Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen: A Manifesto in 41 Tales [Paperback]

This airport buy turned out to be a strange little gem. Very rude, very funny, very touching. Lot's of magical-realism, which can leave me a bit cold. In this case though it fitted comfortably with very convincing and compelling characterisations. I could read about the twins' granny through several much fatter volumes. If you're looking for something interesting, wickedly funny, strangely emotionally enaging with a flawlessly light touch, this unique and uncategorizable book might fit the bill.

An immigrant coming of age tale of twins, Moonie and Mei Ling, in California under the beady eye (and cleaver) of their domineering grandmother, this tale is told in a non-linear variety of short parables and stories. It's graphic, crude and rude in many places but is informed by traditional Chinese, Taoist, Zen and Buddhist texts with a bit of kung-fu and manga for good measure.

Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen (oh, how I love that title!) will almost certainly not be to everyone's taste, but I confess that I loved its originality, boldness, sassy style and the humour of it.

If this book were a CD, it would almost certainly carry one of those "parental advisory" stickers. Make no mistake, this is not for the overly sensitive reader. It's rude, nay even crude, in many places and that alone will probably put some people off. While I'm at it, let's get the other potential frustrations out of the way. It's a non-linear story; in fact it's more of a series of short (sometimes very short) stories and parables all about the same people that add up to a whole picture of an immigrant coming of age tale - but more about that in a moment. Finally, it has a number of areas of what might be termed either magical realism or perhaps more accurately surreal moments (talking animals included). If any of these put you off, then you will almost certainly not enjoy this strange little book. It's not a book you are likely to feel ambivalent about - it's a 'love it' or 'hate it' kind of book. A 'Marmite book', if you like.

The fantastic characters in this story include Grandmother Wong - the mad, matriarch of the Wong family who frequently wields her meat cleaver and has a tongue sharper than a serpent's tooth but who deep down has a warm heart, and who is frankly on a hiding to nothing raising the twins, who are the stars of this book, in California while trying to maintain some of the values of the old country. The twins' parents are too busy working in the family restaurant, the Double Happiness, to have much to do with the girls.

Which brings me to the twins: Moonie and Mei Ling. They have very different characters - Moonie is tom-boyish and prone to attacking people kung-fu style, while girly-girl Mei Ling is, well, there's no nice way of saying this, a bit on the promiscuous side. That's far more polite than how Moonie would describe her, and undoubtedly more than she deserves. We get some very graphic descriptions of the antics of both girls - and believe me, these two Wongs do not make a right. After reading this book, I can assure you, you will never look at tofu in the same light again.

The book is at times angry, but mostly just very funny (in a fairly crude way) and focusses on issues of identity, culture, traditional values and immigrant issues as well as being a coming of age story as the twins emerge from the family unit into university and return to wreak havoc in California, driving the family restaurant delivery van in the holidays and getting up to no good. Towards the end of the book we get to find out how their lives turned out, particularly that of Mei Ling.

What prevents this from being just a light, shock value book is that Marilyn Chin's writing is informed by Chinese, Taoist, Zen and Buddhist tales as well as kung-fu and manga. She parodies Buddhist and Zen tales and koans - the traditional question and answer technique "designed to be nonsensical, circuitous, often shocking and humorous to force the student to relinquish conventional thinking and thereby achieve instant enlightenment" as Chin explains in her Postscript.

Chin uses a variety of styles and voices - some work better than others - but it is the combined effect that is so much fun. It's a short book and quick read but I would happily have read far more about these wild twins and their wonderfully mad grandmother.

And rather appropriately for a book set around the family Chinese restaurant - an hour after finishing the book, I wanted to read it all over again!