Asian Fiction & Non-Fiction Message Board

I've spent the summer obsessing over books set in Hong Kong. I stumbled upon Gail Tsukiyama at a used book store, and was completely hooked. Now, I spend my free time searching for books set in Hong Kong, preferably during WWII. But lately I'll settle for anything set in Japan and China. Now, if I could just find a really good Dim Sum restaurant in my area, life would be really sweet.

To get things going: Please post the first book you read set in Asia. Mine was The Night of Many Dreams by Gail Tsukiyama

Pearl S. Buck is one of my very favorite authors. I love Asian culture and fiction. :) Thanks for making this group. :D

I think that the first Asian book I ever read was Dream of the Red Chamber by Tsao Hsueh-Chin.
I read it in an Italian translation, a long time ago, and was utterly facinated by the description of the characters and their life.
I also love Pearl Buck.
Has anybody read Laura Joh Rowland's books? They are mysteries, and take place in Middle Ages Japan.

Thanks for the invitation, Opinicus :)

The first book I read set in Asia? Hmmm... tough... (because I was born in Malaysia!) ...probably one of a series for children, illustrating Malay proverbs. Cheerful books such as "Harapkan pagar, pagar makan padi" which means literally, "Depend on the fence, the fence eats the rice crop" (Being betrayed by someone you trust). Or "Kacang lupakan kulit"; lit. "The nut forgets its shell" ((don't be) an ungrateful person).

I did also read The Good Earth as a child and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Oh, and incidentally, that character 'treasure', is pronounced 'bao' in Mandarin.

Thanks for the invitation, Opinicus :)

The first book I read set in Asia? Hmmm... tough... (because I was born in Malaysia!) ...probably one of a series for children, illustrating Malay proverbs. Cheerful books such as "Harapkan pagar, pagar makan padi" which means literally, "Depend on the fence, the fence eats the rice crop" (Being betrayed by someone you trust). Or "Kacang lupakan kulit"; lit. "The nut forgets its shell" ((don't be) an ungrateful person).

I did also read The Good Earth as a child and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Oh, and incidentally, that character 'treasure', is pronounced 'bao' in Mandarin.

Laura Joh Rowland is on my Asian Wish List, when I'm done with Dreaming Water by Gail Tsukiyama, I'm going to finish up the Amy Tan books I haven't read yet, then read hers. They look good. Alas, Pearl Buck is further down on my list, unless I get a really good discount!

What I like best about Asian fiction is the flow. I can't put it any better than that. The characters and plot, even the setting just flows, there is so much, it's richer in a way. The few books I've read so far there is simply more to ponder, and question. I finish the book deep in thought about what I've read, and it lasts, rather than reading it having nothing left. It stays with you. There seems to be no exeption. I'm left thinking, and I like that. My brain starts doing all the things it used to do in Lit class.

Thanks about the bao. I'll add it. I blatenly stole it from another website! I was just hoping my use of it was correct! Kanji is so interesting, however, I really end up straining to find the picture to find the word. I think I've figured out "Tea", I try to picture the the rooted tea plant rising/growing between or on the side of a mountain, or in the valley by the mountain, with the two little leaves/bloom above the mountain shape signifing the important tea leaf. No clue if I've got it right, but it's the only thing I see that helps me remember how to find TEA.

In High School, I was lucky enough to go to a school that offered a semester in Asian History, Or it migh have been a semester in Asian and African History, I can't remember as I had just moved to the new school and spent my senior year making up for all the "partying" I'd done at the old school. I took double classes, thanks to the administration. I remember my most excellent history teacher Mr. Peacock, would give us Asian Sayings, and delightfully some literature too. I loved the sayings as they made NO sense whatsoever in English! I took perfect notes in his class, and look forward to finding my old History notebooks, that are somewhere hidden in my home. My daughter could use them, and they're full of fun things from that class.
Thanks for joining
:-)

I think the first asian book I ever read was Yukio Mishima's "The Sound of the Waves". However, As far as nonfiction asian materials go I had been doing origami for many years before I stumbled upon Mishima. So, I owened many origami books before Mishima. I think the first one of those that I bought which was actually written by someone from Japan was "The Origami Omnibus" (Kasahra).

It was a long time ago, but I think the first book I read set in Asia was A Passage To India, while the first book I read by an Asian author was The Story of the Stone (aka The Red Chamber Dream.

Edit: It was a long time ago, but I think the first book I read set in Asia was A Passage To India, while the first book I read by an Asian author was The Story of the Stone (aka The Red Chamber Dream).

I think the first novel I read that was both set in Asia and written by an Asian was probably Pramoedya Ananta Toer's This Earth of Mankind (or Bumi Manusia in the original Bahasa Indonesia).

Hey Chamekke! I added a link on this groups profile to Japanese Culture for others to quickly find your group. BTW can you recommend a really good book on the Japanese Tea Ceremony? My daughter has a book on tea, but I can't find it, and as I remember it wasn't very informative.

And can anyone recommend a really good travel guide for Hong Kong? It has to have pictures! What I'm really looking for is LIKE a Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Travel Guide for Hong Kong, that also features Kowloon, and other outlying areas as far west as Macao. North to Canton. Cultural information included too? Any Ideas?

Oh wow, "first book I've read set in Asia?". That will have been so many years ago… Discounting any Nancy Drew books set in far off lands… Um… Maybe The Far Pavilions, which I read as a teenager? That's not East Asia, though. No, I do remember, it was Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, which I read in grade school. I never did get around to reading The Good Earth.

The Story of the Stone was my first great Asian fiction - I still love it and it gave me a great interest in Qing history.

Hi Opinicus! Two books on tea ceremony that I often recommend are Chado: The Japanese Way of Tea by Sen Soshitsu (S¯oshitsu Sen) and The Tea Ceremony by Sen'O Tanaka. They are extremely readable, well illustrated, and very informative.

Interesting question - I really can't remember my first Asian book. I read a lot of books set in Asia, as well as ones about the Asian experience in Europe, America etc. Favourites include Anita Desai, R.K. Narayan, Salman Rushdie etc.

Anyone have a favorite setting in Asia? A favorite Time Period? Favorite Metaphors in books set in Asia?
I love reading about Hong Kong--preWWII and WWII.
Japan-Any time period, however, the fuedal Japan tires me after awhile. Interested in finding more contemporary fiction set in Japan.

I think my first read was Night of Many Dreams also. I love Gail Tsukiyama which is strange, because ordinarily I don't see myself enjoying this type of book, but ever since the first one, I've been hooked!

That above was me, by the way, "betterthanchocolate." :)

I've been emailing Gail Tsukiyama hoping she'd join LibraryThing. I love her Women of the Silk and The Language of Threads. The incredable layered methaphors of the Silk, and Silk Industry, and the womens lives was powerful. Good brain food.

I have a fondness for old photos of Hong Kong and China, Of Battle and Beauty: Felice Beato's Photographs of China by David Harris has some wonderful ones of Beijing taken during its occupation during the Opium Wars.

Thanks for asking me to join the group. I live in Malaysia and many of the books I enjoy are by Asian writers. I've recently read Sister Swing by Shirley Lim which I thought very good and will be reviewing soon.

Thank you for the invite! It is hard to remember the first book I ever read that was set in Asia. It was probably one of Pearl Buck's books because I remember reading them in high school. After that, it must have been Shogun. My first Japanese author was most likely Mishima.

I cannot remember the first book I read which was set in Asia, but the most memorable is Noli me Tangere by José Rizal. The life story of Rizal himself is quite remarkable - I never cease to be amazed at what he achieved in such a short life.

I've been playing around with html codes, 'tweak' here and there. Let me know if you hate something, or miss something, or have a suggestion.

BTW The new rotating globe may or may not stay--I was just experimenting with an animated graphic to see if it would work.

hmm, I'm using Firefox and the globe is not rotating for me. It's a cool idea though, if LT accepts GIFs. :)

Well then..I really wasn't fond of it anyway. Bye bye Globe. It rotates on mine, but probably cause I got the file. Back to the kanji. Thanks!

Well then..I really wasn't fond of it anyway. Bye bye Globe. It rotates on mine, but probably cause I got the file. Back to the kanji. Thanks!

Gosh, I hope I'm posting this right . . . these boards are confusing.

has anyone here read The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls, & Our Fantasies of the Exotic Orient by Sheridan Prasso? If so, what did you think?

Thank you for the invitation

Is that cool with the touchstones on the right or what! I hope they all stay if messages get archived...but then again is there room for that many?
very cool, I read all the messages but forgot a few of the authors mentioned. very nice.

It's hard to remember the very first and be certain.

