Quarantine Reading: Review of Yan Ge's Chilli Bean Paste Clan
Aside from being the best depiction of deep-seated family drama I’ve read since Franzen’s The Corrections, I love how Harman’s translation captures some of the distinctive features of Ge’s colloquial Chinese. Shengqiang is foul-mouthed and blunt, his friends equally so, and the descriptions of the town life are vivid and—despite the cultural differences—brought me back to my own small-town childhood.
attached to: The Chilli Bean Paste Clan
Comments
I truly love this book. Yan Ge's brilliant characterization, dialogue, humor, and lively prose all contribute to a marvelous narrative that frequently leaves me in tears from laughing so uncontrollably hard. I do wish the publisher would correct the many typos. It's really a shame.
Lois, May 23, 2020, 5:44p.m.