Good Books, Part One or “Get Reading, Bitches!”
Some Books About Asia That I Like
- Farewell, My Concubine (Lillian Lee)
Banned in China for many years, this short novel tells of the lifelong friendship between two Peking opera singers. They survive the Cultural Revolution, the destruction of their beloved opera, the tumultuous marriage of one and the unrequited love of the other. The story was made into the gorgeous film that really launched Leslie Cheung’s acting career; the end of the book is different from the movie and in some ways is even more bitter and tragic.
- The Sea and Poison (Shusaku Endo)
Silence is probably Endo’s most famous work, but this early novel is just as devastating. He doesn’t tackle Catholicism here, but delves into the politics of morality with a story about a medical student who participates in the WWII vivisection of an American P.O.W. The book is based on true events, and is the first (and possibly only) novel by a Japanese author to confront Japanese crimes during the war. It’s a chilling look at what Hannah Arendt famously called ‘the banality of evil’.
- Smile as They Bow (Nu Nu Yi)
A slim novel about that most mysterious of Asian countries: Burma (officially The Republic of Myanmar). Another book long banned in the author’s home country, Smile as They Bow takes place over the seven days of a nat-worshipping festival (nat worship being a throwback to the days of animism, before Buddhism arrived). Yi doesn’t get into sticky Burmese politics, but concentrates on the tale of a flamboyant gay medium who channels nat spirits, who is worried about his advancing age and the wandering eye of his younger boyfriend. Yi provides a fascinating look into a little-known nation.
- War Trash (Ha Jin)
Ha Jin, a Chinese national who lives in America, writes an engaging story about a Chinese soldier captured and interred in a P.O.W. camp during the Korean War. Securing his own release is even trickier than usual, thanks to the precarious situation of newly-Communist China. He switches allegiances from Mao to Chiang and back again in an effort to get home to his family; while I may seem cowardly, Ha Jin forces the reader to wonder what they would do in the same situation.
- Out (Natsuo Kirino)
When an abused woman accidentally kills her husband, she prevails upon a group of co-workers (‘friends’ in only the loosest sense) to help her dispose of the body. It goes so well that they set up a business of corpse disposal, decision that brings them afoul of a vicious local Yakuza. Kirino explores the inner lives of unhappy women in this shocking, darkly funny book.
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