Maybe The Year of Living Dangerously. Maybe I read The Joy Luck Club before that. Waiting by Ha Jin was only a couple of years ago. Murakami I discovered even more recently and since then I've sought out Abe and Kawabata and chanced upon Pearl S. Buck just a month or two ago.

I think the very first book I read set in Asia may have been The Travels of Marco Polo. I've had access to the same illustrated copy I now own since I was a little girl and I remember dipping into it frequently in my pre-teen years.

My first was The Joy Luck Club.

I love Laura Joh Rowland's books! I own one and am constantly harassing the library to get me more.

Yep, Risako! If you look in my catalogue, you will see that I have quite a few of Rowland's books. I enjoy them quite a lot too. :-))

Just wanted to check - is this the "right" place for talking about books set in India/Pakistan or is there another group for that? Emphasis here seems to be on China etc - no problem with that of course!

yes it is, LyzzyBee. India and Pakistan are in Asia and so...welcome!

yes it is, LyzzyBee. India and Pakistan are in Asia and so...welcome!

I'm interested in finding books set in India..so recommend away!

What I like best about Asian fiction is the flow. I can't put it any better than that. .

You don't need to. I completely understand what you're saying. I love contemporary internationla fiction, but I seem to mostly end up with novels that take place in Asia.

My last really good read of Asian literature was the short stories in First Snow on Fuji by Yasunari Kawabata. The first two stories in the collection were absolutely gorgeous. This was my first book by this excellent author. I can't wait to read more.

Another excellent read that I just finished was Let it Be Morning by the Arab Israeli Sayed Kashua. Unfortunately it's rather timely in that it deals with Arab-Jewish relationships. This is the second book I read by this author and can't wait to read more.

I love this group! I find myself getting all kinds of books set in Asia. I can't read them fast enough.

The first book I ever read set in Asia was probably The Good Earth. I was avid about China as a child but on recently (about 8 years ago) revived that interest. It's not limited to only China, either. The revival came about through movies and grew to include books. As a result, Lillian Lee's Farewell My Concubine was one of the books I read. A Friend reccommended The Firemaker by Peter May which I quite enjoyed. I also liked Christopher West's detective stories. I read and enjoyed Women of the Silk and just found the sequel The Language of Threads which I hope to get to soon.

I've also started collecting Indian stories (Indian authors, Indian characters and/or set in India).

Since I'm always buying books, I still have a lot I haven't read yet. I've also picked up several histories and biographical books in these areas.

I love this touchstones thing, too. I already see several books I would like to get!

Opinicus, I haven't read that many books set in S. Asia, but I would highly recommend Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy.

i think the first asian book i read was the filipino translation of chicken little when i was around 5. i had loads more soon after--since i'm asian (hahahaha). most books during my childhood were required at school like noli me tangere and el filibusterismo. leisure-reading titles were all imported AND mostly western.

Opinicus,
what about The Far Pavilions by M.M.Kaye, and her other books? They all take place in India.

I am besides Amy Tan, and Gail Tsukiyama-who started it all for me, completely new to asian fiction and asia as a setting. I want to read EVERYTHING!, and am glad the touchstones are keeping track of everything for me untill I can write them all down--I really can't get enough--all though I am refusing to read anything until I read Gail Tsukiyama's Dreaming Water, which is SOMEWHERE in my house-I've misplaced it so everythings stops til I find it.

I highly recommed A Suitable Boy - it takes in all people, all classes, all religions, history, politics and is a damn good read too. I read it 12 years ago, and then 2 years ago - enough of a gap to remember I loved it but not all the detail.

I love R K Narayan and V S Naipaul (although Asian living in the Caribbean, where would you put him!) and then also books by Asian people living in other countries, either immigrants or 2nd or third generation (Amy Tan, Bali Rai, Gish Jen). Thalassa Ali is a wonderful author I just discovered, an English woman who is practicised in Sufism and is writing a lovely trilogy set in the Punjab about an Englishwoman trying to escape her narrow upbringing.

That's all for now I think!

Anyone up for some great short stories?

Try some of these books:

The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami (Japan)

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

Sightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap (Thai) ... and, no, these stories are *not* about prostitutes, sex, or drugs.

Interpreter of Maladies is brilliant, as is her first novel, The Namesake

I have The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri traveling as a bookray. If you'd like join, please PM (private message) me through BookCrossing.com with your mailing preferences.

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/2775533/J_5833934

The first book I ever read about Asia was probably The Good Earth by Pearl Buck but only because I had to read it for school. Now I actively seek out Asian literature.

I just finished aplum wine by angela davie-gardner. It is set in Japan in 1969. The lasting effects of Hiroshima in that country are still being felt today. This book is a favorite of Independent bookstores across the country. I just started Brothers by Da Chen yesterday and it is great. It is set in 1970's China following the death of Mao. The two brothers are the sons of a powerful army general...one legit and one not. Da Chen also wrote Colors of the Mountain which is also a great read.

I just started The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat. The cover of the book states that it's "The Greatest Persian Novel of 20th Century" (sic).

The copy of the book I'm reading was originally published by Caravan Books Publishing House in Tehran. I originally learned about this book through BookCrossing, and it seemed so interesting that I signed up for it on a bookray. Other than some minor problems with the translation, I'm already fascinated by this surrealistic story.

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/2475951/J_3746369

SqueakyChu, The Blind Owl is a fabulous novel! I read it a couple of years ago at the insistence of an Iranian friend and was awed and overwhelmed by the power, beauty and sheer strangeness of the work. I've never read anything quite like it. It goes well beyond surreality or even the continually spiraling, claustrophobic strangeness of works like the novels of Robert Pinget, to a literary locale that genuinely seems to be on the other side of consciousness and rationality. It's a remarkable book and should be far better known.

After you finish the novel, you may want to check out this rather nice web page devoted to Hedayat: http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/bashiri/BdOwl/Sadeq.html You can find full-text translations of some of his other works (mainly short stories) there, as well as a biography of the author and an essay on 'The Blind Owl'.

Thanks so much, marietherese!!

I LOVE this The Blind Owl so far. I'm half-way through it. It is spellbinding.

For sure, I'll be looking for more works by this author. I'm a true fan of well-written short stories so I'll seek those of his out as well.

Thanks for the invitation to join!

This one is tough because I attended a Japanese pre-school in Iwakuni. I'd guess the first Asian book I ever read was "Peach Boy and Other Japanese Favorite Children's Stories."

As an adult, the first book I read set in Asia would have to be Peter Hessler's "River Town." (Unless you count required reading in HS and college... and I can't remember all that I had to read there, so just think of the usual suspects, and there you go.)

I just finished Snow flower and the Secret Fan, what a wonderful book. I must find more.... this is where Library Thing comes in handy!!!!

In addition to using the touchstones, I put the tag "Asian" on any book I have that relates to Asia. This includes my cookbooks, sewing, gardening, painting, religion, and a lot of Leslie Cheung photo & songbooks, as well as history and literature.

SqueakyChu & marietherese, The Blind Owl sounds wonderful. I read a couple of the short stories at the website. This is on my list of books to get, now.

I posted (or, at least, I tried to post) a long response to the link you mentioned above, marietherese. It didn't post here for some reason, and I don't feel like rewriting the whole thing again. Suffice it to say that I found the article about Sadeq Hedayat extremely interesting and informative. It helped me more to understand the contents of The Blind Owl.
Thanks!

Would love to chat about Kawabata, Mishima or Abe with anyone. I also started a list for Japanese Literature. So if you would liket o come down and talk Jlit I would be more than happy.

SqueakyChu and Airycat, I'm so glad you liked the Hedayat link. It's always nice to see an author one admires enjoyed by other people.

I was introduced to Asian lit. through my English teacher in High School. The titles I could read were very few, but I enjoyed them greatly. The last book I read was Bejing Doll, which I loved.

Can anyone recommend a good book for me to read? I like pretty much anything.

I have an two copies of Secret Rendezvous by Kobo Abe. I bought the second copy by mistake.

If you have another good Asian fiction book you'd like to trade me for one of my copies, live in the U.S., and are a BookCrosser*, please send me a PM (private message) and we'll work something out. Paperback only, please.

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/2830496

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/3898093/J_6017723

So far I've read two books by Kobo Abe. The first was The Woman in the Dunes which I absolutely loved. It was really fascinating! The second was The Box Man. That was even weirder and harder to follow than The Woman in the Dunes, but I loved the challenge of trying to figure out what it all meant!

*If you're not yet a BookCrosser, why not join? It's fun and free.

Has any body read either Balachandra Rajan or Prakash Tandon (or both ?). Are they any good ?

Just realised, I forgot to answer the original question when I posted the message above.

