Book Review - The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

Overall, this novel was a poignant and breezy read. I guess with biographical historical novels, one would usually feel that the author, in trying to fill in the blanks of a factual account with creative bits, would tend to assume a sympathetic stance in regards to the protagonist (otherwise why write the story at all). Whether that sympathy is so strong that it lends a revisionist tone or whether it is balanced by reserve is a matter of the author's judgment call.

The main storyline is riveting as it unfolds the menage a trois situation in Hemingway's first marriage with Hadley Richardson, with Pauline Pfiffer being the mistress. The writing style is silky smooth. The author's sympathy for Hadley Richardson is quite obvious throughout and her writing easily evokes readers' compassion for her heroine, but she doesn't let it saturate her story. She clearly also tries to be understanding towards Hemingway. Perhaps, by being reserved on the seducer role of Pfiffer's, she has managed to let Richardson gain even more commiseration.

Apart from the main story, the background stories about the fast lives that celebrity writers led in Paris and other parts of Europe certainly make for entertaining read.

Book Review - "Pride and Prejudice"

This was my first Austen novel. I saw the 2005 movie adaptation starring Keira Knightley and my impression was that it was an artificially sweet romantic story bordering on the make-believe kind. Reading the novel has confirmed that first impression, and I've been wondering if I might have enjoyed the story more had I read it in my younger days.

For me, one redeeming element of the novel is Austen's attribution to Mr. Bennet of an acute sense of humor, other than her witty depiction of Mr. Collins' obsequious falsehood and Lady Catherine de Bourgh's self-important snobbishness. Overall, I find the novel in want of any meaningful themes, and the love story between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy seems to be no more convincing than a well-constructed fairy tale.

An Excellent NYROB Article on "Chin P'ing Mei" ("The Plum in the Golden Vase")

I've recently come across this NYROB article by Perry Link about the great classical Chinese novel Chin P'ing Mei (or The Plum in the Golden Vase"), which is such an interesting read that I had to share it (thanks to EastSouthNorthWest for the link). The writer also made some insightful comments about the difficulties in translation, as well as about the uniqueness of Chinese literature due to the written characters. These paragraphs relate to the latter:-

Let me put it the other way around. Novels were not the primary language art in imperial China. Measured by volume, "xi", translatable as “drama” or “opera,” would be in first place, and measured by beauty, calligraphy or poetry would be. Should we compare poetry across civilizations? If we do, classical Chinese poetry wins easily. The contest is almost unfair, because, as my students of Chinese language eventually come to see, the fundaments of language are different.

Indo-European languages, with their requirements that tense, number, gender, and part of speech be specified, and with the mandatory word inflections that the specifications entail, and with the extra syllables that the inflections add, just can’t achieve the same purity—a sense of terseness and expanse at the same time—that tenseless, numberless, voiceless, uninflected, and uninflectible Chinese characters can achieve. In a contest, one person has a butterfly net and the other a window screen. Emily Dickinson might have come to be known as the greatest poet in world history if she had written in classical Chinese. Should Westerners feel defensive that this was not the case? Far better just to inherit what we all have done, and leave it there.

Here's the link to the full article.

Elyse's Review of "Fated and Fateless"

Elyse (a Goodreads member) has just posted a 4-star review of Fated and Fateless:

Link to Elyse's review

Book Review - "Une Vie" ("A Woman's Life") by Guy de Maupassant

Compared to Bel-Ami, this was a slower-paced read, but the writing is nonetheless beautiful. I was captivated by Maupassant's sensitivities in his descriptive skills in general.

It is a carefully crafted story of an aristocratic lady with a sheltered bring-up who has lived through shattered dreams about love, unhappiness in marriage, betrayals by husband, best friend and friends, disillusions with the mores of her times and disappointment with life in general. Maupassant writes with compassion where the protagonist is concerned, and with clear-sighted satire on the subject of religion and dogmas.

The setting is mainly in a seaside suburb of Rouen, with some diversion to the island of Corsica, all beautifully portrayed. The times are in the early 19^th century.

I was totally transported by the writing, whether it was the twists and turns of the story, or the enthralling descriptions of thoughts and emotions, or the refined painting of places and scenes. My only complaint is that the ending seemed to be a bit abrupt.

Book Review: "The Belly of Paris" by Emile Zola

I’m not going to lie: I was on the verge of giving up when I reached Chapter Three. The revolting description of the putrid smells of the Central Markets (present-day Les Halles), while evincing Zola’s extraordinary keen observation of details and his skills with words, was a major turn-off. I think I will avoid eating cheese for a long time to come.

Notwithstanding, I did slog along to reach Chapter Five, whence the action started to pick up steam, and by the time I finished the novel, tears filled my eyes. In the final analysis, I have to admit that I still liked Zola’s use of symbolism that is heavily laced with satire, especially in his tongue-in-cheek depiction of the hypocrisy of the haves (“the fat”) towards the have-nots (“the thin”) (like Beautiful Lisa’s initial superficial warmth towards Scraggy Florent, which then turns to bitter alienation when her self interest is threatened), of the envious tendencies of the wannabe haves (like the jealous malice of the gossipy and greedy Mademoiselle Saget, Madame Lecoeur, La Sarriet and Madame Mehudin), and of the invincible driving force of materialism in a bourgeois society in general (like the markets being symbolized as the “glutted, digesting beast of Paris, wallowing in its fat and silently upholding the Empire”) .

It seems to me that somewhere beneath all the stomach-turning descriptive lexicon, Zola wants to express just one thought in this novel, which is what the painter Claude says in exclamation at the very end: “What blackguards respectable people are!”

In a less serious note, the novel does offer some interesting tidbits about Paris in the early days of the Second Empire. One of these was a practice where bijoutiers peddled leftover food scraps from the large restaurants, the royal households and state ministries to the underprivileged class for a few sous per portion. Another was that the fattening of pigeons was done by specially trained laborers called gaveurs, whose job was to force-feed the pigeons. 

Confessions of a Bookaholic - Interview with Alice Poon

U.K. Book Blogging site Confessions of a Bookaholic has featured the interview with me on their Sunday Spotlight (April 5, 2015). Here's the link to the interview:-

Sunday Spotlight: Alice Poon, Author of Fated and Fateless

In the interview, I shared my personal thoughts on the underlying themes of the novel, on writing, on my reading interests and on my current writing project. Also shared is a tidbit of Chinese historical information about the Forbidden City.