An Yu has been on my radar since I boldly resisted a copy of Ghost Music a while back on Net Galley.
I would gaze at the titles which are tempting indeed and then for whatever reason, sail on by.
But this time, in a bold effort to meet my reading goal of "books completed" I decided to jump into Braised Pork- a novella that, on audio, lasts about 5.5 hours.
This was such an interesting read. I cannot say I had exactly a "good time" with it, but I can say it held my attention, and that days later, I'm still mulling it over.
I admit, I am NOT a fan of the minimalist- abstract-ish cover, but, I also don't hate it. It just didn't do much for me as a reader overall.
Weird Girl fiction is ALL THE RAGE - at least over on the Book Tok. It seems either one is a romantasy gal, or a weird girl reader- very rarely do the two mix it up. I kind of like both, and I am going to make the case that Braised Pork is essentially kind of a weird girl novella.
Set in Beijing and Tibet, we follow Jia Jia, a young woman who married for security it seems. She was a painter, but hasn't been painting much. He businessman husband is found dead in a bathtub in their apartment. She's surprised but seems to move on from that with a disaffected style- starting an affair with the local bartender, and navigating some complex financial situations. All the while, she occasionally- not too often- starts to think about a drawing and a dream her now deceased husband shared with her. A dream of a man that was half fish with a man's head.
As she glides through her life, picking up a few art jobs, and seeing the bartender intermittently, she becomes obsessed with the image of a "fish-man" that her husband described and drew for her after a business trip to Tibet. She begins to paint it, but cannot complete it. At this point, she decides the best action is to take a trip-- the same trip-- that her husband did.
Readers are taken on a wild ride through Tibet, discovering supernatural moments and a place where time seems to slightly- ever so slightly bend. Jia Jia returns with a better understanding of her world and her place in it.
I'm still unsure if this is meant to be a piece of literary mood fiction with some magical realism, or a deeply symbolic meditation/depiction of mental illness. I feel like I could make the argument either way and be ok with it, so I suspect - for readers- it's a "take the interpretation that works best for you at this point in time" kind of conclusion.
I loved that so much was packed into this novella that still manages to feel as if one is reading along on a slow moving stream. I was often confused, and left to ponder pieces here and there. This is a good one to savor on a weekend morning at a coffee house. Definitely recommend- especially if you've gone through all the "usual" weird girl recommendations and are hankering for more.
First Published : 5/14/2020
Pages: 240
Available as an Audio Book : yes ~ 5 hrs
Trigger Warnings: alcohol use, death, on page sex (non graphic) , smoking, divorce, (this is not a full list, read responsibly)
No comments:
Post a Comment