Lucas Klein reviews Chan Koonchung's The Fat Years, translated by Michael Duke
http://www.raintaxi.com/online/2012spring/koonchung.php
The cover screams “The Book No One in China Dares to Publish,” the Financial Times and The Observer have offered ad-like reviews, and copies have spilled off bookstore displays in Hong Kong and London for months; The Fat Years is the new must-have for the politically righteous book consumer in the English-speaking world. Consumer, that is, not reader, since most reports mention little about the story other than its premise. Probably better this way, since aesthetics too often fail when put up against political righteousness.
Alas, the book is as heavy-handed as the state propaganda it criticizes, and there is more intrigue behind the no one in “no one in China” than within the book’s pages.
Comments
Fantastic review, highlighting many of the problems I had with the book. If any part of a novel requires extra-narrative justification, it shouldn't be in there in the first place.
Sarah Stanton, May 7, 2012, 5:50p.m.
Thanks, Sarah!
Lucas
Lucas Klein, May 8, 2012, 3:46a.m.
Paper Republicans, be careful what you wish for.
Lucas has done what so many of us want from a reviewer: named the translator and commented on the way he has rendered the Chinese original in English.
Unfortunately for Mr. Duke, he has been found badly wanting. . .
Bruce Humes, May 13, 2012, 1:19a.m.
Thanks, Bruce. But I expect translators with the high caliber of Paper Republic members & readers have little to fear!
Lucas
Lucas Klein, May 14, 2012, 3:16a.m.
Found another version of The Fat Years translated by David Tse comments on Amazon for the translation is not bad...
Lirong, May 18, 2018, 6:38a.m.
I don't think that's a new translation. The cover is the same, and the excerpts I can find online are identical to the version published with Duke credited as translator.
So how did David Tse get credited as translator? Here you can see him credited as the narrator for an audio version of the book.
Probably what happened is that somebody as Random Penguinhouse mistook narrator for translator and replaced Duke with Tse in some of the metadata--which then rippled outwards in how the translation has been credited on other pages.
That's what can happen when the translator's name doesn't get on the cover.
Lucas
Lucas Klein, May 18, 2018, 10:18a.m.
I don't think that's a new translation. The cover is the same, and the excerpts I can find online are identical to the version published with Duke credited as translator.
So how did David Tse get credited as translator? Here you can see him credited as the narrator for an audio version of the book.
Probably what happened is that somebody as Random Penguinhouse mistook narrator for translator and replaced Duke with Tse in some of the metadata--which then rippled outwards in how the translation has been credited on other pages.
That's what can happen when the translator's name doesn't get on the cover.
Lucas
Lucas Klein, May 18, 2018, 10:19a.m.