Title: Don't Believe the Hype
Product review: I read some of the hype about this book and picked it up at the library-wish I hadn't. It resulted in possibly the most annoying few hours I've ever spent reading. Make no mistake, I enjoy good surrealism (Gogol for one) and noir (Chandler, et al), and I am reasonably well steeped in Asian pop culture, but this was a total disappointment. It starts confusingly, but I figured things would gradually clear up as I read along, however by the end I was no further along in understanding the book. The aimless plot clearly is meant as a portrait and critique of modern urban Chinese society, with it's attendant cynical wheeler-dealer underworld figures, but that's about it. Stephen King bafflingly blurbed it as "the most brilliantly entertaining hardboiled novel of the 90s." It might actually work better as film, perhaps in the hands of a master of atmosphere and mood like Wong Kar Wai.
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