I can remember going to hear Satish Kumar give a talk/reading here in Nottingham, UK in 1992 to publicise his No Destination. The author had been a Jain monk but had decided to become more involved in society and social issues, inspired by Gandhi and Bertrand Russell. After many adventures, including an 8,000 mile `peace pilgrimage`, he settled in England and became editor of green magazine Resurgence.

I bought his book within days of his appearance and still have it now.

I don`t know if it`s easy to track down a copy - surely there`d be one or two on Abe ?

If not, the man who organised the event now runs Nottingham`s Five Leaves publishing company - they are on the web. He might be able to help.

I'm in Hong Kong now, so I'm particularly excited about exploring Hong Kong writing in English. I discover that Xu Xi works at the University of Hong Kong teaching creative writing and literature courses. Among her latest works are a 2nd edition of her collection of short stories set in Hong Kong titled History's Fiction, and another anthology co-edited with Mike Ingham, City Voices: Hong Kong writing in English 1945 to the present.

Xu Xi's writing has been described as fickle fiction, which captures something of the urgency of time and space, and the psychological and linguistic schizophrenia, of Hong Kong writing in English.

The second anthology looks tantalizing, reading I'm saving for the upcoming dog days of work. In the meantime, I'm reading up on Phillip Snow's excellent narrative history, The Fall of Hong Kong: Britain, China, and the Japanese Occupation. For anyone interested, Chapter 1 is a brilliant brief history of British Hong Kong.

Opinicus, I'm interested in some HK titles you've explored to stimulate the imagination while in Rome...

i am not completely sure if my first book was palm of the hand stories by kawabata, or spring snow by mishima. it was in my last year of highschool, and a friend send them to me in the mail. i can easily say that both of these books changed my life.

betterthanchocolate...

Wow...I'm now on the lookout for the Phillip Snow book you mentioned.

Sounds exactly what I was looking for! THANKS! :-)

Re message 66:

I retract the offer of The Secret Rendezvous. I sent it today to a reader in Lexington, Maryland.

Lyzzybee & SqueakyChu

Thanks for mentioning Jhumpa Lahiri. I just picked up The Namesake.

I also picked up Joy Kogawa's Obasan, which I read this weekend. Really...uh...brutal.
Has anyone else read this book? What did you think of it?

I keep seeing Obasan and then debating with myself whether or not to to buy it. What do those of you who have read it think of it? "Brutal"...in a good way or a bad way, Opinicus?

Opinicus...pick up Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri as well. Those are short stories which IMHO are even better than her novel.

Obasan is about a Japanese-Canadian women recalling in the 1970's her multigenerational family's experiences before, during, and after WWII. While many writers would juxtapose a idyllic childhood against the harsh, and racist treatment of WWII, Joy Kogawa does not. What can be assumed from the outside looking in is just that, but from the main character Naomi's point of view we see it laced with child molestation, a topic that is never acknowledged, dealt with, etc. We also see through Naomi POV countless brutal acts that are disturbing, and I'm not quite sure I'm done understanding the significance of the material other than to mirror the injustice, and cruel treatment of human beings at that time through the cruel acts of children displaced, and suffering physically, emotionally, and socially. Throughout the novel you are following Naomi’s readings of material her aunt has accumulated documenting the government’s treatment of Japanese Canadian citizens, and follow up after the war, including correspondence relating to the search for Naomi’s mother who went to visit relatives in Japan shortly before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and was not allowed back into Canada. Joy Kogawa is in her 70’s, and since she no doubt has memories of WWII, writes using vivid imagery of pain, torture of the human soul. Sometimes it felt that she may have been too vivid, the images overshadowing the plot. I recalled while reading how jagged, bizarre, frightening, yet alluring the evil spirit was in Ju-on, and how the pain both the characters mask, yet come out through the physical acts of others seemed similar. The story screams with anger, although it’s never felt by the unassuming Naomi, like a tormented soul that hasn’t realized it-yet.
The review’s were dead on: “A bitter, haunting story.”--The New Yorker

Powerful as a descriptive is an understatement.

Itsuka is the sequel, but I’m not sure if I’m up for reading it just yet.

Thanks for the description of Obasan. I can't decide if it's a now book I want to read...even with knowing more about it. Sounds a bit frightening!

It was good, it was just heartwrenching, and raw emotion. I'd recommend it as subject matter, but if your looking for a read that's not that ON FIRE in terms of topic, just something for entertainment-warm and fuzzy read something else.

Yes, Opinicus, it was a brutal read. I picked it up a couple of times over the years but couldn't get through it all. Finally did on the sixth or seventh try.

I remember being struck by the metaphor Kogawa uses at the beginning, that of (& excuse the misquote here) a silence so loud it was all the narrator could do to remain deaf to it in order to survive in the day-to-day of a rather numb, detached life as a school teacher.

It's this silence--really an absence of voice raging to speak and be heard--that Naomi struggles with throughout the novel. To speak the unspeakable experiences of so many Japanese Canadians during WWII.

My partner is reading further ahead of Phillip Snow's book, The Fall of Hong Kong, and says that some of the material on the Japense occupation of Hong Kong has re-contextualised his view of the Canadian government's treatment of Japanese-Canadians during the second world war.

It's such an emotional topic for me. My parents' generation still speak of the war with such bitterness. It's like they can't forget and can't forgive, and carry their memory and understanding of the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong as a wound that will not heal.

As for me, I begin with a desire to learn more. I continue to read Snow's book with deep interest. Interested to know, too, what others think of Snow's book.

Thanks for sharing your response to Obasan, Opinicus.

Has everyone seen the cool Swap option when you go to a books site on LT? Let's you swap/mooch on BookMooch, and other swap sites! I just noticed it!

I joined BookMooch yesterday, posted a bunch of books I could live without if I could have something better, sent one, and mooched one in a day. Not bad! I'm chomping at the bit, because I mooched a DK Publishing Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guides: Hong Kong, I can't wait to get it. I was disappointed as to the lack of Haruki Murakami to mooch. I refuse to pay full price for an author I've never read, and there was nothing at the used book store, so I hope to mooch a copy. Although considering how there is hardly a price drop for him, and his reviews on the internet, and recommendations, that surely alone should make me pay full price but still...Any other moochers out there?
BTW Everyone--I'm playing around with the group image, thought I'd rotate book covers, if you know of an image you want rotated post the link on my profile.
Also I added our touchstone authors to the group profile, so please please please remember to use the touchstone brackets when citing an author, I'll add the ones that don't get touchstoned (ha) or LT has problems loading.

I'm on BookMooch, but my Murakami books will be pried out of my cold, dead hands. ^_^

HEE! That good huh! Maybe I should go pay full price for my first one!

I have one book by Haruki Murakami traveling as a bookray on BookCrossing. If you'd like to join Bookcrossing, I can add you to my bookray for South of the Border; West of the Sun.
This well-traveled book has been to traveling for 2 years and has been to 22 different readers!

http://bookcrossing.com/journal/1416369

My daughter appropriated The Elephant Vanishes, the last Murakami book I finished, for her own personal collection. Sorry...

Shortly, I will begin another Murakami book called Kafka on the Shore. It's also traveling via BookCrossing, although the bookray is not my own.

http://bookcrossing.com/journal/3331471/weesisj/book_-Kafka-on-the-Shore-Haruki-...

By the way, when I got back to my used book store last night, Obasan was gone! Wouldn't you know it! :-)

SqueakyChu!
I'm a member of bookcrossing add me to your bookray or ring for South of the Border; West of the Sun! Dang it, I was a member, I can't remember by username & emailed I used. I set up another under Opinicus (I'm that on Bookmooch too), I'll take my copy of Obasan off of Bookmooch and add it as a ring on Bookcrossing, and send it to you.

K?

SqueakyChu and Opinicus,

I would concur that Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies outclasses The Namesake. Not to give the impression that the latter is bad - it is a worthy novel, but the short story collection is exceptional.

Right on, Opinicus!

I'd love to sign up for your Obasan bookray. Thanks!

I put you on the bookray for South of the Border; West of the Sun. It'll be a while before it gets to you because it's now traveling through Australia.

Have you participated in BookCrossing rings and/or rays before? They are so much fun. I've been introduced to some wonderful Asian authors through recomendations on BookCrossing (Kawabata, Oe, Abe, etc.).

See if you can get others to sign up for Obasan before it comes to me. I'm a bit backed up in bookray books right now, and I don't want to hold others up. I'd prefer to ship within the US if that's okay. Thanks!

I was thinking of also starting a "binge reading" BookRing. The idea being pick an author with a small number of books about 5, create a ring, Read book one, pass it on, then you recieve book two, and so on, to read an authors entire works.
Anyone here interested?

Or we could name 5+ books here on the group , and create a ring, all participants would contribute a book that would be or has been mentioned here.

