Geling Yan captivates readers once more in her breakthrough novel. This is the fantastical tale of Dan Dong, an unemployed factory worker whose lif...
read full description
reviews
Jan 27, 2012
Hock
rated it: 
Written by a Chinese journalist who left after the Tiananmen protest and crackdown, this is a fantastical novel, magical realism without the magic, highly imaginative. To say that it describes corruption and exploitation is like saying Moby Dick is about whaling. A good looking temporary (reserve) laborer finds a boondoggle attending banquets pretending to be a journalist. (This book is also published with the title "The Banquet Bug.") He is married to the most worthy of women but find
More...
Jan 17, 2009
Jeane
rated it: 
Difference of cultures can be felt very well in this book. In what is described and the style of writing.
Dan is unemployed like many other factory workers. He has a normal, not complex life and lives with his wife above the factory where he used to work. When he finds out that by pretending to be a journalist he can get free food and get paid, he starts to go to fancy, sponsored banquets. From then on his simple life changes.
It is a nice story, well written but different. The More...
Dan is unemployed like many other factory workers. He has a normal, not complex life and lives with his wife above the factory where he used to work. When he finds out that by pretending to be a journalist he can get free food and get paid, he starts to go to fancy, sponsored banquets. From then on his simple life changes.
It is a nice story, well written but different. The More...
2 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Jan 03, 2012
Hock
rated it:
Written by a Chinese journalist who left after the Tiananmen protest and crackdown, this is a "fantasiacal"/fantastical novel, magical realism without the magic, highly imaginative. To say that it describes corruption and exploitation is like saying Moby Dick is about whaling. A good looking out of work temporary (reserve) laborer finds a boondoggle attending banquets pretending to be a journalist.... He is married to the most worthy of women but finds sex and sex trade, art and luxu
More...
Jan 03, 2012
Stephanie
rated it:
The cover of Geling Yan's latest novel, The Uninvited, shows the top half of a naked woman lying with her back to us, on which are laid two prawns and a pair of chopsticks. Even more provocative is a Hyperion East edition being distributed in the United States under the title The Banquet Bug, which has the prawns snuggling on a woman's belly, the bottoms of her breasts framing the top edge of the cover.
With the Western success of such sexually-adventurous Chinese novels like Wei Hui' More...
With the Western success of such sexually-adventurous Chinese novels like Wei Hui' More...
Aug 29, 2011
Emma
rated it: 
Set in modern China Yan shows the darker side of this country famous for it's communist history. Dan Dong and his wife Little Plum are living in a slum community on a rooftop of the old factory where Dan used to work. When Dan is mistaken for a journalist at a media banquet and realises that he can not only eat gourmet meals for free, but also get paid for it, he becomes a 'Banquet Bug'. Unfortunately for Dan his disguise is too believable and he is soon writing articles for real telling the sto
More...
Jan 03, 2012
Marija S.
rated it:
The book would have earned 4 stars had I based my grading solely on political message and on successful outlining of contemporary urban China and its flaws, but the flimsy dialogs, abundance of completely redundant paragraphs, the irritating main character, pointlessness of some plot lines just don’t do it for me. The cardboard protagonists all appear to be either selfish or spaced-out, or both, and have failed to evoke even a trace of sympathy in me, regardless of their destinies.
More...
Jun 18, 2009
Siria
rated it:
The Uninvited is a satirical look at the contradictions in modern China, where an economic boom has created an immensely privileged upper class, though hundreds of millions of people still live in poverty. It's a light novel, with shaky characterisation and a limp ending, but Yan's observation of the hypocrisies and absurdities of contemporary Beijing make for an entertaining read—there's just enough darkness there to leaven the farce.
Jan 28, 2012
Jan 21, 2012
Dec 10, 2011
Nov 25, 2011
Oct 10, 2011
Jan 03, 2012
Oct 04, 2011
Sep 18, 2011
Sep 06, 2011
Jan 03, 2012
Aug 11, 2011
Aug 05, 2011
Jul 24, 2011
