Notes of a Desolate Man

by Chu Tienwen and Zhu Tianwen

Book Overview

Winner of the coveted China Times Novel Prize, this postmodern, first-person tale of a contemporary Taiwanese gay man reflecting on his life, loves, and intellectual influences is among the most important recent novels in Taiwan.

The narrator, Xiao Shao, recollects a series of friends and lovers, as he watches his childhood friend, Ah Yao, succumb to complications from AIDS. The brute fact of Ah Yao's death focuses Shao's simultaneously...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0231116098
• ISBN13: 9780231116091
• Release Date: November 2000
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Length: 184 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Moments with a kaleidoscope

Warning: Do not attempt to consume this little novel in a short period of time! Contrary to the small physical size of this book this is not a brief story. Rather, it is a wondrous little tome that blends Eastern vantage and culture with Western philosophy and becomes a multifacted gem reflecting on life, death, love, passion, and sex. I am reminded of my wonder that MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA was written by a man, so much of the feminine mysticism permeated every page. This story is so convincingly related by a gay man who is in conflict with his Taiwan society, Chinese heritage, his views of homosexual life and love, that the reader is repeatedly taken by surprise that such personal, male perceptions are being written by a woman; the book FEELS as though it is a first person male narration. A Theme and Variations on the contemporary struggle to find meaning, this author amazes in the sensitive explorations of Levi Strauss, Michel Foucault, as well as excursions in to the arts, the skill and pain of Nijinsky's life, Bach's music , Greek mythology - an almost endless stream of consciousness of universal themes. And yet the characters remain well drawn, credible, sympathetic. I found that when the words started to wander away from me, losing linear direction of narration, I had to re-read some parts before diving back in to the flood of the incredible wealth of ideas being offered. I am not able to read the original Chinese, but if these two translators have the author's blessing we are in the presence of a unique, valuable voice. Reward yourself with this challenging book. You will be the richer for it.

A Great Novel!!!!!

Although this novel is hard to read,it's really touched me when I was 15.I am so glad that it was translated in English.It's really a fantastic novel.I think everybody who buys the novel will have a great experience.That's a proud of Taiwanese literature.

one of the best novels in modern Taiwan literature

This novel is one of the most excellent novels in contemporary Taiwan literature. Aesthetically complicated and appealing, it attracts countless readers in Taiwan, gay or not. Please read this book attentively, since this author is a well-known stylist, who knows to play with nuances. This novel is also hotly discussed among the lesbigay activists in Taiwan.

Glad to see the publication of English edition!

As a reader of its Chinese edition, Chu used to most skillful and romantic words to decribe such a story of "murmur". I've not read the English edtion(It's not available here yet!), but it is absolutely an joyment to drop into this book.

a book for people who remember.........

I have not seen the real English edition of it. But for all the English readers, it is a good book for you to find bits of your own 'memories.'