andrew61's review
4.0
I heard about this book on the excellent 'Literary friction' Podcast when the author was interviewed by the hosts, It sounded like an intriguing read and so it proved.
Jia jia is married to Chen Hang and they live in a Beijing apartment in what we later learn is a marriage in which she has had her personality and talents suffocated by her controlling partner. When Jia Jia walks into the bathroom to find her husband dead in the bath her life dramatically changes as she has to reflect on life as a single woman , new relationships , and the legacy of her parents separation and mother's death. This leads her to visit Tibet where her decision to follow a last journey made by her husband sees intricate threads linking back to Jia Jia and her visions of a half man half fish creature.
The book has a magical element to it throughout with a theme of water dominating Jia Jia's waking and sleeping dreams and she struggles to capture her visions in her painting which she rediscovers now Chen Hang can no longer prohibit her craft. The art mirrors sculptures made by her mother of the same image and also a drawing by Chen Hang before he died . This capturing of an elusive image I found very haunting and the magical element did not detract for me from this beautifully but very plainly told tale. I liked many other aspects including JIa Jia's reconciliation with her father who tells her the story of her mother, the love interest with barman Leo and his curious parents, Jia jia's aunt and grandmother and the characters she meets in Tibet including the grandfather of her translator who again brings the story back around to fish men and Jia jia's mother.
Overall this was an intriguing but compulsive story and I cannot wait to see what the author does next.
Jia jia is married to Chen Hang and they live in a Beijing apartment in what we later learn is a marriage in which she has had her personality and talents suffocated by her controlling partner. When Jia Jia walks into the bathroom to find her husband dead in the bath her life dramatically changes as she has to reflect on life as a single woman , new relationships , and the legacy of her parents separation and mother's death. This leads her to visit Tibet where her decision to follow a last journey made by her husband sees intricate threads linking back to Jia Jia and her visions of a half man half fish creature.
The book has a magical element to it throughout with a theme of water dominating Jia Jia's waking and sleeping dreams and she struggles to capture her visions in her painting which she rediscovers now Chen Hang can no longer prohibit her craft. The art mirrors sculptures made by her mother of the same image and also a drawing by Chen Hang before he died . This capturing of an elusive image I found very haunting and the magical element did not detract for me from this beautifully but very plainly told tale. I liked many other aspects including JIa Jia's reconciliation with her father who tells her the story of her mother, the love interest with barman Leo and his curious parents, Jia jia's aunt and grandmother and the characters she meets in Tibet including the grandfather of her translator who again brings the story back around to fish men and Jia jia's mother.
Overall this was an intriguing but compulsive story and I cannot wait to see what the author does next.
samanthalee's review
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
fictionfan's review against another edition
5.0
Magic as metaphor...
One morning, Jia Jia finds her husband dead in the bathtub in an odd position that leaves it unclear as to whether his death was accidental or suicide. Beside him is a piece of paper on which he has drawn a strange picture of a fish with a man’s head. As she tries to come to terms with the sudden change to her life and her expected future, Jia Jia finds herself thinking more and more about this fish-man, and decides to retrace her husband’s last trip to Tibet to try to find out its significance. Gradually she finds herself drifting into a place where the lines between reality and dreams become blurred...
This is an oddly compelling novel, beautifully written in a rather understated way. Jia Jia’s dream water world, where the fish-man exists, takes us into magical realist territory – never my favourite place – but again this is somewhat underplayed so that it never begins to feel too much like fantasy. While the “magical” aspects of it are presented as real, they can also be easily read as a metaphor for depression or despair, and the question is whether Jia Jia will become lost in this other world or find her way back to seeing a possible future for herself in this one. The water world is intriguingly ambiguous as a place that is both frightening and yet oddly comforting, where the deeper one goes the less there is, until nothingness becomes the main feature.