October 5, the deadline to have chosen the books, registered them on bookcrossing, arranged members mailing preferences as to international or by country or state, the first book going out in the mail on the October 6th. And since it's a ring, the last person in the ring sends the book back to the original owner. The original owners would be "skipped" as they've read it and it would go on to the next person, people who already have a copy could be "skipped" too.

OR We could do a group read with participants either reading their own copy, mooching, buying new or used, or get it from bookcrossing or another swap site.

Anyone Game?

Let me know, we can start another topic thread for participants. Need to know if you are interested in a "Binge Read", BookRay, or Group Read. Then we'll go from there.

Too complicated for me! :-)

Plus, I never like to read books by the same author back to back.

I'd love to read along with the group if you pick an Asian book that I've not already read. So few people on BookCrossing do that.

Take a look at my LT bookshelf and see what I already have. Those I've not read yet are marked TBR. Perhaps one of those?

One vote for Group read!

I have these other Asian fiction bookrays open as well as the one I mentioned in a previous post.

Asleep by Banana Yoshimoto
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/2380697/SqueakyChu/book_Asleep-Banana-Yoshim...

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/1416352/J_1733332

I did see a copy of Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto on your lists. I did an amazon search. She's now on my list of TBR.

My post was really confusing--sorry I usually get up early and super caffinate, but today I slept in and hadn't really woken up yet by the time I posted.
let me simplify or change my idea

simply a group read
or a bookring/ray.

Group read does seem a better choice, but we can do both.
Some people may not have the time/effort for a bookring or group read. So If people are interested we can start two. One group can join one of SqueakyChu's rings, and the other do a group read, and a seperate thread here on our board for the group read.

SqueakyChu'--Both those books sound good!

Let's do a Group read of a Banana Yoshimoto book--also Goodbye Tsugumi looked good too, others can sign up for the BookRay of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

When we're done with the Yoshimoto group read, we'll pick another book.

So if you are interested in a Yoshimoto group read, suggest a book, majority rules. I abstain. I'm going to start a Organizing Group Reads & BookRings/Rays Topic to conduct the business end. Then when we start the Group Read I'll start a topic for that group.

Oh, no! Now I have to find them!!! :-(

I have Goodbye Tsugumi, Amrita, Kitchen, and NP somewhere in my house. Any of those would be good for me.

I've already read Asleep and Lizard so I'll decline on both of those.

By the way, I'll be happy to start a bookray with any of the above-mentioned books once I finish reading them.

man, I just got an email from BookMooch, that a copy of Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood is available, but it's in Brazil, and it's a reviewer's copy. Hmmmm To mooch or not to mooch. I can't decide that one, or the Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto, a couple in the US, and one in Japan with a different cover.

Mooch the Kitchen so we can all read it. Isn't that the one sqdancer also has?

I read the Banana Yoshimoto links you posted on the other thread. It said that Kitchen was her first and best book. Seems like a good place to start, don't you think?

Opinicus, if you’re looking for Norwegian Wood, then try for the boxed version. It’s one of my treasures, two small red and green books, faultlessly presented. Very satisfying, in a way that only anything perfectly designed can be. When the book was first published, to be seen in Tokyo with one of these two little books was the height of cool.

Magus--oooooh Very good to know! I will save specifically for that version then! Thank you! Cool!

SqueakyChu---Yep, I'm getting Kitchen! I just clicked it, and I have two options a pretty red cover UK Pocketsize version to be sent from Japan, or MY COUSIN. Guys last name and mine are similar, and I know my genealogy and according to his spelling we would have to share GGGparents. Small world! But it's hardcover, and I'm addicted to trade paperback size.

man, I suppose I should go with the USA paperback, as I'm chomping at the bit to read it now.

Wow. Just checked the internet for the Norwegian Wood boxed set! Abebooks has it for US$ 292.50! I'm not that vain! Maybe it'll turn up on a bookswap, and someone won't know any better, and I'll get it for one point!

I'm addicted to trade paperbacks, too. They're just perfect for mailing and then carrying everywhere.

How does BookMooch work? Do you have to pay to mail your books to other people? How do you know how much it will cost?

There is one copy of Kitchen on Bookins which costs $3.99 to receive (mailing costs), but it's hard to know what books you'll receive if you choose to receive more than one. They kind of come at random. Plus there you must release books of your own as well. I've used Bookins, though, and found it fun. Through Bookins, I picked up a copy of Shipwrecks by Akira Yoshimura.

Bookmooch is simple. You get 1/10th of a point for every book you list as books you'll give away. You get a point for sending a book, and 2 points if it goes overseas. If you mooch a book locally you have an earned point removed, and if you mooch internationally it's 2 points. You can give points away to charity for kids to order books from their hospital beds (I know, it got me too, I donated a point). All you pay is the shipping cost of sending the book to the moocher. You can specify US or worldwide as part of your account. I paid $4 to send a hardcover on Wed. But I only paid a $1 for it at the local library sale, and it was hardcover, nearly new, 1st edition. In return I'm mooching a book I wanted and wouldn't spend the money USED--a travel guide for Hong Kong averaging about $14. I couldn't get that book for $5 used, so, in theory I got a deal. There is a button to click there on Bookmooch to calculate the cost of sending it. Mine averaged $4.50, I spent $4.25, but since this was the first time sending it, I bought the confirmation too for another $0.85.

Message 92: SqueakyChu
I'd love to read along with the group if you pick an Asian book that I've not already read. So few people on BookCrossing do that.

-- have a look on my BookShelf (LyzzyBee on there too) - in my rings, AVLs and TBRs, I think you will find the odd Asian book you haven't read yet... maybe!

LyzzyBee

Just pick a book and propose a group read on the other topic.
is there anything you have in mind?
I think it would be great to have several group reads going. People can pick and choose which one they want to be apart of according to interest, time, etc.
I was thinking of also starting a Haruki Murakami, and one for Jhumpa Lahiri. Using readers guides that are available on their websites, and the internet, can't find any for Kitchen though without being charged for it. Also a group read of Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata sounds interesting if we could maybe get signature103 to run a formal discussion. I'd also like to explore some books relating to India.

Oh and BTW Hello to the new members! I sent out about 400-500 invites for new members today! Everyone listing a Banana Yoshimoto book in their library! A hundred or so Haruki Murakami catalogers too.

I'm on a bookray for Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami and need to start reading it this week. I'd sure love for someone to start a discussion here on this book as well. That would be great fun since I'll be reading this book whether or not others do.

Wow, Opinicus! You've sure been busy with this group! I sure do appreciate all your work.

One reason I rarely join online reading discussions is because they so rarely include books I want to read. I think I'm going to enjoy hanging around here.

On another note, my second favorite world fiction to read is Israeli fiction. I used to live in Israel so that is a big part of the reason. Since Israel is in Asia too, I hope to eventually see some books listed here that are by Israeli authors...Arabs as well as Jews. There is a wealth of fine contemporary fiction from Israel which is not too well known around the world other than by Jewish readers. Some Israeli authors I have enjoyed are Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua, David Grossman, Haim Sabato, and Sayed Kashua.

It would be nice if you could work out some sort of schedule (not more than a book a month), please, so I have time for other books. In that way, I might have more chance of finding the chosen books for a reasonable price. Whatcha think?

It might also be nice to do a different country each month. Asia is quite a large geographical area. Although the most abundant fiction may be from Japan and China, there's a world of Asian literature to be discovered.

I did see an interesting book, I put it on a list on my Bas Bleu group here. The Covenent by Naomi Ragen "Naomi Ragen is an American-born novelist and playwright who has lived in Jerusalem since 1971. She has published six internationally best-selling novels, and is the author of a hit play in Israel's National Theatre."
The Covenent at Bas Bleu website
Naomi Ragen Website

Yeah, I ignore the group for awhile working on some of my other groups, and came back to do some more work on it--especially when I discovered that I was spending more time on LT then READING! SO--it's back to reading while growing and enchancing the groups. What better way then to start some reading groups! I'm always dying for reading material, as I read a book every 1-2 days. I've been having to take my time to stretch my reading material! I've been reading a David Liss book and making it last since Monday.
I started the group to broaden my reading, and it's certainly has. Our touchstone author list is something impressive so far, and wille be keeping me busy. While I intially wanted to cover more Southeast Asia, I kept thinking about India as well. There is such a large array of material to read now it's amazing. I think it's a great idea to rotate countries/areas/regions. Switching from american/british born writers, to authors living in those areas as well.

I really wasn't thinking about novels written in English when I spoke about Israeli fiction. I actually tend to avoid those. I was referring to novels written by Israeli authors in Hebrew and then translated into English. There is one author I'd recommend who is not Isareli who does write excellent "Israeli" fiction. That is Edeet Ravel who is Canadian. I've read two (Ten Thousand Lovers, A Wall of Light) of her three novels and was delighted to get the one I did not yet read yet off of Bookins.

