2018 MBI Longlist: The Stolen Bicycle

[Hugh]

Wu Ming-Yi (Taiwan), Darryl Sterk, The Stolen Bicycle (Text Publishing)

[Paul]

This one is absolutely sublime

my review

But don't make the mistake I did and read the Kindle version - the physical book is a work of art in itself

My shortlist this year is going to end up rather long at this rate

[Neil]

I agree with Paul on the beauty of the physical book - it makes you want to love it! However, the actual content didn't do it for me, sadly, even though I wanted to enjoy it.

My reasons are here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Carl]

I’m about half way through and struggling to find a reason not to DNF. Does everything start to come together?

[Paul]

If you haven't loved it by half-way then this isn't the sort of book that has an 'it all makes sense now' coming together moment in the latter chapters.

[Carl]

Thanks Paul. I’ve set it aside for now and might go back to it as I don’t hate it. I do feel the prose is a bit slack in places but that could be the translation. I think what puts me off it is the author is clearly interested in telling the story of Taiwan which is fascinating, but the way he does it is clunky - friends of friends’ stories like up and it becomes hard to keep track (and care).

[LindaJ^]

I agree with Paul - I thought this book was sublime. I read it in Kindle and now want it in print for my keeper shelf. My review is here -- https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....

[Paul]

Interesting story
https://sentinel.tw/wu-protests-man-b...

Well-known Taiwanese author Wu Ming-yi, whose novel The Stolen Bicycle was long-listed for the prestigious 2018 Man Booker International Prize, revealed on his Facebook page this morning that the organizers of the literary prize had changed his country of origin from “Taiwan” to “Taiwan, China,” a move that he said did not reflect his personal position.

[Hugh]

I found some of the subject matter in this book fascinating, but overall I felt it was something of a curate's egg - it could have been more powerful 100 or so pages shorter and I got a little bored towards the end. Agree that the physical book is very well designed.

My review

[Val]

I have a copy of this one, but I may wait a while before reading it. I feel I have been dashing through some of the shortlisted books too quickly to fully appreciate them, so I am going to read the others on the long list more slowly (and then read the shortlisted ones again).