The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde

Very artistic. Confused what Basil Hayward first saw in Dorian until the end of the book. I knew too much about the book beforehand so the lesson in vanity was expected. Liked the argument of “should life imitate art or should art imitate life”. Which is more ideal, art or life? Lord Henry as a foil was a great character device.

Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro

I don’t think I’m mature enough to understand this book. Build-up was very dull. Got the gist of the book in part 3 when Kathy and Tommy realize that the deferral was a farce. What’s it like to realize your life will end before you grow up? Does your happiness matter if you die before 30?

Falling Leaves, Adeline Yen Mah

Wow. So emotional. Really made me think of my grandfather and his childhood. If it weren’t so emotional I’d call out Yen Mah for exaggerating too much. Her entire family turned on her? She dramatically realized her brother James was a cop out only when her father died? Overly dramatic and quite possibly a sob story.

The Dream of the Red Chamber, Ch. 1-26, Cao Xueqin

The book was unexpectedly good. I had imagined it to be a dreary accounts of an affluent Qing household, and the plot for the most part meanders about. However it is very easy to read and I find myself wanting to know more about the intricaces of the Jia household. I’m reading the Hawkes translation, which I’ve heard is the best. For the prose, the translation is exceptional and reads naturally in English. However poetry plays a large part in the book and Hawkes translated the poems to rhyme in English, compromising the original meaning. I found a PDF of the original Chinese book online and am using it to refer to the poems scattered in the novel.

The family trees of the characters are hard to remember, but I’m starting to see the intricacies of social dynamics in ancient China. The frame narrative is super interesting, and I admit I didn’t expect non-Western authors to use such a plot device. The symbolism really escapes me, partly because Hawkes names many characters by the English translations of their Chinese names. In the poems in Chapter 5 about the fates of each of the 12 Beauties of Jinling for example, the puns and symbolism of each name (e.g. Aroma 香, Lotus 英莲, etc.) are lost.

I’m also surprised about the gender roles in the novel. From class and other histories, I imagined that women were extremely restricted and that men reigned supreme. Yet from reading the novel, I learned that women i.e. Wang Xifeng ran the household. Despite sounding like a reasonably womanly task, this actually entailed everything from ordering servants, organizing large events (birthday parties, arrival of a guest), building new structures of the family compound, hiring builders/dancers/gardeners, etc. Men generally stayed away from these affairs and thus women play a large part in maintaining and displaying the status of wealthy families. Upper-class women also went outside, though always in the company of servants and a male escort and in a cab. Nevertheless, they enjoyed an extraordinary amount of power inside the household.

I’m currently listening to lectures and podcasts of the novel to help me understand Cao Xueqin’s work.