Asian readathon wrap-up

I'm glad I participated in this readathon. I've been in a long reading slump. It's not like I haven't read anything at all, but I've read only books or fics that require no brain cells or emotional involvement and can be completely forgotten in a day. And this month reminded me why I love good books that make you feel things and give you aesthetic pleasure, and how you need to change optics a bit for every new book because all of them are different and have their own voice (well, except The Poppy War and The Gilded Wolves, they were pretty generic). 

Overall I've read 12 books, which is a lot for me. I've changed two books out of five I've planned to read. I wasn't in a mood to read The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy and I DNFed People With Solar Reins by Ariadna Borisova at 15% because almost nothing happens in this 15%. It was very boring, and I understand that a book series can start slow, but there were two small episodes valuable for the main plot in this 15%. Also, I didn't like its writing style. I understand that folklore fantasy requires a writing style that reminds of folktales and fables, but Ariadna Borisova overdoes it. You don't immerse in a fable-like narration, you see a modern author who tries too hard. 

I really glad I found The Crystal Ribbon through this readathon, I usually don't read middle-grade books, and I think the only middle-grade books that I still enjoy are books written by Frances Hardinge, and they are pretty dark too.

So, my final list: 

1) Read any book by an Asian author.

Playing with stones by Maria Fedotova (Even)

Very nice children's book. 

2) Read a book featuring an Asian character or written by an Asian author who you can relate to.

The Idiot by Elif Batuman (Turkish)

Super relatable, but I hate to be called out like this.

3) Read a book featuring an Asian character or written by an Asian author who is different from you.

The Plotters by Kim Un-su (Korean)

This is an exact type of dark humor I like. 

4) Read a book recommended by an Asian.

The Boat SBS (Vietnamese)

This was as good as Cindy described it.

5) Read a group book

Little Fires Everywhere by Сeleste Ng (Chinese)

Good book with great potential for holywars. 

The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan

It was even heavier than I expected.

This story has two plotlines: one of them takes place in modern days (well, it was written back in 2001, not so modern anymore) in the US and the other one back in the 1930s-1940s in China. In modern times there is a woman named Pearl, a daughter of Chinese immigrants, who can't tell her mother about her multiple sclerosis, and her mother, Winny can't tell her about her life back in China when she was younger. Winny's friend, Helen, is convinced she will die soon. She encourages Winny to tell her story to Pearl, because both Helen and Winny keep each other's secrets from the past, and Helen doesn't want to die with all these untold stories.

I love how both Winny and Helen aren't these pure good heroic women, they both your regular annoying grannies, they aren't pleasant people, they definitely very far from being woke and self-conscious. It's a thing I love in historical fiction: I prefer to read about regular people, who aren't "I'm not like other girls, I'm different", they are just part of society, with all its bullshit in their heads. In my opinion, it's a more honest way to portray main characters in historical fiction, without making them woke and modern to make them more relatable to the modern audience. Winny tells us a couple of times how she believed in everything society told her and how she can't imagine doing something differently. She was in an abusive relationship with her husband, but she believed it's "ok" and she needs to deal with it. Amy Tan is very good at portraying abusing relationships and how an abused person can't escape them, and how patriarchy makes it extremely easy for women to enter abusive relationships and hard to escape them. Also, this book explores this weird kind of friendship that forms because of circumstances not because of common interests and so on. I rarely see relationships like this in the media.

A big part of the book dedicated to describing the main characters' life during WWII. It doesn't have any "horrors of war" in a way they usually described in the literature, but this part of the book reminds me a lot about stories my grandmother told me. Especially in the part where they were under air attack so frequently, they stop caring.

For my full enjoyment, this book was too heavy on the historical fiction side. Usually, I love this type of the story, "thank god we live in the 21st century" (I wanted to write "2020" but with everything going on in the world I'm not sure anymore), but usually I prefer historical fiction mixed with something: detective, thriller, romance or fantasy.

Also, for me the plot in the present time was a bit underdeveloped, it pales in comparison to Winny's plot. The relationship between Winny and Pearl was extremely believable, but I think their conflict ended too quickly (especially after this rich and nuanced story of Winny). But overall writing was good and I really liked the main characters and their complicated relationships.

