| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'Chen is a great creation, an honourable man in a world full of deception and treachery'
(Guardian )'With strong and subtle characterisation, Qui Xiaolong draws us into a fascinating world where the greatest mystery revealed is the mystery of present-day China itself.'
(John Harvey )'A luminescent synthesis of a thriller and a literary novel'
(Independent on A LOYAL CHARACTER DANCER )'Chen stands in a class with Martin Cruz Smith's Russian investigator, Arkady Renko, and P.D. James's Scotland Yard inspector, Adam Dalgliesh.'
(Publishers Weekly (Starred review) )'As modern China's profile rises, so too does the stock of literature from and about it. But Shanghai-born Qiu Xiaolong's Inspector Chen detective series is one of the freshest and most unpredictable of the lot.'
(Newsweek )Review
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
The mystery itself isn't particularly fascinating, but it does provide an interesting perspective on modern Chinese history for those who aren't particularly familiar with it. The murdered woman had written an autobiographical novel ("The Death of a Chinese Professor") about her forbidden love affair with an intellectual poet when they were in a reeducation camp during the Cultural Revolution. She had been a Red Guard who was then denounced, and he was an intellectual, and thus politically"black" (ie. an enemy of the working class). The Cultural Revolution looms over the proceedings, and proves to have a powerful legacy even three decades later. Detective Yu is reduced to probing the political past of the people who lived in her building in order to try and learn of the motive for her killing. These political nuances will likely be rather complex to the general reader (despite the author's best efforts to explain all), which diminishes from the story somewhat. The investigation never really gathers any momentum, and there's never much of a sense of urgency about the matter. It's also weakened by a rather belated effort to follow what most readers will perceive to be a rather promising lead.
As in the previous books in the series, classical Chinese poetry is cited ad nauseam, and any scene involving food is lovingly lingered over and described in great detail. But perhaps the most interesting element of the book is its portrayal of the rise of capitalism in China, complete with rural to urban migration, conspicuous consumption, and overpopulation. While I was reading this, the New York Times ran a lengthy series of articles about rising class inequities in China and social and political unrest this has led to as the establishment benefits from corruption and factory and farm workers are left behind. The book does a nice job of showing the seeds of this, and how Chen and Yu struggle with the implications of this new economy. Chen is very clearly aware that he is being vastly overpaid for his translation and waits quietly to see what the quid pro quo will be. When it comes at the end, it reveals just how murky the ethical waters can be as Chen walks a fine line between grabbing a piece of the pie and falling in bed with the leaders of the new economy. So don't read this if you're looking for a gripping mystery, but do read it if you're interested in a nuanced account of the beginnings of Chinese capitalism and what life is like in a huge Chinese city populated by cast of well-realized characters.
I read this book because I had loved `Death of a Red Heroine', and if I were to compare the two books I would say that I'm disappointed. DoaRH had the perfect balance between police procedural novel and political and cultural sensibilities. WRIB is much more about the politics and country but without the same depth of detail and roundedness of the first book. It was a shame that Inspector Chen was not involved in the investigation which was simplistic and easily solved, unlike the cases in the previous novels. Even the touches of poetry, which were a highlight in previous novels, seemed forced here and not particularly relevant to the story.
It's such a shame that the promise shown in the first book seems to be dwindling.
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