If you'd like to read a novel about India, try The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri. The author wrote the book in English, but was born in Bombay. Now he lives in the U.S. and teaches at the University of Maryland (that my daughter attends!) in Catonsille, Maryland. The book is great. It's a funny story of various people who live in an apartment building in Bombay. The book won a Barnes & Nobel Discover New Authors award. I recommended it to a friend of mine who is reading it now. She had once traveled to India, and loves the book as it reminds her of things she experienced while on her trip.

ETA: Oh...I forgot to mention that I have a bookray going for The Death of Vishnu.

See that's the cool thing about these groups, I can't judge or find a good book in translation til I hear about it from others. Until this group I didn't know about Haruki Murakami, once hearing so much, I knew I'd probably like it. But then again, I suppose if a book get's translated to English I should probably make a note of reading it. Signed up for The Death of Vishnu--sounds good.

Well I'll just mention my favorite book by an Asian fiction writer is 'Nip the buds, Shoot the kids' by Kenzaburo Oe who patterns himself more on western fiction writers more than Asians although he has Japanese settings. I've read Ha Jin a couple times and have liked him. I liked both books I've read by Amitav Ghosh 'The Calcutta Chromosone' and 'The hungry tide'. The second book I got signed off of E-bay. I will probably do a review on Oe's book and maybe one of Ghosh's books sooner or later. It's good to write something down that lets you remember the book in some kind of detail later on. I'd recommend that. That's one of the main reasons why I like this site so much. To be honest some of the Asian writers have left me kind of cold. Kawabata I've read twice and would say 'The master of Go' is okay. I did not care for 'Snow Country'. Shusaku Endo is pretty good--a kind of an abnormality as a catholic writer. The Chinese Nobelist Gao Xingjian's 'Soul Mountain' is good but I'm a little lukewarm there too. He is another writer that borrows from the west. As for western writers writing fiction set in the east at least at times David Mitchell is the best that I've come across.

Well I'll just mention my favorite book by an Asian fiction writer is 'Nip the buds, Shoot the kids' by Kenzaburo Oe

Inriley, I thought that was an excellent book...and my introduction to Oe. After reading that book, I decided to try to get more books by the same author, though I've not read the ones I got yet.

I could not get through Soul Mountain. :-( I was listening to it on cassette tape, but it became too long and tedious for me. I gave up about half-way through.

Don't mind me I'm just updating touchstones.
Ha Jin Amitav Ghosh The Calcutta Chromosome The Hungry Tide Kawabata The Master of Go Snow Country Shusaku Endo Gao Xingjian Soul Mountain

SqueakyChu,
Oe is definitely a modernist. A lot of the more famous Japanese writers like Kawabata who won the Nobel are more traditionalist. I haven't read a whole lot of Japanese writers--maybe 10 all together but the difference between the modernists and the traditionalists seems to me particularly stark and makes me think they're due almost to mindsets before and after World War II. I think that Oe falls into that category of rejecting a lot of what he grew up with. A lot of the best literature in any corner of the globe is often a literature of rejection and not of accepting things as they are. Endo may fall somewhere in between both camps--maybe Tanizaki too. As for younger writers I've never read Murakami--although I've looked him up on half.com and have thought about it but as a writer I'm not sure I'm going to like--his books on that site seem to cost more than I want to pay. Mostly over the years I've concentrated on Europe and the Americas and have maybe not been entirely fair to Asia and Africa. Things can change. It would help if I could discover another Oe or two.

Iriley (or others), maybe you can help me.

In reading about Japanese fiction, I often hear the terms "traditionalist", "modern" and "post-modern". I'm not exactly sure what they mean. Could you enlighten me and tell me how that applies to Japanese fiction specifically?

Murakami writing is a bit hard to get hold of if you want to get it inexpensively. His readers tend to like his writing and keep his books!!! I had two books of his myself in my collection. One is South of the Border;West of the Sun which is ciculating as a bookray on BookCrossing. There is no cost to sign up for that other than the postage to send it to the next in line. I can give you more information about BookCrossing if you'd like. The second book I had was The Elephant Vanishes and my daughter appropriated it for her permanent collection even before I finished it!!! I really loved some of the shorts stories in that collection. Had she not taken it, I'd have had a hard time putting it in the mail to someone else, if truth be told.

The other Oe books I have TBR are Somersault and The Silent Cry. Now all I need is the time to read them. :-)

A lot of the best literature in any corner of the globe is often a literature of rejection and not of accepting things as they are.

That's so true! It often takes a brave person to do this depending on which country the author is from and whether or not that author lives within his own country or is in exile!

Just looking at this borad for the first time, Opinicus I offer the following suggestions;

Set in Hong Kong though not during WWII The World Of Suzie Wong by Richard Mason gives nice a nice Hong Kong flavor, and the second book in the Karla trilogy John le Carre's The Honourable Schoolboy can be read as a stand alone, it sweeps around severall Asian locations but is mostly set in Hong Kong and is a great book.

Set during or near WWII but not in Hong Kong are:

The Singapore Grip by J.G. Farrell
A Town Like Alice by Neville Shute set in Singapore/Malaysia/Australia
Colombo Heat by Christopher Hudson set in Sri Lanka
Master of Rain by Tom Bradby set in Shanghai
The Sand Pebbles by Richard McKenna set in China
The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott and the rest of the Raj quartet set in India

One I haven't read yet but which might go in this category is The Hamilton Case.

Graham Greene's 'The Quiet American' is set in Viet Nam before the war. And then you have a whole shebang of Viet Nam war novels some of which are very good but maybe not as focused on settings or on the locals but more on the confusion of the occupation forces.

Michael Ondaatje who was born in Ceylon now Sri Lanka also has Anil's ghost a Booker prize winner. A memoir 'Running in the family'. There is the Indian sapper in 'The English Patient'.

Other fiction writers from the West writing about the East from some experience or another. J. G. Ballard, Andre Malraux, George Orwell, Henri Michaud, Paul West.

As to what 'my' definition of a difference at least in terms of modern and traditional in the Japanese novel it would be in the structure of the novel--might not be easy to put but there are givens that a character in a novel by a Kawabata would not even think of crossing. Gender roles for instance are very carefully defined. The role of a Father as head of household (or minor deity) in the family. Japanese pre World War II were brought up in a very rigid society. Japanese fiction seems to reflect that although from my one experience with Tanazaki 'Quicksand' he seemed to be stretching those limits for all they were worth. Oe as a writer discarded this traditional mentality. His novels have an anti-authoritarian feel. Satiric and sarcastic at times. Satire and sarcasm do not sit well with those who have rigid belief systems. Oe by the way has a son who was born with some kind of mental defect--a theme he uses in another of his novels 'A personal matter' which is well worth looking into. Besides being a great writer--he seems to be a very good man.

Thanks for the explanation, Iriley. I do have A Personal Matter in my TBR collection and hope to get to read it some day in the not too distant future

Hi,

I'm a newbie to Asian fiction and authors. (Which is an embarrassing shame as I am Asian.) The only one I can remember reading is The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. I've been following this thread and would love to join you in a book read. I'm already feeling a bit overwhelmed by reading I need to do for a couple of other book clubs and for courses I'm taking (not to mention a TBR pile that I glance over at guiltily every day), but I've heard a few people promise how tiny Kitchen is. It sounds like I should be able to squeeze it in :o)

I'll see you over at the Kitchen thread!

Kitchen is tiny. I finished it in two days. The book basically contains a novella and a short story.

I'm glad I sent the kids off to school today, so I can finish Kitchen--quite lovely.

ATTENTION

I have posted information about possible upcoming book reads on the Group Reads, BookRings & BookRays topic. Please weigh in there on the subject of having perhaps 2 groups reads going per month (participation optional) One Read would be perhaps exclusively Japanese & Chinese Literature, and the other group rotating among other Asian Literature.

Congratulations psflannery! You are our 150th member!

Well I ended up here through the "your books" section of talk because of Kitchen Confidential - Adventures in the culinary underbelly. Of course that is not the "Kitchen" that you are all talking about but there's a wierd association going on because although that book is set in the US he does talk about travelling to Japan and falling in love with it. Anthony Bourdain also has a show on the travel channel and the only episode I've seen is the one about Vietnam. Strange eh?

Anthony Bourdain is awesome! Can't wait to hear him talk more about getting stuck in Lebanon while filming an eposide during the latest crisis there.

