Ok, you can count me out of the Yu Hua Fan Club. I got through two chapters and put it down. I find his writing to be irritating, not entertaining. I had the same reaction to "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" hated the writing style (but enjoyed the movie version). Maybe I just don't have an appreciation for translated text. I am surprised to be out of synch with several of you on Yu Hua, but there it is.
Come to think of it, I seem to be out of synch with the masses in several respects: I dislike being in an audience of any kind (inconsiderate people in groups are intolerable), I especially do not like watching people play music, whether symphony, bluegrass or jazz. Just give me CD's, ma'am. Also, I have never watched an episode of "American Idol" or "The Bachelorette."
I just enjoyed reading "Prague Fatale," my third in Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series. A nice detective mystery in the now familiar Gunther style and wartime setting. After Chucking "Brothers" as noted above, I have started Larson's "Dead Wake" and have liked it so far (it passed the two-chapter-trial-test.)
My next scheduled book will be "The English Spy" by Danial Silva, the most recent release in the Gabriel Allon series. I happened to attend a book discussion with the author last week in Brookline. Among the topics discussed was increased evidence of anti-Semitism in Europe and especially France. After reading Kerr, I feel an unsettling sense of deja vu as I read statements like, "It isn't safe to be a Jew in France today."
Silva discussed the frustrations of dealing with Hollywood producers. The hero of Silva's spy novels is Gabriel Allon - a secret agent for "The Office" (Mossad) who operates under the cover of a restorer of masterpiece works of art. (Allon is the agent who tracked down each of the Palestinian assassins at the Munich 1972 Summer Olympics and killed them.)
Hollywood execs are worried that a pro-Israel movie might not be popular on the world market today, so they wonder, "Does Allon have to be a Jew? Or can he have a Muslim sidekick?" This is why you won't see Silva's work on the big screen anytime soon.
OK, what are the rest of you guys reading?
Dennis Noonan
