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A review by purslane
The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed by Michael Meyer
3.0
While by most standards this is a pretty good book—vivid characters, interesting topic diligently pursued, and so on—at a certain point the reader confronts Meyer's writing, his basic use of English, and that is where the book collapses. Here are a few of the worst examples, collected mostly from a span of twelve pages.
"In Chinese, the still ubiquitous phrase is weifang gaizao, appended [he meant "abbreviated"] to weigai" (38–39)
" . . . adding new luster to a city whose economy was already surging as the capital of the fastest growing economy in the world" (54–55)
"Hot pot is known as a Beijing cuisine [he meant "dish"]" (62)
"Winter was my favorite season in Beijing, despite that our breath froze even inside the house" (62)
"skates made by sliding a blade into a grooved shoe soul" (66)
Meyer's syntax is tedious. His sentences almost invariably begin with "The" or "In." On page 55 are five paragraphs. Numbers 2, 3, and 5 begin with "The Investigation"; number 4 begins with "The report."
The book reads like a hastily written first draft.
"In Chinese, the still ubiquitous phrase is weifang gaizao, appended [he meant "abbreviated"] to weigai" (38–39)
" . . . adding new luster to a city whose economy was already surging as the capital of the fastest growing economy in the world" (54–55)
"Hot pot is known as a Beijing cuisine [he meant "dish"]" (62)
"Winter was my favorite season in Beijing, despite that our breath froze even inside the house" (62)
"skates made by sliding a blade into a grooved shoe soul" (66)
Meyer's syntax is tedious. His sentences almost invariably begin with "The" or "In." On page 55 are five paragraphs. Numbers 2, 3, and 5 begin with "The Investigation"; number 4 begins with "The report."
The book reads like a hastily written first draft.