Thanks for the invitation, Opinicus! :o)
The first book I read set in Asia was probably The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan, since then I've become a fan of her books. I also love Haruki Murakami and Gail Tsukiyama.
I'm hoping to get to know new authors with this group! :o)

I had to work really hard to get through Soul Mountain too. On the other hand, I loved his (Gao Xingjian's) One Man's Bible. This had two stories - one that of the present day author in an upmarket hotel in Hong Kong (if I recall), the other of his past during the Cultural Revolution. The third strand weaving between these two stories is his reflections - his treatise if you will - on The Novel.

I would recommend One Man's Bible even if (perhaps especially if) you had trouble with Soul Mountain.

Small correction: Michael Ondaatje's English Patient won the Booker Prize in 1992. Anil's Ghost unfortunately did not even make the shortlist.

Eliot Pattison's The Skull Mantra, though murder mystery, offers what I felt be a verys strong sense of place for modern Tibet.

If you're looking for more reads set in Hong Kong, I would recommend Timothy Mo's An Insular Possession, which brings the history of the place to life - and prompted me to go out and read the rest of Mo's work - and John Lanchester's Fragrant Harbour.

Thank you Opinicus! Very precious advice.

:-))

Re Namesake v Interpreter of Maladies: I have just finished The Namesake and am in full accord with Sivani. The Namesake has small moments of real beauty (particularly towards the end), but cannot match the exquisite short stories!

Wow, I've been to the library! My small hometown lbrary is stocked with Yoshimoto, and Murakami! Awesome!

I'm so glad this group was created! I'm a fan of Ha Jin and am looking for recommendations of other Asian writers. Maybe Anchee Min? ( Becoming Madame Mao looks interesting...) Or Gao Xingjian. I look forward to more ideas!

ya know, I got a copy of the cover of Becoming Madame Mao or is it Playing Madame Mao? I've been fighting with LT all weekend, to upload new covers anbd it just won't let me. Even some I've already upload, so I know they aren't too big.

I think the first book I read set in Asia was 'Taro and the Bamboo Shoot,' still one of my all time favorites.

As an adult, I can't really remember, but I had to read 'A Passage to India' in high school, which was one of the few that I remember having a strong negative reaction to (although I can't really remember why).

I started reading Yashimoto in high school as well, when Kitchen came out in translation, so probably her. Although in scanning back through, it might have been Amy Tan, and I read Maxine Hong Kingston in college.

Who can tell -- before entering my collection on here, I don't think I realized how Asia-centric my world lit preferences were!

Wow, I just finished Out by Natsuo Kirino. That was an amazing book, so intense! I have absolutely no idea what to follow that one up with and I've got 8 or 9 books in my To Be Read Pile.

Has anyone else read Out?

I love Ha Jin also...The Crazed was one of my favorites.

Opinicus - I read Out a few weeks ago. It was definitely intense, a perfect word for it.

Hi,
We’re doing having a book discussion about Banana Yoshimoto’s Kitchen in the Asian Fiction & Non-Fiction Group. We’re currently discussing style, and discussing whether or not the translation of Japanese to English presents a different tone, or is it a case of the translator or the authors words itself. We were curious to see, and have the opinions of readers who’ve read it in the original Japanese, and perhaps have also read it, or other works by her in the English translation who are fluent in Japanese. Please come over, and let us know your thoughts on this.

Thanks,
Opinicus

I absolutely love Yukio Mishima. I've read After the Banquet and Forbidden Colors. I was lucky enough to fall across a biography of him a few years ago (though I haven't read it yet).

Hey, did you hear that Natsuo Kirino has a new book Grotesque coming out Mar 13, 2007!

Kirino Natsuo Bubblonia

I was checking her out on Amazon and found Disparitions (Paperback)
by Natsuo Kirino, Silvain Chupin, but I can't figure out if this is the French version of "Out" or Soft Cheeks (which is to be translated), or another book, or even Grostesque.

Anyone know?

Most of the Asian fiction I have read is Japanese - shocking, I know - so I've loped on to pick up a few leads (I have some space in a hole I've carved in the wall for a few more books). I love the ethereal novels of Yasunari Kawabata. I've just read House of The Sleeping Beauties - the most elegant, elegiac novel I have ever read about nonconsensual love-making. I also enjoyed his novel involving the tea ceremony (so many years ago I've forgotten the title) - which inspired a fine novella by Cees Nooteboom. Also enjoyed Junichiro Tanazaki's Gourmet Club... and am looking forward to getting to my collection of Japanese supernatural tales.

And talking of Japanese tales, what about Lafcadio Hearn? I know he was not Japanese, but he lived most of his life in Japan, learnt to speak the language perfectly, and assimilated their way of life to the point of adopting a Japanese name (don't ask me which one because I do not remember).

Exactly! Lafacadio Hearn - his collection of horror stories based upon japanese folk beliefs has been on my must read shelf for years... as has a book by an author named something like "Arampo", which I understand is a Japanese rendering of our Edgar Poe - but I believe this fellow is or was Japanese and not Lafcadio - who along with James Huneker, Ben Hecht and Leonard Cline brought the decadent to these shores in the early part of the last century.

The books that got me hooked on Asia only partly took place there. Mainly The Secret Garden. So, as a small child I was obsessed with India.

Then it switched to China. Having devoted most of my undergrad years to her, I'm still pretty obsessed with China (and am sad no one's mentioned by favorite Chinese author yet--Mo Yan. Red Sorghum is a good introduction to him.)

Recently, I picked up Cracking India by Bapsi Sidhwa and that has returned me to the sub-continent...

Yes, Ben, Kwaidan (which you have too) is well worth reading, as well as Hearn's Japanese Tales.
Methinks I will try to get more of his books.....
:-))

Hi Guys!

I'm a filipino, so I will suggest you read some books by our authors. Right now, Philippine literature is in a rut, and those who purport to "write" good literature here are not actually doing so. It's more of a "I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine" scenario. However, I like to suggest that you get any Francisco Arcellana book that you can get since I think he has written the best stories (Nick Joaquin, move over) that I have read.

thanks for the suggestion, astroantiquity!
:-))

Dear astroantiquity - have you read Noli Me Tangere by Jose Rizal? I keep picking it up but haven't opened it yet...

I read Oe's novel A Personal Matter - it's is a very good, disturbing novel about a man who fathers a child with birth defects- reminded me of Dostoyevsky, who I was also reading at the time. I've grabbed up all his other novels I could find after reading it.

astroantiquity

While hunting for books, I found some Filipino Fiction on Amazon. It looked good. In fact I think I'll go change the group photo to one of the books.
I have Gangster of Love by Jessica Hagedorn. diaspora I believe, I'm hunting this one down at the library. I have some others too, to put up in the next month.

benwaugh (message 142), I believe the Kawabata novel you're referring to must be Thousand Cranes. It's an exquisite book. I had no idea Cees Nooteboom had written anything inspired by it. I'll have to search that out.

I think the writer you're referring to in message 144 as "Arampo" might be Edogawa Rampo. Rampo, considered the first modern mystery writer in Japanese, did indeed derive his pen name from the Japanese pronunciation of Edgar Allen Poe, and he was, as you can imagine, highly influenced by that writer. I own a collection of his tales called Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination, which I see you own as well. If you like Hearn, you'll definitely enjoy these.

to Message 152: marietherese

hello - yes, i agree... kawabata's writing is beautiful. i'm looking forward to reading more... just found the master of go on the "free shelves" here at the office. the cees nooteboom novel you'd be looking for is "rituals", by the way.

benwaugh, thank you for the name of the Nooteboom novel. I've added it to my list of books to search out soon.

It occurred to me that I should mention a Chinese writer that I actually know --Geling Yan. Her most recent book The Banquet Bug was her first written in English. Others available in English include The Lost Daughter of Happiness and The White Snake and Other Stories. She is very highly regarded in China.

Hi all, my first message and question to the group. My introduction to Asian lit was The Makioka Sisters by the wonderful Junichiro Tanazaki. I was hooked and haven't looked back. Usually I prefer pre-WWII settings, but I'm teachable. Most recently, I read The Strangeness of Beauty by Lydia Minatoya with my online book group; it's based on an I story of a Japanese woman (Etsuko) who emigrated to the US with her husband, only to return to Japan after her husband died and she takes her niece home to her mother who abandoned her (Etsuko) as a child. This book inspired the question I have for you knowledgable folks.

QUESTION: Can you suggest any books based on the reaction to the loss of WWII by Japanese living in Japan and supporting their role in the war? For example, Ishiguro wrote on that topic in An Artist in a Floating World and the shame that followed. Can you think of others?

I'd like to read about the 'other' viewpoint and the after effect.

