Reviews

Books

Original face

This detective novel provides a rare insight into the lives of Chinese immigrants in Sydney.

It revolves around the true identity of a man found skinned. The masterful narration links history and the present, China and Australia, dumpsite manager and billionaire.

Lewis Lin, a Chinese taxi driver, is a most impressive character. The photography lover can't resist the temptation of finding out the truth behind the body at a dump site. Even before the police can put all the jigsaw pieces together, Lin is on track to sniffing out the truth.

It's hard to put Jasmine, an illegal immigrant, in any category. She is quick to grab any chance to realize her dream of a better life, but one closes the book without a warm feeling toward the pretty woman who saves an innocent man.

Zhou Huang, the assumed dead man who is actually alive and becomes abbot of a Buddhist center, is given several pages but remains an unclear figure.

Dao Zi (meaning knife), on the other side, takes up just a few paragraphs but impresses with his determination and sharpness. The two police officers, Ginger Rogers and Shelley Swert, are a study in contrast.

The author Nicholas Jose was Australia's cultural attach to China 20 years ago. He has written several novels about China. Original Face is the first to put Chinese in a foreign land and probe their relation with the local society. A Chinese translation of the book will be published this year. Liu Jun

Gilead

Gilead by Marilynn Robinson is a leisurely read about America's Civil Wars and religious life. In his 70s and suffering a weak heart, Reverend John Ames resorts to writing a long letter to help his 7-year-old son understand him better after he is gone.

Set in an old town amid the wilderness of Iowa, the story unfolds slowly, but presents the reader with something new in every part.

Ames's grandfather, also a minister, who fought with John Brown before the Civil War, is the character who stands out. It is amusing to see the old man "stealing" everything from his home to give to the poor. But his speech calling people to war while clad in a blood-soaked coat offers a startling feel of those times.

The lasting theme of the book seems to be the fight and compromise between father and son. Ames and his godson Jack form an interesting pair.

While Ames worries about Jack harming his young wife and child, Jack tries to seek the old man's understanding of his love for a black woman.

Li Yao, a Chinese translator, did a fair job rendering the sparkling thoughts of Reverend John Ames into beautiful language. It is sad the English prose cannot all be translated into Chinese. The language used by Ames's uneducated wife, for example, works very well in enriching the character. But it would involve too much explanation in Chinese. LJ

Kungfu master

The Last King of Armed Escorts - Legend of Martial Arts Master Li Yaochen written by Liu Qin, a female disciple of the named master, offers readers rare insight into the unusual experiences of the martial arts master who had enjoyed more than two decades' fame at the turn of the 20th century.

The book, published by Guangming Daily Publishing House, is a biographical novel based on narrations of the hero before he died in 1973.

Born in 1876, Li became head of the then biggest armed escorts bureau in Beijing in his youth. He acted as escort to the imperial family of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and taught martial arts to renowned Peking Opera artists Mei Lanfang and Yang Xiaolou.

When the Japanese invaded China in 1937, Li joined the 29th Army upon invitation of General Tong Linge who later died in battle. Li and his Big Sword Team fought against the Japanese. Their heroic deeds greatly encouraged and mobilized the nation to stand up against the Japanese aggression. Wang Hui

(China Daily 05/14/2008 page20)