The Gunners of Shenyang: A Memoir by Yu Jihui

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Gunners of Shenyang cover imageThe Gunners of Shenyang by Yu Jihui, Signal 8 Press, ISBN 9789881554024, Available now.

In the West we’ve become used to a diet of memoirs from Chinese writers of life under communism. Most often they are depressing, scary and almost unbearably sad, which isn’t that surprising when they cover events such as The Great Leap Forward (“Estimates of the death toll range from 18 million to 45 million”), the Cultural Revolution and Tiananmen Square.

What we don’t often get is fart jokes. The Gunners of Shenyang is an interesting mix then of stoicism and slapstick, flatulence and famine.

Set in 1962, just as The Great Leap Forward is coming to an end, The Gunners of Shenyang is the author’s memoir of his time at university, where the students are starving and attending endless rounds of political meetings. The narrative is told in first person by the author, “Soapy” (his college nickname) and revolves around himself and his dorm-mates and their various quests to talk to girls, find extra food and amuse themselves in a time of no amusement.

Eventually the stories coalesce around Big Zhang, an older boy who takes delight in telling tales and baiting fellow serious students. There is a certain inevitability in The Gunners of Shenyang; the angry nonconformist who is eventually forced into conformity is not exactly a new story.

It’s an interesting read, if one that could do with a better edit, and the endless talk about farting does wear thin. Yu Jihui also seems to suffer from a crisis of confidence in his ending – I’m not entirely convinced it got where it wanted to go.

If you’re interested in personal histories from China this is another worthy addition – with only a few caveats.

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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Americanah cover imageAmericanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Harper Collins, ISBN 9780007362622, RRP $34.99, Available now.

About five pages into Americanah I had this thought: “my god, Adichie can tell a story”. She really can. Five pages in and I was hooked already, and I enjoyed that sensation every time I picked the book back up – reading and reading and reading until the story is done.

Americanah is the story of Ifemelu, a Nigerian woman who takes on America, and it’s also a story of how people can drown when they take on America. It’s a story of love, of redemption and how your life can seem to be one thing on the outside but be something entirely different in your head.

It’s also about race, how we make distinctions about people. How we “know” the difference between an african-american and an american-african. How incredibly blind some people can be, blind in a way that is willful, a way that is all about making themselves feel better about their choices – in life, in relationships with others, in love.

We start the novel as Ifemelu decides to get her hair braided in anticipation of returning to Nigeria, and as she does so we go through flashbacks of her life, starting with her meeting the boy who is obviously going to be the love of her life, Obinze. During her college years Ifemelu leaves Obinze, moves to America and endures years of student destitution and horrendous choices, she graduates and eventually she starts a blog about race and America, and it is her writing which seems to give her some sense of place. Then she makes the choice to turn it all around. And go home.

The mastery of Adichie is how incredibly empathetic her characters are; here I am, a white New Zealand blogger, and I feel that I know Ifemelu, I understand her and I loved reading her voice – she is smart and funny but also a little bit broken.

I was enthralled by Americanah.

It’s important to support minority interests… like rugby

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Yet again it amazes me how when it comes to hugely popular and privately-supported sports event the public purse can always be relied upon to somehow find that extra $1,000,000 or so, but when it comes to hugely popular and privately-supported cultural events the public purse can’t find $30,000.

When sport is a success we fall over ourselves trying to give it money but when culture is a success we tell it to stand on its own two feet.

Seriously, it’s hard to believe that the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival only got $50,000 to start with. After all, it’s only the equivalent of 5 second rate All Black wedding photos sold to Women’s Day.

Some days I think this is the better option:

 

Short reviews for a rainy Sunday

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The Secret Life of James Cook cover imageThe Secret Life of James Cook by Graeme Lay, 4th Estate, ISBN 9781775540120, RRP $36.99, Available now.

The Secret Life of James Cook is a fictional account of Cook’s early years, how he entered the Navy, his early Naval career and ends with his first circumnavigation of the world.

It also presents something of a problem: apparently the secret life of James Cook was really boring. Fictional accounts of real events need to commit to one of two things – either they are strictly sticking to facts as known (ma’am) or they throw themselves into the fictional and really go all out. The Secret Life of James Cook does neither of these things and therefore suffers from a sense of total blah. Cook comes across as a swotty naval wonk, his wife Elizabeth is insipid and Banks is tedious. Which I suspect Banks wasn’t.