Thanks

The first book I ever really read set in Asia was The Master of Go by Kawabata. That set me off on a Kawabata binge and I have read just about everything, though not all, of his work. For a while I stayed mostly in Japan in terms of fiction, reading Abe, Tanizaki, Oe, Mishima, Dazai, and Murakami. I have read Bei Dao and quite a few Chinese poets but I am looking to move a little more around. This is a fun group.

Hi, I'm so glad to have discovered this group! I've recently realized that my schooling significantly lacked in literature representative of other cultures, and am trying to make up for that now. I recently read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and was completely amazed by it. The writing was so beautiful, and through the book I got to "experience" a period of history and a way of life that I had not known of before. I have gotten a lot of ideas for my book wish list from reading the posts in this group :-)

Thanks to everyone who recommended Philip Snow's The Fall of Hong Kong. You were right it was EXACTLY what I was looking for!!!!

OMG! WE hit 300 members today! WOW!

GregStolze is #300!!!!

Last week's Time magazine international edition had a review of Geling Yan's The Banquet Bug on the occasion of its release in the UK where it is instead titled "The Uninvited", apparently thought to be more appetizing than Banquet Bug!

I saw Banquet Bug on Amazon. It looked like a great read, the whole premise being people who slip into a Banquet! That's funny that they changed the title for the UK!

Banquet Bug sounds like a better title to me. ;) To go back to the very first topic the first book I ever read that was set in Asia was James Clavell's Shogun--a huge cloth bound book belonging to my mother that was probably half my size.

I wanted to ask if anyone has read work by Eileen Chang? I read an article that featured her prominently in a recent New York Review of Books issue and, so conveniently, they just released her Love in a Fallen City. It looks good. (And the gorgeous cover helps.)

163 unread messages here and in Romance site at this moment.

I read Eileen Chang's short story "The Golden Cangue" in one of my Chinese-lit-in-translation classes in college. It was really good. I picked up Love in a Fallen City at the library. I haven't read it yet, but am looking forward to it.

I think the first Asian writing I recall reading would either be Vikram Seth's From Heaven Lake, or Pico Iyer's The Lady And The Monk, which I read at about the same time.

The reading I've done then seems to be concentrated in India, China and Japan - it strikes me that the literary traditions of all three have been made more accessible to Western audiences, and with both past and contemporary writing it's easier to find things. I've been making an effort to look for writing from other places - like the SE Asian countries or the Middle East recently.

The first book I read set in Asia? Good Lord, I have no idea. It was hundred and hundreds of books ago, and feels like a hundred years ago, too. I suppose it might have been SHOGUN.

I read pretty compulsively, and a big chunk of the books I choose are set in Asia. I recently enjoyed the hell out of SHANGHAI by Christopher New, the first in a trology, all of which are good but I liked the first one best, and FRAGRANT HARBOR by John Lanchester. I also like Christopher West's Chinese mysteries and I.J Parker's Japanese mysteries. Colin Cotterill's mysteries set in Laos, beginning with THE CORONER'S LUNCH are really delightful, just a whole new look at a country most of us probably haven't visited.

I read everything by Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto, and am also a fan of the big fat historical novels of Eiji Yoshikawa. But my favorite book in the world is THE DREAM OF THE RED CHAMBER in David Hawkes's translation, where it bears the title THE STORY OF THE STONE. I just don't know anything in the world like it, although the six PALLISER NOVELS of Anthony Trollope come closer than most in terms of scope and the sheer number of unforgettable characters.

But perhaps I'm running on here.

thallinan! The dream of the red chamber is the very first book I read set in Asia, and I loved it!
Definitely a great book.

The book, "To Beirut and Back" is a true story about the journey to get to Beirut as an entrepreneur. The Lebanese mentality required adjustments needed to succeed. Becoming involved as a victim in the Civil War in Lebanon with the loss of all possessions. The book talks about the participants in the Mid-East struggle. Check it out. ISBN 1-4241-3853-1.

lriley, thanks for mentioning Nip the buds, shoot the kids by Kenzaburo Oe. I remember reading it in high school.

Growing up in Singapore, my first experience with Asian literature (as opposed to, say, True Singapore Ghost Stories) was probably short stories by Catherine Lim. I remember reading So Far From the Bamboo Grove when I was 11, and it really resonated because the protagonist was 11 too.

In school, we had to do The Clay Marble and Sing to the Dawn, by Minfong Ho.

A memoir of growing up in North Korea by an escapee:

This Is Paradise! by Hyok Kang. Fast read with incredible artwork - the author is very talented!

--> 87

I finished Obasan and am ready to mail it on. I can't seem to contact you anywhere, Opinicus, so I'm opening up this bookring to anyone else in the U.S. (to keep it near-by) until I can locate you. (If you see this message, please contact me and tell me what you want me to do with this book. Thanks!)

If anyone (U.S. only, for now) is interested in reading this book, please send me a private message via BookCrossing. The book is ready to travel now.

"The Good Earth" by Pearl Buck really made an impression on me in my youth. I did grow up reading Japanese fairy tales, though, since I'm half Japanese. By the way, Gail Tsukiyama is coming to my town for a book fair in October!

I'm unsure the first books I read by Asians or set in Asia. I remember in the mid-70's while idly attempting to learn the Japanese board game called "go", I read Kawabata's "Masters of Go". I found it oblique and boring. But I saw a Thousand Cranes, and read that too. Then I think I read another. They made no vast impression on me.

In a resurgence of interest I got a copy of a book by J. Thomas Rimer called A Reader's Guide to Japanese Literature. I was really fascinated by it and tracked down a number of the books mentioned or recommended. Now I have all but a couple of the 50 he recommends.

I think the first I read in this more dedicated period was Kokoro by Nastume Soseki. I was floored by it. It too is quite oblique. But now I LIKE oblique!

And like it more with each work of Japanese fiction I encounter.

-- Gerry

Okay, at least one other person mentioned a children's story so I don't feel so bad about this...but I do believe the first story I read set in Asia was The Story About Ping :D

I'm afraid I don't recall the first actual adult story in Asia that I read was, as there have been so many. But the first one ever was definitely about Ping the duck.

Oriental fiction has been my big discovery of the past couple of years since falling in love with the work of Haruki Murakami. My library now also contains work by the unrelated Ryu Murakami, Ma Jian, Natsuo Kirino, Yukio Mishima, Xiaolu Guo and Banana Yoshimoto.

Have you tried FRAGRANT HARBOR by John Lanchester? Set in 1935 Hong Kong. (Putnam, 2002)

Lanchester is great! I own it but I've only read his other novels The Debt to Pleasure and Mr. Phillips.

The first Asian book I read was 'Chinese Cinderella, The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter' by Adeline Yen Mah.
I felt such sorrow for Adeline (main character) to have to go through all those awful events.

More Hong Kong books that have not been mentioned: City of the Queen, by Shih Shu-Ching, a wonderful novel (actually the author abridged a three-volume work that I wish could be translated in full; and two fascinating memoirs by Brits: Golden Boy by Martin Booth, and Myself a Mandarin by Austin Coates.

Has anyone read any of the books from this year's Chinese Nobel Prize winner?

183> no, i almost picked one up yesterday though, I think I might eventually

So pleased that Nadeem Aslam will be talking on writing and his new novel, The Blind Man's Garden, with Peter Hobbs, at the Southbank Centre on 16 April 2013, and with Kamila Shamsie at the Bath Festival on 10 March 2013.

Try Lisa See and Anchee Min as well.

John Burdett has several recent Asian novels, such as The Godfather of Kathmandu and Bangkok 8, among others. His works, according to radio show host, author, and public speaker Carolyn Casey, weave modern day themes with age-old mythological concepts and themes.

#188
You are no doubt new, as I am. If you do not know why you were flagged, as i certainly did not know why I was, and the flagging carries no explanation of what you may have done (properly) instead, the reason may be one or several -- among them SPAM. I myself was trying to introduce the Shakespeare-was-The-Earl-of-Oxford and two readers considered it SPAM, when it is simply my view vs. theirʻs (the Shakespeare-Is-Shakespeare
adherents). The Flagging can be used a bully tactic. I think there should be an explanation given by the Flaggers, for the reasons may be political even if honest opinions -- is this a democracy of readers of not?
I would guess the reason is you violated a rule: you promoted your own book. There are good reasons for the rule against that, but thereʻs also a potential hypocrisy about it too. I would suggest you get a friend to introduce your book.