I’m not sure I fully got all the nuances of the water world metaphor – my mind is too resolutely rational to easily sink into fantastical symbolism. I wondered whether it arises from Chinese or Tibetan superstition or is wholly a creation of the author, and don’t know the answer to that. But it’s a tribute to how well and subtly it’s done that I was able to go along with it, and even to feel that it added to rather than detracting from the “real” story.
Jia Jia’s marriage was a rather cold one. She had never felt her husband had a passionate love for her – younger than him and beautiful, she was something of a trophy bride and suitable to be a mother for his children. On her side, he, as a settled, wealthy man, represented security, but there are signs also that she felt restricted in the marriage. She is an artist but although her husband was willing for her to continue to paint as a hobby, he did not feel it was appropriate for his wife to try to sell her work. There is a suggestion that he was emotionally controlling and that Jia Jia had reached a point where she was second guessing her own actions with a view to ensuring she met his expectations rather than her own. So his death, shocking as it is, plunges her into a state of uncertainty rather than deep grief – her secure future gone, the children she had anticipated having with him gone too. However, this new loss has taken her back to another, much greater grief – the death of her mother when she was a young girl. As she tries to discover the meaning of the fish-man, she will also learn more about her parents’ marriage and her mother’s life and death.
This is a short book, and every word counts. It has an easy flow that makes it very readable – I read it in a couple of sessions and was fully absorbed all the way through. The magical aspects are introduced so gradually that they don’t become fully apparent until around halfway through, and seem to arise very naturally from what we have come to understand of Jia Jia’s state of mind. The rather muted imagery of the water world makes it easier to accept and yet the images linger once the last page is turned. Along the way we get some insight into the position of educated women in contemporary urban China, at a kind of halfway point where they have gained some social freedom but are still often judged within the conventions of more restrictive traditional codes of behaviour. Jia Jia is beautifully complex, with the minor flaws we all have, and her emotional journey is entirely credible. I found myself fully invested in hoping she could find a new path, perhaps even a more fulfilling one.
An excellent début that has left me eager to see how An Yu develops as an author in what I expect to be a glittering future. 4½ stars for me, so rounded up.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Harville Secker.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
One morning, Jia Jia finds her husband dead in the bathtub in an odd position that leaves it unclear as to whether his death was accidental or suicide. Beside him is a piece of paper on which he has drawn a strange picture of a fish with a man’s head. As she tries to come to terms with the sudden change to her life and her expected future, Jia Jia finds herself thinking more and more about this fish-man, and decides to retrace her husband’s last trip to Tibet to try to find out its significance. Gradually she finds herself drifting into a place where the lines between reality and dreams become blurred...
This is an oddly compelling novel, beautifully written in a rather understated way. Jia Jia’s dream water world, where the fish-man exists, takes us into magical realist territory – never my favourite place – but again this is somewhat underplayed so that it never begins to feel too much like fantasy. While the “magical” aspects of it are presented as real, they can also be easily read as a metaphor for depression or despair, and the question is whether Jia Jia will become lost in this other world or find her way back to seeing a possible future for herself in this one. The water world is intriguingly ambiguous as a place that is both frightening and yet oddly comforting, where the deeper one goes the less there is, until nothingness becomes the main feature.
I’m not sure I fully got all the nuances of the water world metaphor – my mind is too resolutely rational to easily sink into fantastical symbolism. I wondered whether it arises from Chinese or Tibetan superstition or is wholly a creation of the author, and don’t know the answer to that. But it’s a tribute to how well and subtly it’s done that I was able to go along with it, and even to feel that it added to rather than detracting from the “real” story.
