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Chinese Whiskers: A Novel (2012)

by Pallavi Aiyar(Favorite Author)

3.32 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1250014484 (ISBN13: 9781250014481)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

St. Martin's Press

review 1: Tofu and Soybean are two kittens adopted by a foreign couple living in Beijing in a year leading up to the Olympics. (The building of the Stadium comes into the story.) The story follows Tofu and Soybean for the first year of their lives and through their eyes readers get a feel for what life is like in Beijing for average citizens, the plight of migrant workers, the panic that can spread because of a virus in such a crowded city, and the consequences of corruption.This was a spur of the moment purchase at the bookstore. I'd never heard of it before, but I'm always on the lookout for Asian literature to add to the int'l school library I work in and this one seemed like it might be something approachable for multiple ages with a good peak at fairly recent modern China based... more on a brief skim in the store. It actually remained quite true to the flavor I got just from that skim. It seems to have been written for an adult audience and that's where the book store had it placed, but the vocabulary and content are suitable and approachable enough I can see several of our middle grade students enjoying this (of course, we have a lot of Asian students who are less likely to be phased by the Chinese vocabulary, so maybe that isn't the case for all schools). There isn't anything really forcefully driving the plot consistently, but mostly just little problems that tend to get resolved in a chapter or three, so pacing might be the only drawback for younger readers (well, and older readers too...that's mostly why I only gave it three stars). Overall, I though it was an interesting peak into typical life in urban China from the view point of two cats. And incidentally, Ms Aiyar knows cats. The personalities of Tofu and Soybean are so utterly true to feline quirkiness, there's no doubt she has spent some time with a cat or two.Notes on content: No language issues. No sexual content. The only violence really are some cat scratches and some rough handling of various pets by bad guys.
review 2: I picked this up from the library due to my interest in everything Chinese. This was a really strange read. The main "characters" are two cats that grow up in very different environments in China. You do get a sense of daily life in China, but this is a strange way to get that glimpse. The writing was ok. I wish she had defined some of the Chinese words earlier for the reader. For instance "Ren" means people and she never really defines the word. Strange is probably the best way to describe this novel. less

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