I think this sums it up:

He read avidly the work of the Greek mathematician Euclid, in particular his Elements, which had been lent to him by Lord Colvill. He found it a brilliant work of geometry. Learning that Euclid was born in 300BC, he appreciated that the mathematical knowledge of the Ancients was remarkable, and that his theories were highly applicable to the art of navigation.

I’m not a violent person but this made me want to beat up the youngish James Cook, just a little bit.

The Daylight Gate cover imageThe Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson, Random House, ISBN 9780099561835, RRP $19.99, Available now.

Winterson is an always surprising author and she can write a tale like nobody’s business. Everyone knows Oranges are Not the Only Fruit but my favourite is Sexing the Cherry, which was an historical novel with a hallucinogenic bent. Which is why I was excited to read The Daylight Gate – also an historical novel this time set during the reign of James I and dealing with witch trials.

Winterson doesn’t disappoint. The Daylight Gate is visceral, grossly capturing the smells, sights, diseases and fear of north England in the 17th century. It is a bone-chilling fear Winterson is dealing with here – the complete unpredictability of life when you don’t own your soul, your brain or your body.

The story follows Alice Nutter, a rich woman who has the misfortune to ride (literally) into the middle of a grotesque family assembly being broken up by equally grotesque figures of authority. This sets her on a collision path with Thomas Potts, discoverer of witches.

The Daylight Gate is a thrilling and quick read, dealing equally brilliantly with the spiritual and the corporeal.

A History of Food in 100 Recipes by William Sitwell

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A History of Food in 100 Recipes cover image

A History of Food in 100 Recipes by William Sitwell, HarperCollins, ISBN 9780007411993, RRP $49.99, Available 14 June 2013.

It seems this “a history of xx in 100 xx” is now a thing. I assume it all stems from A History of the World in 100 Objects, which is no bad thing since that is a great book (and object and podcast).

This kind of “they’re doing it so why don’t we” copying can produce variable results. Fortunately, however, not in this case.

A History of Food in 100 Recipes is entertaining, mouth-watering and interesting, full of titbits of history, food and eating.

Just as the seizing of the English throne by William of Normandy marked a significant period in English history, so the proliferation of the hair sieve marked a significant moment in its own way, one that you could call WFL, or White Fluffy Loaf. Hence there is the period BWFL (Before White Fluffy Loaf) and AWFL (After White Fluffy Loaf).

Sitwell (a foodie mag editor) goes right back to the ancient Egyptians first making unleavened bread and takes us on a ride through the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Europe, England, France, the Americas, more England, more France, France, France, France, India, Rice Krispie treats, Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver, France… you get the idea.

And, like any good book, Hitler.

We might not have yet reached her vegetarian paradise, but those apparent “visionaries” have included some pretty distinguished individuals (as well as, er, Hitler).

Let’s face it, food has shaped who we are, and will continue to do so, for better and for worse. Investigating history through food is a damn good idea and even if you’re the most adamant opponent of the “foodie” fad, you’ll still enjoy this.

But if you want another measure of the spirit of these discussions it comes when referencing one Arixtoxenus: “The theatres have become completely barbarised and… music has become entirely ruined and vulgar.” No doubt he also felt that young people had no respect.

Digital State: How the Internet is Changing Everything, edited by Simon Pont

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Digital State cover image

Digital State: How the Internet is Changing Everything, written and edited by Simon Pont, Kogan Page, ISBN9780749468859, RRP $42.99, June 2013.

As many pages as there is on the internet, there is an equal amount of pages spent dissecting, analysing, reminiscing and predicting what the internet is, where it’s going and how it’s “changing everything”.

Which is fair enough. It is insane.

Digital State is something of a history of the interwebs, and something of a “where are we going?” projection forward. As is often the case with collections of different writers the quality is a little variable, ranging from ho-hum to decently engaging to crazily out there.

There is some repetition (“I heard about this weird internetty thingy in 199x and so took a good look and wow!”) but overall the message is that our society and culture and economy will never be the same, which is true. Some of the best essays are by Faris Yakob – serious thinking about the possibilities of digital and where we’re going with it –  and Judd Labarthe.

The “I’d like you to meet” schtick at the beginning of every writer’s essay is a little wearing, but overall I’d recommend this for people who don’t just like to use the internet but like to think about what it means.

Note: weirdly I read this in ebook edition and it was a little messed up, with bad layout, lower case when it should have been upper case, a mix of cases in titles and words running together…