4 out of 5 stars.

The Boat SBS

I have mixed feelings about this one.

The story feels too plain and underdeveloped for me. Seems like it doesn't have any layers besides telling us about refugees. Not to sound like an asshole, but regarding the plot, I was like "Well, traveling to another country as a refugee is sucks, and what?" It's not like a story isn't worth telling, but it wasn't impressive. As you can see, I can't even write about this story more than a couple of sentences.

Art is another thing. As a comic, The Boat is done beautifully. As I said in my first post, I've heard about it in Cindy's wrap-up, and she was very enthusiastic about it. I expected a lot, but this comic was even better then I imagined it to be. Sound design, art, animation - everything was done very well, with huge attention to details. I loved how panels were swinging with the boat, and how there were colors other than black and white only when somebody was singing a song. I really liked interactive elements, and the overall comic was very immersive. The team working on it did a great job, it's really a work of art. Also, a think this comic did a good job of educating readers about Vietnamese refugees.

4 out of 5 stars, because I can't give it less for such a purely aesthetic pleasure.

The Crystal Ribbon by Celeste Lim

I planned to read something in English and accidentally found this book, and it's tragically underhyped. It has only ~300 ratings on Goodreads and less than 100 reviews. 

The story takes place in medieval China. The main character, Li Jing, is from a peasant family, and the life of poor people in medieval times sucked. 

It's more a historical novel than a fantasy novel. Yes, there are some magical elements in it, but they are subtly ingrained in historical narrative and feel like a part of it because people in this time genuinely believed in all these folklore characters. It actually reminds me of Russian fantasy writer Maria Semenova, who writes both regular fantasy and these mythological historical novels. 

The novel itself focused on Li Jing's character developments and her attempts to find herself in a world, where lives of people can be traded, especially the lives of young maidens, who can be sold as a bride for dowry. This is exactly what happens to Li Jing, and at the age of 11, she goes to another town, to the family of her little husband (he is about three years old as I remember), where she is treated like a servant and then sold to a brothel. 

Yes, it's pretty dark for a middle-grade book, but overall quite optimistic. 

One of the reviews on Goodreads says it's Amy Tan for children, and since I've read The Kitchen God's Wife as the last book for my Asian readathon, I can agree. Celeste Lim is very good at showing how patriarchy affects a woman's life and how class inequality affects everyone. The novel has this clear picture of social inequality that lacks in other fantasy books I've read this month (despite both of them claims to have said inequality), it is depicted vividly and affects all the characters, even people, who seem to be in a place of privilege at the beginning. 

I really love Li Jing. She is smart and brave, but isn't one of that "strong female characters", overpowered and totally unaffected with all the bullshit society tries to feed her. Li Jing is a regular girl, who feel the disconnect between what she actually feels and what she is supposed to feel according to society. There are a lot of her inner struggles in this book, especially regarding her relationship with family: she loves them but they sold her as a bride to people who treat her badly, and sometimes she hates them for it. I like how at every place Li Jing goes she meets both good people and bad people, and they don't become a hivemind, and there are no situations where everyone is against the main character: yes, her life is hard, but there are people, who understand her. Descriptions of the horrible life of a young woman in medieval times didn't turn into suffering for the sake of suffering, it naturally exists as a part of Li Jing character growth. 

And I really want to talk about how good the novel was written. There is a plotline in the second part that feels a bit forced and some weird word choices, but overall it's just very good. It's a children's book, and there is a lot of information about life in ancient China right in the text, but it doesn't seem unnatural and forced, the writing is very immersive. You don't see here a modern writer who judges characters from their modern point of view, you live with Li Jing and look from her point of view. Also, I really appreciate how the author weaves elements of folktales into her book. It isn't just characters from folktales appearing in the book, there are structural elements of a fairytale in the plot, and I think it's a very good decision for that kind of story. 

I think this book is pretty suitable for adults too, especially if you haven't read anything about ancient China before and never read Chinese fantasy. 

4,5 out of 5 stars, I really enjoyed it.

