and so we have to piece together the arc of their love affair as Iona works through the material.
On a formal level, this sounds simple enough, but it’s complicated somewhat by the additional perspectives on offer: from time to time we go directly into the thoughts of Jian and Mu, and we also follow Iona as she works. At first hers is a lonely existence, if one of relative privilege compared to her subjects; for a good many pages she mooches about, has a bit of casual sex, and thinks idle thoughts about the nature of her work. It isn’t until about halfway through the book that a narrative twist gives fresh impetus to her translations. Some might find Iona irritating and a distraction, but I rather enjoyed the gentle rhythm that her passages lent to the novel as a whole; she provides a sort of anchor in time from which we can consider the lives of the other two.
It might be that there’s another version of this novel (the Hollywood adaptation?) where Iona becomes a sort of hero on the run, trying to bring the truth of the Chinese state to the waiting Western world. But here, it’s all just a bit more complicated than that. While there’s an element of protest about the whole thing, it’s couched in a context of empathy that novels (not punk rock) are generally known for providing.
From time to time I was reminded of Neel Mukherjee’s brilliant recent book ‘The Lives of Others’ in that both novels detail the lives of ordinary people in complex multi-cultural societies influenced by Marxism with strongly repressive (and oppressive) elements. In both, there’s a sense of reading as a process of constant learning and understanding, and here in particular the reader’s journey towards a deeper knowledge of the subject is neatly mirrored in Iona’s character, who begins as a kind of audience surrogate but ends up as a well-defined figure in her own right. Compared to Mukherjee’s novel, ‘I Am China’ is not nearly so complex or encyclopaedic in its ambitions, but it’s a worthwhile and wholly evocative piece of well-crafted fiction regardless.
October 5, 2014
I'm incredibly greatful to have won this book from Doubleday through GoodReads Giveaways!
This book is unlike anything I've read before with the way it was written. Everything links together with Iona, a Chinese translator in London who's assigned documents to decipher made of letters and diaries. The documents are written between Kublai Jian, a Chinese musician removed from his country because of his "manifesto" (which remains a mystery for much of the book) and his lover, Mu. Iona translates them as they're stacked, out of order, and obsesses herself with uncovering Jian and Mu's lives. In between her intense work on the project, she tries to understand what love is to her through their stories, why she prefers one night stands with strangers over love.
The points of view change every few pages with short chapters between the three characters, and it wasn't difficult for me to keep up with the story despite how the timeline kept going back and forth. Each segment is dated, which helps a lot. I've read books before where time switches up and I have a hard time keeping up; this was not the case at all. If anything, it made the mystery more exciting, and I was thrown more into the story, completed much faster than I'd planned. The book itself wrapped up very nicely.
Reading Mu's parts were my favorite. She's so open in thinking, expanding herself and her mindset as time goes on. Her love with Jian is gorgeous before they begin to grow apart from personal tragedy. Iona's parts are a close second, because she's the one piecing it all together. Her own observations and discoveries made me feel as excited as she was herself. For some reason, her setting in gloomy London was a really nice interlude to me, imagining the different climate. The same goes for Mu's travels in America. Jian's travels were a little harder to follow, constantly jumping from one place to the next, but still enjoyable. He's a stubborn character. I enjoyed him more as he progressed in his journey.
Lastly, what I also enjoyed a bunch was the images included; the scribbled handwritten Chinese text, photographs, Jian's album cover... it made the story feel all the more real and authentic! If I didn't know it was fiction from when I read about the book originally, I definitely would have thought that at least a large portion of the characters stories themselves were real, their families, the album, everything, even Iona herself, even though she just plays the part of translating. That was another element I liked; this wasn't just a story of Jian and Mu, the way it's written to be a real life mystery was something very different and definitely enjoyable!
January 14, 2017
I loved Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth, but this book is so disappointing in comparison it's almost like it was written by a different author.
It's a semi-epistolary novel, where as well as excerpts from the diaries and letters of dissident musician Jian and Mu, a melancholy poet, we also get the direct narration of Mu and Jian as well as that of Iona, an adrift Scottish Londoner who's translating their writings. So it's a complicated structure, with a lot of skipping around in time.