Jia Jia’s marriage was a rather cold one. She had never felt her husband had a passionate love for her – younger than him and beautiful, she was something of a trophy bride and suitable to be a mother for his children. On her side, he, as a settled, wealthy man, represented security, but there are signs also that she felt restricted in the marriage. She is an artist but although her husband was willing for her to continue to paint as a hobby, he did not feel it was appropriate for his wife to try to sell her work. There is a suggestion that he was emotionally controlling and that Jia Jia had reached a point where she was second guessing her own actions with a view to ensuring she met his expectations rather than her own. So his death, shocking as it is, plunges her into a state of uncertainty rather than deep grief – her secure future gone, the children she had anticipated having with him gone too. However, this new loss has taken her back to another, much greater grief – the death of her mother when she was a young girl. As she tries to discover the meaning of the fish-man, she will also learn more about her parents’ marriage and her mother’s life and death.
This is a short book, and every word counts. It has an easy flow that makes it very readable – I read it in a couple of sessions and was fully absorbed all the way through. The magical aspects are introduced so gradually that they don’t become fully apparent until around halfway through, and seem to arise very naturally from what we have come to understand of Jia Jia’s state of mind. The rather muted imagery of the water world makes it easier to accept and yet the images linger once the last page is turned. Along the way we get some insight into the position of educated women in contemporary urban China, at a kind of halfway point where they have gained some social freedom but are still often judged within the conventions of more restrictive traditional codes of behaviour. Jia Jia is beautifully complex, with the minor flaws we all have, and her emotional journey is entirely credible. I found myself fully invested in hoping she could find a new path, perhaps even a more fulfilling one.
An excellent début that has left me eager to see how An Yu develops as an author in what I expect to be a glittering future. 4½ stars for me, so rounded up.
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Harville Secker.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
reubenlb's review
3.0
unsettling and gorgeously written, but i’m left unfulfilled and wanting something more
emory's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Death
Moderate: Misogyny, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Suicide, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Cancer
squidjum's review
5.0
This might just have been the book I needed, though I would not have thought a book that begins with a death would have been easy for me to read right after my mom's death.
pryngols's review
4.0
“The worst days give us the best memories.”
3.5⭐️ Braised Pork by An Yu is a compelling story of a woman who, in the face of tragedy sets out on a journey to find the truth about her late husband’s obsession.
With magical realism mixed in with an otherwise straightforward narrative, the novel explores the roles of a woman in modern society and how she is shaped by the people around her. By pushing the boundaries between madness and reality, she ultimately rediscovers herself and what she needs to do (and stop doing) in order to find real happiness and self-fulfillment. I love how the main character Jia Jia is so quiet yet so brave, and it’s inspiring how she took back the control of her own life.
Big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this wonderful book in exchange for an honest review.
3.5⭐️ Braised Pork by An Yu is a compelling story of a woman who, in the face of tragedy sets out on a journey to find the truth about her late husband’s obsession.
With magical realism mixed in with an otherwise straightforward narrative, the novel explores the roles of a woman in modern society and how she is shaped by the people around her. By pushing the boundaries between madness and reality, she ultimately rediscovers herself and what she needs to do (and stop doing) in order to find real happiness and self-fulfillment. I love how the main character Jia Jia is so quiet yet so brave, and it’s inspiring how she took back the control of her own life.
Big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this wonderful book in exchange for an honest review.
kdaigh's review
3.0
This was such a beautiful novel. It begins with a loss that is more disorienting than it is devastating. We follow Jia Jia as she tries to make sense of herself and her situation in the aftermath. There is a captivating melancholy throughout, balanced by a persistently hopeful cast of characters.
"Making your mother live the way I wanted us to be together was no less cruel than keeping a fish in a bowl."
An Yu's exploration of love through the various relationships in this novel was of particular interest to me. Sometimes we conform, or ask others to conform, to rigid structures of love and, in time, our relationships become more about control and containment than about love.
"Making your mother live the way I wanted us to be together was no less cruel than keeping a fish in a bowl."
An Yu's exploration of love through the various relationships in this novel was of particular interest to me. Sometimes we conform, or ask others to conform, to rigid structures of love and, in time, our relationships become more about control and containment than about love.
naraya's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
kateemily's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0