alexpham's review
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
emmmaaaaa's review
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
5.0
jola_g's review against another edition
4.0
Let us not beat about the bush: Chinatown (2005) by Thuận has floored me. I have noticed that the more I like a book, the more difficult talking about it feels. Well, this is the case. Thuận's novel left me speechless for a while and reading it was an experience extremely difficult to capture.
It is a realistic story intertwined with dreams and memories. Telling which is which is hard at times. The narrator mixes and sometimes confuses the past, the present and the future, shifting between them. I ended up not being sure what is a fact, what is a memory, what is happening at the moment, what is just the narrator's wish.
Chinatown is an emotionally resonant book. Truth be told, the array of my reactions to the narrator surprised me. Sometimes she drove me mad, sometimes I found her vulnerability and honesty totally disarming. She is a Vietnamese teacher of English who studied in Leningrad and now lives in Paris. She is also an aspiring writer struggling to have her first book published. The monologue covers her childhood, youth and what happened next plus passages from her short story and novel plus her thoughts on being stereotyped and marginalized as an outsider and an immigrant plus much, much more. But first and foremost, it is an alternately ironic and lacerating chronicle of grappling with loss.
The story of her life depicted in Chinatown is completely nonlinear, there are frequent flashbacks and flashforwards. Although the narrator’s monologue seems to be messy, chaotic and spontaneous, it has scaffolding built with all the incantatory repetitions and bracketed composition of the novel (the scene on the metro at the beginning and at the end of the novel). The flow of the narrative is quick, nervous, engrossing, incredibly addictive, with crumbs of sardonic humour.
The weird, hooking musicality of Thuận's prose really stands out. Frequent reappearances of some words and phrases turn the narrator’s monologue into poetry in prose. These recurrences reminded me of the rhythmic sound of trains or metro (by no means soporific!) which, by the way, played quite an important role in the novel. Kudos to Nguyễn An Lý whose translation of Chinatown is out of this world.
I do not feel enthusiastic about the title though. I am aware of the symbolic meaning of Chinatown in this novel, perceptible for example here: Thụy is Chinatown. I am the departure point and Thụy is the destination. Nevertheless, this title automatically makes me think of Roman Polański’s film, with which the novel does not have much in common. Moreover, I think it sounds too general and impersonal. Such an intimate, stunning book deserved something more adequate.
![](https://i.imgur.com/uySnWc8.jpg%E2%80%9D387")
Painting by Zhang Xiaogang.
It is a realistic story intertwined with dreams and memories. Telling which is which is hard at times. The narrator mixes and sometimes confuses the past, the present and the future, shifting between them. I ended up not being sure what is a fact, what is a memory, what is happening at the moment, what is just the narrator's wish.
Chinatown is an emotionally resonant book. Truth be told, the array of my reactions to the narrator surprised me. Sometimes she drove me mad, sometimes I found her vulnerability and honesty totally disarming. She is a Vietnamese teacher of English who studied in Leningrad and now lives in Paris. She is also an aspiring writer struggling to have her first book published. The monologue covers her childhood, youth and what happened next plus passages from her short story and novel plus her thoughts on being stereotyped and marginalized as an outsider and an immigrant plus much, much more. But first and foremost, it is an alternately ironic and lacerating chronicle of grappling with loss.
The story of her life depicted in Chinatown is completely nonlinear, there are frequent flashbacks and flashforwards. Although the narrator’s monologue seems to be messy, chaotic and spontaneous, it has scaffolding built with all the incantatory repetitions and bracketed composition of the novel (the scene on the metro at the beginning and at the end of the novel). The flow of the narrative is quick, nervous, engrossing, incredibly addictive, with crumbs of sardonic humour.
The weird, hooking musicality of Thuận's prose really stands out. Frequent reappearances of some words and phrases turn the narrator’s monologue into poetry in prose. These recurrences reminded me of the rhythmic sound of trains or metro (by no means soporific!) which, by the way, played quite an important role in the novel. Kudos to Nguyễn An Lý whose translation of Chinatown is out of this world.
I do not feel enthusiastic about the title though. I am aware of the symbolic meaning of Chinatown in this novel, perceptible for example here: Thụy is Chinatown. I am the departure point and Thụy is the destination. Nevertheless, this title automatically makes me think of Roman Polański’s film, with which the novel does not have much in common. Moreover, I think it sounds too general and impersonal. Such an intimate, stunning book deserved something more adequate.
Painting by Zhang Xiaogang.
booksafternoon's review
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
serminerva's review
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Man I'm definitely too silly a reader to fully understand this book properly but when it hit it was really good. Super difficult to get through though.
jouljet's review
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
leojpeg's review against another edition
not what i was looking for at the time picked up later on and had forgotten the plot had to restart
dominic_p085's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5