There are moments of dark comedy in the Jian sections that I did enjoy, particularly when he's dealing with the insane vagaries of the British asylum claimant system after fleeing China. On the other hand, I have three major issues with the book. Firstly, the story is set up to have a mystery element, because Iona receives the letters and diaries as a confused bundle and is trying to figure out Mu and Jian's lives from them. The reader, however, knows more than Iona does because of reading the chapters from the other two characters' perspectives, so there's very little actual tension or desire to know more from the translations.
Secondly, Iona is a paper-thin and exasperating character, in whose head the reader is constrained for large sections of the book. She doesn't seem like a real person. She doesn't appear to have any friends, or a life outside of translation, occasional unsatisfying hook ups, and contemplating how miserable she is. As a side note, it's somewhat tiring that a woman having a lot of sex is still being used as a literary short cut to indicate that she's in some way damaged.
Finally, the book meanders along for 300+ pages, then screeches towards a resolution which depends on a frankly ridiculous coincidence and feels unearned.
It's a semi-epistolary novel, where as well as excerpts from the diaries and letters of dissident musician Jian and Mu, a melancholy poet, we also get the direct narration of Mu and Jian as well as that of Iona, an adrift Scottish Londoner who's translating their writings. So it's a complicated structure, with a lot of skipping around in time.
There are moments of dark comedy in the Jian sections that I did enjoy, particularly when he's dealing with the insane vagaries of the British asylum claimant system after fleeing China. On the other hand, I have three major issues with the book. Firstly, the story is set up to have a mystery element, because Iona receives the letters and diaries as a confused bundle and is trying to figure out Mu and Jian's lives from them. The reader, however, knows more than Iona does because of reading the chapters from the other two characters' perspectives, so there's very little actual tension or desire to know more from the translations.
Secondly, Iona is a paper-thin and exasperating character, in whose head the reader is constrained for large sections of the book. She doesn't seem like a real person. She doesn't appear to have any friends, or a life outside of translation, occasional unsatisfying hook ups, and contemplating how miserable she is. As a side note, it's somewhat tiring that a woman having a lot of sex is still being used as a literary short cut to indicate that she's in some way damaged.
Finally, the book meanders along for 300+ pages, then screeches towards a resolution which depends on a frankly ridiculous coincidence and feels unearned.
October 1, 2014
Note: I received this book free courtesy of Goodreads, Firstreads in exchange for an honest review.
What I liked: The format of the story was quite a bit different than what I'm used to. It's a bit hard to explain, but I liked it. The language in this book is absolutely beautiful and helps shape the story in so many ways. I loved the fragments of handwriting and photographs that were included because they help reveal more about the characters of Mu and Jian. The three main characters in this book Mu, Jian, and Iona are intriguing and vastly different from one another. I wanted things to turn out well for them and I was invested in their story.
What I didn't like: I thought there were times when the narrative felt a bit disjointed. Ironically enough it wasn't the mixture of letters, diary entries, and real time accounts that made me feel this way. It was the lack of flow from one paragraph to the next. I was also not a fan of the ending. I wish it would have ended right after Iona read the last diary entry of Jian's back in London. It would have created an open ending that would have fit better with the story, but that's just my opinion.
Other thoughts: I will absolutely read another book by Guo because I love the way she uses language. I would recommend this book to people who want a beautiful story but don't require a happy ending.
What I liked: The format of the story was quite a bit different than what I'm used to. It's a bit hard to explain, but I liked it. The language in this book is absolutely beautiful and helps shape the story in so many ways. I loved the fragments of handwriting and photographs that were included because they help reveal more about the characters of Mu and Jian. The three main characters in this book Mu, Jian, and Iona are intriguing and vastly different from one another. I wanted things to turn out well for them and I was invested in their story.
What I didn't like: I thought there were times when the narrative felt a bit disjointed. Ironically enough it wasn't the mixture of letters, diary entries, and real time accounts that made me feel this way. It was the lack of flow from one paragraph to the next. I was also not a fan of the ending. I wish it would have ended right after Iona read the last diary entry of Jian's back in London. It would have created an open ending that would have fit better with the story, but that's just my opinion.
Other thoughts: I will absolutely read another book by Guo because I love the way she uses language. I would recommend this book to people who want a beautiful story but don't require a happy ending.
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