Lulu: 5.5

not so out of touch or cringe as e.g. "Ready Player One," but it seems as though the author writes about an alternative lifetime for herself from the eyes of a fictitious brother about whom she guess what it’s like to be a gamer boi. It seems exactly like what I’d expect from the blurb on the jacket (good job blurb on the jacket ig) as a collection of short stories from a young Chinese author. Strokes of political activism and authoritarian overtones.

Hotline Girl: 5

A story about a girl who works for a government satisfaction office and gets cornered (sort of) by a 3/10 creepy ex bf. More affirmation of the stolid lifestyle of an agent of the state and life in Beijing. author doesn’t make make Bayi out to be very sympathetic, willingly meeting up with the ex boyfriend who is obviously stalking her. No sign or indication of obligation or coercion, just nothing better to do on a friday night or something? Stupid and for what, nothing comes of it other than an awkward conversation and a run in with her bootlicker coworker.

A New Fruit: 6

I think it’s a metaphor for state religion. New fruit from Chinese Monsanto corp causes euphoric effects. People are connected and good things happen.

The absence of the fruit over the winter brings cold anticipation and isolation. The V2 of the fruit causes immense grief and guilt for past trespasses, to the point that people kill themselves, or confess to water well under the bridge ultimately leading to the state banning the sale of the fruit. The people wait patiently for V3, lacking purpose in the meantime.

Field Notes on a Marriage: 5.5

I bit more enticing I suppose, if only for the air of mystery. The mystery isn’t presented very cleverly, and the payoff not so grand. It once again boils down to awkward steely silence between two people, the implication being because of Chinese culture. The final scene is a very brief, seemingly unrelated vignette about imminent domain. Again I’m sure that there’s a symbolic purpose to a house that has had a moat dug around it to encourage abandonment as a parallel to the narrator’s dead husband, but it fails to deliver any sense of sympathy.

Flying Machine: 5.5

A little bit more moving than the other stories. An old man who insists he’s an engineer and the village locals fawn over his trash machines. He attempts to build a plane, but only succeeds in making a car with wings. His visions of gaining enough importance flounder as the CCP party member is unimpressed by his invention. Folks love him, but he remains discontented, yearning for the simplicity of the past when he was an important art member, despite the famine. A profile of the mindset of old men perhaps?

On the Street Where You Live: 7

Another stalker story. Similar tones and motivations as Humber Humbert. Weird paternalism, toxic secrecy. Stalking. The layered narration elevates this one to be just slightly below average since it's still lacking substance and character, but it's a step in the right direction

Shanghai Murmur: 5

What is it with everyone in this collection being a friggin stalker. Little country girl in Shanghai falls in love with a customer, withholds a lost item of his in order to get to spend more time with him, stalks him down to return it, and then wanders aimlessly (wondering if she should sell her body to make money in the big city) in search of the same pen which she has lost, as a symbol of her inability to reach into a higher social class. At least there's conflict in this one but otherwise blegh

-- To Jennifer Egan, who said this was "gripping and illuminating" your recommendations are weighted negatively from here on out

Land of Big Numbers: 6

More of a sympathetic story than the preceeding ones I guess? Kid is dumb as embezzles the CCP, markets crash and he hopes they'll compel big companies to buy up stocks to stabilize the markets before his government job realizes he moved money to himself and then lost it. Too stupid to short the market, and also hoping for the government (that he's stealing from) to save his ass. Instead he grovels for money from his family and in the process learns about how his father caught a stray bullet in a protest during the revolution which explains his now-drunken stupor. Hubris of youth and the crushing authoritarianism which smacks harder than any semblance of a free market? Idk, it's not a cohesive story

Beautiful Country: 4.5

This one punctuates the theme of discontented complacency present throughout all these stories. Not that the author is obligated to deliver a sappy or even just a happy story, but all her characters seem to be bad or stupid people who make passively negative observations about their lives (at best), and at worst do immoral things while the author sneaks in some commentary either about America being ~different, or China being bad. Like what're you getting at, Chen? all of these stories together paint a profoundly sad picture.

Bukeikou Spirit: 5.5

The most creative story by far, but annoying in its inability to explain a frustratingly solvable premise for a conflict. Either give the reader more, or less information, but the carrot on the stick amount of justification for why people are trapped in a train station but continue to receive supplies from guards that hold them captive because of the "rules" is so asinine it weakens the whole story. Reminds me of a Jackson's Lottery though in the group dynamics

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