Thursday, July 19, 2012
Making myself write cos I haven't written seriously in a while.
At present I'm laboriously making my way through Anchee Min's Pearl of China and in case if you haven't already realized the use of the word "laboriously" earlier in this sentence... This book is rather lame indeed.
Prior to reading this book I had thought it was gonna be purely a fiction book, at least that was what I thought after going through the synopsis at the back of the book, though I had my doubts cos the synopsis kind of hinted that this was not 100% made up.
I'm usually all for Asian history fiction/nonfiction cos I love to learn about the cultures of various Asian countries of the past. I was completely mesmerized and blown away by Memoirs of a Geisha (penned by Arthur Golden) and I loved the film adaptation although it paled in comparison to the book.
I suppose the closest parallel I can find that I've read to Pearl of China would be Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See... I don't even know how many times I've read that book, I've read it so many times before going to bed that one day I think like the book accidentally fell off my bed while I was asleep and disappeared. I was kinda saddened by the loss of the book but I kept having the misconception that I had loaned it to someone else but I couldn't remember who. My sister liked the book too and on several occasions we brought up the topic of the book's whereabouts, and our conversation always concluded with me saying, "I think I lent it to someone else... But I can't remember who." Years later (I think it was this year, actually), while sticking my hand around the underside of my bed trying to retrieve something I'd dropped, I was rewarded with a copy of Snow Flower – now completely dusty and rotten. Sadly I had to throw it away but I would love getting another copy. But I digress.
I think Anchee Min's greatest error in writing the book was that the whole book seemed like a made up story to introduce literary heroine Pearl S. Buck (she's a real person though). I found the prose childish and dull. The whole book seemed slanted to show the merits of Pearl S. Buck (although I cannot deny that it was highly probable that she was a good person, but I feel like biographical accounts should always strive to be as impartial as possible and should always be balanced).
I cannot understand why the Los Angeles Times hailed Anchee Min as "a gifted and lyrical writer". Pearl of China proves that she is far from that.
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