David Schwinghammer's Blog - Posts Tagged "susan-barker"
The Incarnations
Author Susan Barber spent several years learning about its culture and history; she's also of Chinese-Malaysian-British descent.
This book is about a taxi driver named Wang who thinks he's being stalked. Someone is leaving packets for him detailing his supposed previous lives. Wang is a former college student who spent at least seven hours a day studying. He had a nervous breakdown and was sent to a mental asylum where he had a homosexual affair. Ten years later he's married with a daughter, but he bumps into his former lover/musician who is now a barber and immediately blames him for the stalking.
The book travels back in time at least a thousand years, but it's not just Wang's story. There is another person who leads a parallel life with Wang. I will bet you a dollar to a doughnut you will never guess who the other person is.
One of the most interesting incarnations is when Wang is a concubine in Emperor Jiajing's court. She and fifteen others plot to poison the emperor who has a bad habit of torturing his sexual partners with knives, sometimes forcing another concubine to do it. I had trouble telling the difference between Wang alternative character and the other reincarnated person, but she/he is telling the story so if you pay close attention you can figure it out.
The other most interesting interlude was when Wang is a young woman during Mao Tse Dung's Red Guard revolution. Wang is the daughter of a high level member of the party, and she falls in love with Yi Moon whose father has been imprisoned because the Communists bureaucrats needed to fulfill their quota. Yi Moon is quiet and unassuming; Wang is a young communist leader with charisma. She must recognize Yi Moon as a kindred spirit. They're soon having sex.
The sexual attraction between the two characters continues from incarnation to incarnation. I'm not quite sure what Davis was getting at. Is she trying to make some sort of point, or is this just gratuitous sex to liven up her story? It seemed like it to me. The ending was a real surprise, and it put an end to the ongoing sexual attraction theory.
I know Buddhists believe in reincarnation, but there's no mention of that religion in the story. It does make for an original story. Another factor is how similar the modern Chinese are to Americans, despite the political differences.
This book is about a taxi driver named Wang who thinks he's being stalked. Someone is leaving packets for him detailing his supposed previous lives. Wang is a former college student who spent at least seven hours a day studying. He had a nervous breakdown and was sent to a mental asylum where he had a homosexual affair. Ten years later he's married with a daughter, but he bumps into his former lover/musician who is now a barber and immediately blames him for the stalking.
The book travels back in time at least a thousand years, but it's not just Wang's story. There is another person who leads a parallel life with Wang. I will bet you a dollar to a doughnut you will never guess who the other person is.
One of the most interesting incarnations is when Wang is a concubine in Emperor Jiajing's court. She and fifteen others plot to poison the emperor who has a bad habit of torturing his sexual partners with knives, sometimes forcing another concubine to do it. I had trouble telling the difference between Wang alternative character and the other reincarnated person, but she/he is telling the story so if you pay close attention you can figure it out.
The other most interesting interlude was when Wang is a young woman during Mao Tse Dung's Red Guard revolution. Wang is the daughter of a high level member of the party, and she falls in love with Yi Moon whose father has been imprisoned because the Communists bureaucrats needed to fulfill their quota. Yi Moon is quiet and unassuming; Wang is a young communist leader with charisma. She must recognize Yi Moon as a kindred spirit. They're soon having sex.
The sexual attraction between the two characters continues from incarnation to incarnation. I'm not quite sure what Davis was getting at. Is she trying to make some sort of point, or is this just gratuitous sex to liven up her story? It seemed like it to me. The ending was a real surprise, and it put an end to the ongoing sexual attraction theory.
I know Buddhists believe in reincarnation, but there's no mention of that religion in the story. It does make for an original story. Another factor is how similar the modern Chinese are to Americans, despite the political differences.