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi, a rant review

This book was bitten by Dan Brown and starts to transform! Please send help!

I mean this book definitely has Dan Brown vibe. Especially in the part where "a historian" starts to explain everyone in the room what Babylon tower is. Sorry, it is hilarious and has the same energy as the main character of the "Inferno" explaining who Dante is. I understand that was done for worldbuilding, but it was so unnatural because it's absolutely clear everyone in that room knew the story. 

The premise of this book looked like everything I usually like: fantasy in 19th century, eccentric characters of very diverse background, a team of criminals who steal things that were taken from other by force (and of course the theme of colonialism could give this book another dimension, making it deeper and more interesting). I expected the fantasy 19th-century version of The Leverage series, and I was so wrong... 

All I got are bland characters, badly explained worldbuilding, uninteresting plot, and extremely cringy dialogues.

Characters are just badly written. I've just finished the book and I can't tell anything about their personalities, except Hypnos being a petty goth child from 2007. I'm so confused, it's a long book, but somehow the author managed to say us nothing about characters, they even barely have any backstory except Severin, because he is a local guy with childhood trauma, and Laila, whose backstory could be super interesting, but wasn't developed enough. Anyway, the award for being the blandest bitch goes to Tristan (well, this was a fierce competition, because all the characters were bland). He feels like Tumblr OC, uwu quirky baby with no personality. It seems like Tristan only exist to be this cute little thing near Severin and a damsel in distress. Tbh initially I planned to rant about all the characters specifically, but I can't, because my complaints about each character would be the same. 

The heist plot didn't seem very engaging to me. I didn't care about characters so I didn't give a fuck if they are going to win. Also, the heist itself became uninteresting, because all the time characters conveniently pull new magical tricks out of their asses and conveniently stop doing this when the plot tells them it's time to lose. It looked like a game walkthrough. I don't want to spoiler but everything that going in after heist ended is pure garbage, It literally makes no sense to the plot and is need only to create a cliffhanger for a second book in the series. 

The most disconnect I feel with this story because of its lack of authenticity on different levels. There are tons of explanations for readers that seem to be unnecessary for characters (all the time I was like "well, maybe we should learn more about magic and characters instead of reading the retelling of wikipedia"). Riddles and puzzles look too convenient like they are a part of a quest game. Characters claimed to be misfits from the 19th century, but they often act like modern teenagers or modern adults. A wanted to say that it doesn't seem like their personalities were formed under the influence of racist, sexist, xenophobic society with huge class inequality, but to be honest, neither of them has enough formed personality. I can understand this if the author doesn't want to make any commentary on society, but Roshani Chokshi definitely makes a lot of commentary on it. I think it's just because characters aren't developed enough, they don't have their own voices and sounds like some random modern people. Modern American people, I guess? Because actually, 3 of 6 characters aren't French, they were raised in different cultures, but they don't feel like people from different cultures. 

In the end, this book became the exact thing it was supposed to fight. I've read the author's note at the end of the book, and I was like... what the fuck?! The author intended to deromanticize the 19th century and show it's problems, but her characters live in a luxury hotel, they don't need to work to feed themselves, girls can buy tons of beautiful dresses, they have creative freedom, all of their friends are super accepting and never said an insensitive thing in their lives. This shit is romanticized as fuck. Especially regarding sexism and gender inequality.

1 out of 5 stars. 

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

This is another book that doesn't have a solid plot. It's a story of Indian immigrants in the US, the main character of the book is Gogol Ganguli, a first-generation immigrant, but we also see this experience from the perspective of his parents, who moved in the US as adults and another woman of Gogol's generation, Mushumi. 

It includes different experiences of being an immigrant and being captured between two cultures. The conflict between generations becomes more intense because of their different immigrant experience and different relationships with culture: while parents who moved to the US as adults miss India, its culture and their relatives, children want to be part of the culture of a place where they are grown up, and they associate India with annoyingly long trips to Kolkata with parents to their relatives they know almost nothing about. Gogol also has a "ridiculous" name that isn't even a name, it's a surname of Russian writer Nikolai Gogol. I like how Jhumpa Lahiri made Gogol pin all his problems to his weird name and become obsessed with it. The book also discusses, how name affects its owner. Can Gogol change his life after changing the name? 