There are so few Asian writers who get their views out into the public, I believe it is important for any who are interested in Asia and Asians to bind and help. Since you are obviously new as I am, the question is Where are the Rules? Frankly, I donʻt know. But there is a place where authors may post their own titles. I donʻt know where that is, but you should find out. Flaggers have a right to protest but I donʻt think much of a system that doesnʻt indicate how to address them. Try Tim Spalding, the founder. How do you find him? I donʻt know. There must be a Questions And Answer station. ( From Timʻs posts, heʻs friendly. ) Iʻd say Welcome, but Iʻm not sure Iʻm a member, either, of this "thread"? so like you, this may get flagged too. I for one would love to read your book. In fact, if I could read it, Iʻd be happy to write a review of it as Iʻm sure some of the members might also, without the peremptoriness of a Flag that for Asians often enough is taken as an insult. I donʻt think it was meant to be, though it feels like it, with six flags. The capitalistic society is market driven so it can be mean spirited, when without immediate provision for how to correct whatʻs wrong. The LT gang is usually friendly. My word on it. So donʻt go away. E mālama pono. (The Mana be with you.)

When you are new to LT it can be difficult to find information, because there's just so much going on here.

Here is the rule about author promotion:

"LibraryThing is not an advertising medium. Egregious commercial solicitation is forbidden. No matter how great your novel, this does apply to authors. (See Tips and Guidelines for Authors.)" This is from this page about Privacy.

However, there is a group where authors can talk about and promote their own books: Hobnob with Authors.

In addition, there is a page about How Authors Can Use LibraryThing.

Good luck!

How do you find an LT user, for example Tim Spalding? See that search box up in the right hand corner? Enter the name into it and then click on the magnifying glass.

Mahalo piha. (thanks, heaps).

A RICH THREAD this is! Iʻve been scrolling backward. As a young adult, I read Pearl Buckʻs GOOD EARTH, then the RED CHAMBER, followed by years of Japanese writers (prose and poetry) -- of the prose AKUTAGAWA, KAWAMOTO (SNOW COUNTRY, MOUNTAIN something), MISHIMA, but ALSO the early Women Writers like the Lady MURASAKI and Women Writersʻ works PILLOW BOOK of SEI SHONAGEN. Exquisite. Then followed Monogatari and then the very fine NOH and KABUKI PLAYS -- absolutely artistically sensuously rich and intensely violent. The Time (transiency of life:Death) and Life (Beauty: LIFE, tragic) themes are fascinating in many ways, especially for the connections to Buddhistic view (and Shinto practice I think overlapping at some levels) with the military. Iʻdiscovered Kenneth Rexrothʻs translation of Li Chiʻang Chaoʻs poems (12th c.), for which see my introductory review. Earlier there was another prose (female) writer who died under the communist rule, after her familyʻs village community was destroyed and she, belonging to a leading family of it, fled, to enter various lives including prostitution but finally journalism, where she met the leading writer of the day (not translated, at the time). The latter led to the acknowledgement of her genuine literary talents. I apologize not remembering her name --Yu-lan something?.. Question: Why is MAXINE HONG KINGSTON"S epic mythic Magic-Realistic WOMAN WARRIOR not being HELD ALOFT AS THE FOREMOST AMERICAN NOVEL BY A CHINESE? Everyone writes of Frank Chin, who also seemed to have specialized in himself as he dismissed others whom he considered rivals. WOMAN WARRIOR remains tour-de-force, in literary AND CULTURAL terms. Let me PLANT a CANDLE for WOMAN WARRIOR. May it Never be extinguished. LONG LIFE TO IT! To me, what is so marvelous about it, among other things, is -- Hong Kingston dealt with CHINESE, first, and then translation, so one may examine the Chinese origination of concepts about women, their expressions, life environment, the effects of such in the China of a certain time and in transported form to the U.S. and THEN, through a Chinese speaking daughter whose first language is ALSO ENGLISH! MODERN. Basically not self-referential, but cross-culture focused with genuine depths in the underside of that grainy and special-to-an-immigrant-female=childʻs experience of the West, of the U.S., of California . . . of the Post Modern period. The period was virgin territory for writing. Immigrant, not middle class. And from an increasingly growing consciousness of two great cultures to holding together when they are so obviously apart, of two historically different traditions, especially of belief and practice. Of the latter, e.g., where HEALING IS the TRADITION to medicine which is new. And HEALING BY WOMEN in contrast to Medicine by Men. In the end, the first is subdued, but continues; the second roars on into research and experiment, peaking in Cancer, e.g., about which we now have a superb NOVELISTIC account by MUKHERJEE called THE EMPEROR OF ALL MALADIES. Cancer, Mukherjee posits is a Modern Age disease. China and India came to the fore in the U.S.A. These are not results of the individualizations of ethnic studies but the warp and woof of all intercultural general patternings of de-culturations and a-culturations for a re-culturation moving into a promising future.

But rather than write about what I have read, Iʻd rather learn what you (all) have read and especially those who actually lived and/or live in Asia, are Asian, and who have adopted Asia. This is one thread I look forward to hearing about.

The other thread I sm interesting in pursuing concerns Indian writers. Numerous titles, names, but for this decade at least THE GOD OF LITTLE THINGS by ARDUHATI ROY is my most favourite. The method of storytelling, the technique of exposition by parallel and counters are masterful. But I must also say I had occasion to find Nehruʻs History of the World (written when he was imprisoned by the British) and read it. Like H.G. Wellsʻ HISTORY (about which there was a controversy), it is worthwhile reading -- for the times. Since when the world has evolved/devolved/evolved? beyond accurate description to satisfy historians even of great note.

Let us not forget CHILDREN"S LITERATURE, however. RUTH TABRAH was a Buddhist minister, who translated MOMOTARO: PEACH BOY etc. with the greatest Charm and gifted sense of childrenʻs story-telling needs: i.e., deeply philosophical but simply written in symbolic style as tale. The effect is often haunting as mysteries are haunting, and dangers at sword point with Special Forces like Character -- innocence and light, illusion and reality, time then and now, undersea and earth above sea. The religion is not preached. It is embedded in the story as it unfurls. Non-Buddhist children are not converted -- there is no sense of any such "necessity"? but a level gazed sense of first x happened, then y, then z. For those who understand the Buddhistic faith, that z goes on to z1, z2, z3 and more particularizations, in a free flow in and out of space/time. An adult may see the Buddhist faith (generalized, I suspect -- or Mahayana, although there are different words for different views of form, e.g. Zen, about which I can not say with confidence, but wish to ensure would-be readers of the wonderful experience, no matter what the words point to for/to adults). CHILDRENʻS LITERATURE, at its BEST, is the DISTILLATION of adult literature, not a puny version of senior learning. It is PROFOUND., as many folk tales and songs are, e.g. Russian, Chinese, Polynesian; contemporary tastes may not much heed it, but the best taste-masters do. It is the pearl within the clam. And that is of great price, as all children know, upon meeting, if not distracted, or corrupted, or dog to sheep trained.
Translations are critical (so it would be good to find a trustworthy guide): e.g. is it fair to speak of Chinese folk tales as "fairy tales" or for that matter --the Brothers Grimmʻs German folktales as "fairy tales" in order to make both palateable to English speaking readers whose folktales are not done justice to by the notion of "fairy," which is a travesty. (The fairies were a late hoax.) The venerable collections like Eberhardʻs for Chinese, followed by Arthur Waleyʻs translations, e.g., are guides; but there may be newer e.g. Jordan of UC (whom I do not know) and First Language Speakers, which is I think more apt to provide depth understandings of themes, in plot (motivated action), and so forth. Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Malayan, etc. promise worlds of pleasure and learning, Sir Phillip Sidneyʻs Latin borrowed phrase (probably Senecaʻs) "instruction and delight."

NOW BACK TO THE PAST, to see what the Future was then -- and the writing of history, by pen and ink, before a typescript copy from the stolid, then wonder of a body of typewriter like the Underwood.

O, all you students of Asia -- NYUʻs A/P/A Institute, Pennʻs A/P/A members of Kelley Writersʻ House, Boston Universityʻs Writersʻ organizations (AGNI, e.g.), Iowaʻs Writersʻ Group, the University of Hawaiʻiʻs HAWAIʻI REVIEW (UHM) and UHH and the Community Colleges, the National Assoc. of Penn Womenʻs groups)l etc. Wonʻt you join us. Share with us, please. And those in India, China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar . . .Australia, New Zealand . . .England, Germany, Russia . . , ,Countries whose scholars have contributed enormously to Asian and Pacific/Asian studies as have Coffee/Tea Shops where poetry is RECITED and literature is a winging flock of birds.

It seems we are in store for a new translation of The Tale of Genji. I would like to reread the story and perhaps this is the next version I should pick up.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2015/08/01/books/new-translation-worlds-olde...

#192:

"Why is MAXINE HONG KINGSTON"S epic mythic Magic-Realistic WOMAN WARRIOR not being HELD ALOFT AS THE FOREMOST AMERICAN NOVEL BY A CHINESE?"

Because she's an American, born in Stockton, California?