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Title: National Book Award???
Review: Perhaps the reason I didn't like this book is that I'm Chinese, or that I bought it after reading Golden's "Memoirs of a Geisha" which I thought was lyrical. The prose style here is wooden, as if the author were trying to sound "translated". The narrative style seemed to me bureaucratic; again, this may have been the writer's intention, but it seemed ultimately clumsy. The characters were almost caricatures; given other reviews, perhaps they were exotic, but they didn't engage me at all. Even the metaphorical political and environmental ambiance seemed mechanical. National Book and PEN award winner???
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