Also, I like how clearly you can see this disconnect between parents and children in this book. They aren't bad parents or bad children, they just have different experiences. For example, Ashima, Gogol's mother, can't understand why he doesn't miss his parents while he is in uni, because she at his age always missed her parents. They were hundreds of miles away in Kolkata, and they could communicate only through letters. 

I feel odd about Gogol's connection with American culture. He always encounters only its nice and progressive part. There are insensitive people, but overall these people seem normal. There is a part of the novel where he is completely charmed by the family of his girlfriend and always compares them to his own family, and in his mind, it's a question of culture, but in fact, these families have very different social standing. He easily can date a girl from an American family which is as patriarchal as his own, with tons of annoying relatives and awful weddings with 300 guests. Maybe it is done purposefully, to show, how some immigrants/children of immigrants tend to demonize their own culture and think of it as old-fashioned, boring, and restrictive, comparing it only with the most attractive parts of the culture of the country they are living. 

I feel this book despite of good writing was a bit basic. Yes, it includes different experiences but all of them are from this narrow social circle of wealthy educated upper-middle-class immigrants. I don't think it's a bad thing, because the book is focused on one family, but... I don't know. I think there could be more. 

And tbh I want to read a story of Mushumi. It seems like she has way more deep inner conflict and was strongly traumatized by her parent's actions. 

The writing in this book is a bit unusual. It feels like someone's narration, so there is a distance between you and the characters. I think it can be off-putting to some readers, but I like it and overall this book was for me super easy to read. 

4 out of 5 stars.

The Idiot by Elif Batuman

Omg, I'm so glad I found this book! It was a recommendation from Anastasia Zavozova, Russian translator of Donna Tartt. She said this book reminds her of Dovlatov's writing, and I agree with this statement: Elif Batuman build her book with some witty quirky anecdotes, but it doesn't seem like a quirkiness for the sake of quirkiness, it's just her way to catch a spirit of the period of life: it's character's first year of university when everything seems new and weird.

You definitely shouldn't expect any solid meaty story from this book, it isn't written to be plot-driven, it reads like a diary with scattered memories about the main character's everyday activities.

Here is a plot: Selin, a naive American girl of Turkish descent, enrolls in Harvard, and here is her first year of study, her first love and her trip to Europe to teach Hungarian kids the English language. That's all.

I think Elif Batuman is very good in catching this very specific period in life when you go to college, and you have a bunch of very different courses, you try to connect them to your everyday life and sometimes fails miserably, and sometimes you overthink everything. And also you are a teenager in a new and different environment: you find new friends, you start to listen/watch/read things because they listen/watch/read these things, you are very awkward, you want to be just like all other normal people and in the same time you want to be quirky, different and very deep. And, of course, you need to write a pretentious text with references to classics. As a person, who was studying literature and linguistics in university, I can say this novel feels painfully familiar. I hate to be called out like this!

Seline's correspondence with Ivan, her crush, is hilarious: they tried to be deep and quirky so passionately that they completely lost all the meaning in their letters (but of course they think their correspondence is super deep and meaningful). And you see how it's funny and at the same time is really important to the Selin, because despite all pretentious writing she honestly in love with Ivan and treasures their correspondence.

There is no solid romantic plot, it's just this state on unsureness when Selin doesn't know what she wants from her life and her relationships with Ivan that stuck in a weird limbo between dating and friendship because they aren't actually dating. This is a mess, but Selin is 18, and Ivan just a bit over 20, so it is an understandable mess.

Another thing you shouldn't expect from this book: well-written side characters. The Idiot purely focused on Selin and her inner struggles, Selin writes about her friends and classmates, but in a way that is more common for a diary not for a novel.

I think, if you want to like this book, you should read it as a (fictional) diary/memoir, not as a novel.

Also, Elif Batuman's writing is extremely beautiful in its simplicity, I have so much pure aesthetic pleasure reading it.

5 out of 5 stars.