The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine

Enough with the China books already – it’s spring. Time for a thick juicy paperback novel to read in the sun. The Hakawati is worthy – a tale from a faraway land written in prose so smooth and vibrant the imagery leaps from the page. The novel gives fresh voice to age-old tales from the Middle East that have been passed down orally by hakawatis (Arabic storytellers) for centuries: the Eye of Fatima, the birth of Mecca, the story of Antar. The stories are woven together with the present-day tale of a man returning from the US to his family in Lebanon. Moving from modern-day Beirut to a time when Baghdad was simply where all good poets went to die, the narrative easily jumps from horseback to hospital room, from demon’s lair to a deserted car dealership. Alameddine gives us Middle Eastern history and culture wrapped in elements of intrigue as old as storytelling itself – bravery, beauty, adventure and adversity. EC

The Song of Everlasting Sorrow
by Wang Anyi

Like the famous Tang dynasty poem by Bai Juyi of the same title, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow portrays a pivotal time in Chinese history by focusing on a single woman. Set in Shanghai and spanning the forty years from 1945-85, this novel traces the trajectory of the life of Wang Qiyao – first as a glamorous beauty queen and mistress/concubine, then as a middle-aged nurse and single mother, and finally as a desperately lonely old woman. Through it all, her world is such a cloistered one that the political cataclysms beyond the confines of her few friends and small apartment are sketched in only peripherally.  Indeed, the political is so much the personal in this story that the long, often tedious, descriptions of fashion and food are supposed to carry great social and emotional weight. Ho-hum. Published in China shortly after the Cultural Revolution, this nostalgic novel was immensely popular then, but seems outdated and staid now. MH

Meng Xiaodong by Hua Yinghong

As an old Chinese saying goes, “There are no happy endings in love.” Even the story of the most admired couple in Peking Opera, Mei Lanfang and Meng Xiaodong, ended in divorce. But tragic endings make for great stories, and Hua Yinghong’s biography, Meng Xiaodong, is no exception. As the third owner of the old Meng house, the Chinese-German Hua was allowed a privileged window into the whispered gossip and hidden love stories that took place under the Meng family roof. Hua presents Meng as a strong, fiery woman with radiant beauty and elegance. On stage, she played the older, male roles to Mei Lanfang’s female characters. Later still, after her marriage to Mei dissolved, Meng became involved with the famous Chinese gangster Du Yuesheng; although Hua hints at this mysterious relationship, most readers will be left wanting to know more about this intriguing last chapter of Meng’s life. CH