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Gold Boy, Emerald Girl (2010)

by Yiyun Li(Favorite Author)

3.68 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1400068134 (ISBN13: 9781400068135)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Random House

review 1: If this book were a person classified by the Myers-Briggs personality test, it would be an INTJ: a bit of an introvert, a keen observer and sometimes critic of human nature, and pragmatic and unsentimental. That's a tough blend to warm to right away, and indeed the first 2/3 of these stories left me cold. Full of understated writing, lonely bitter characters, and static-feeling stories, I was ready to cast this book aside in favor of something more cheerful or showy. But I really enjoyed the final three stories. I can't exactly put my finger on what I liked about them other than I could appreciate their characters' unsentimental and pragmatic view of happiness: happiness doesn't look like a Hollywood movie, full of triumphant music and a linear plot line where everything ... morehoped for is achieved, and where love is based on some romantic ideal. Happiness is going to look different for every person, and if you're smart enough and pragmatic enough to know what will make you happy, what might look lonely and sad to an outsider could still mean true contentment to someone else.
review 2: Hardy and Lawrence are clearly in evidence as influences on Yiyun Li's work of short stories addressing contemporary China. Bleak, mostly unresolved tales keenly describe the lives of people caught up in the maelstrom of rapid societal change. Readers are saved from despair by the detachment either of being western or the relief of not suffering similar circumstances. The stories' characters are varied, well captured and believable, and I would therefore recommend this book for an insight into the personal impact of change on individuals, families and communities in China over the last 25 years. less

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