Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress – Dai Sijie

I cannot even look at books set in Europe during World War 2, I’ve read too many and have no interest in reading more.  Conversely, I love reading books set during historical periods I know little about and the setting for Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, China’s Cultural Revolution, is one such period.  The story's setting is important too, because this semi-autobiographical novel has a very meandering and often inconsequential plot.

The story centres on two adolescent boys, who, like many young adults of the period, come from middle-class families and have been sent to the remote countryside for re-education by the “noble” peasants.   There they meet and befriend the “Little Seamstress.”  They also come into possession of a stash of banned western novels. 

Through detailed and enjoyable tales of the boys’ adventures we see the transformative effects these western novels have on both the boys and the Little Seamstress.  I think it’s unfortunate that I read this directly after Mister Pip; another book about the transformative power of classic western literature.  While the story remains believable, the message did start to feel a little preachy.

On a final note, while I mentioned that the plot for the most part feels inconsequential, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress does have a very satisfying conclusion.  I won’t spoil it, but it was one of those rare endings that I didn’t see coming, but not only did it make sense, it helped the rest of the story make sense at the same time.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is available as a book group set from Maribyrnong Library Service.

The opinions posted here are my own and not those of Maribyrnong City Council.

Michael Lay

Mister Pip - Lloyd Jones

Mister Pip is the story of Matilda, a girl in her early teens living on Bogainville Island during the civil war in the 1990s.  When her teacher leaves the island, Matilda is surprised to find the replacement teacher is Pop-Eye, the only white man left on the island.  He introduces the kids to Charles Dickens through Great Expectations.

Listening to Pop-Eye read Great Expectations becomes the highlight of Matilda's day to day life and provides an escape from the mounting tensions surrounding the war.  Pip in particular becomes a friend and model for Matilda who believes his story can provide answers she cannot find on the island.  Her mother, a devout and superstitious Christian, clashes with the more logical and worldly Pop-Eye, especially over what values Matilda and the other students should be brought up with.  As Matilda is evermore swayed by Pop-Eye and Dicken's description of the virtues of the English gentleman, Matilda's combative mother becomes increasingly desperate to teach her daughter traditional native and Christian values.

Mister Pip's main detractor is its pacing.  For the most part the plot moves at a barely discernable pace, then in the space of a couple of chapters several major events occur that significantly impact Matilda's life.  While this might be an attempt to imitate the nature of life's uphevavals, I found it made for an unsatisfying narrative structure.  However, the characters are well fleshed out and overall the book was an enjoyable read.

Mister Pip is available as a book group set from Maribyrnong Library Service.

The opinions posted here are my own and not those of Maribyrnong City Council.

Michael Lay

The Namesake – Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahiri won the 2000 Pulitzer prize for Fiction with her short story collection Interpreter of Maladies.  The Namesake is her first novel and with it she has won critical acclaim for her ability to create characters that her readers care about.

The main character in The Namesake is Gogol Ganguli, the American-born son of Indian immigrants.  His pet baby name, Gogol, (named after the Russian author) sticks with him throughout his childhood and adolescence and is a constant source of frustration for him.  To him it signifies his difficulties in assimilating with both the American way of life and his family’s Indian culture.

The Namesake has also been lauded for its accurate portrayal of the challenges immigrate families face in a new country and the struggle to find personal identity within such a clash of cultures.

The Namesake is available as a book group set at Maribyrnong Library.

The opinions posted here are my own and not those of Maribyrnong City Council.

Michael Lay

Ready Player One – Ernest Cline

In a near future dystopia, an energy crisis has reduced the quality of living to the point where many people spend a great deal of their time in a simulated virtual reality world named OASIS.  OASIS was designed and owned primarily by James Halliday, now the richest man in the world, but with no heirs upon his death, Halliday instead leaves a public video will in which he states that the first person to find 3 keys that unlock 3 hidden gates within OASIS will inherit his fortune.  However, Halliday was obsessed with the 80’s and the quests to find the keys reference obscure 80's pop culture prompting a worldwide resurgence of 80’s fashion, music and movies as people and corporations around the world attempt to solve the riddles Halliday left behind.

3 years later, after all but the most die-hard contestants have written Halliday’s will off as a joke, Wade Owen Watts, or “Parzival”, discovers the first key, and suddenly the competition is on in earnest.

I love Ready Player One.  It’s the best book I’ve read this year, but reviewing it is more difficult for me than reading it, because I know that I’m very much the target audience.  Firstly, the book is very well written, characters are well drawn and the threat well established which gives the quest narrative weight.  And Ernest Cline knows his stuff.  Not just the 80’s pop culture references, but he understands the online world and the people who populate it.  He understands game systems and the games industry.  Recently we’ve seen a few attempts by other authors to write books that tap into this market, but this is the first one I’ve read that actually works as an engaging story.

Ten months after Ready Player One was released, Cline revealed that the book itself contains the first of a series of puzzles for readers.  The competition’s prize will be a fully kitted out DeLorean, if you don’t know what a DeLorean is, this might not be the novel for you.  If you do, I urge you to read this book.

The opinions posted here are my own and not those of Maribyrnong City Council.

Michael Lay