Best of 2005: Review Rewind

Shanghai Surprise

2004 was an awful year for new books. Nothing panned out, even the new Roth, which was average for him. The hype award goes to The Master, a novel about Henry James. This was supposed to be the big book of the year, but pundits forgot no one cares about Henry James and The Master properly tanked; one who endures Daisy Miller or Portrait of a Lady might binge on absinthe rather than read a bio-book. The usual suspects - Updike, Oates, Chabon, Allende, Tyler, Wolfe - launched works we will never read. In 2004 adults probably read more books by Lemonhead Snicket and JKKK Rowling than other authors, and I can't blame them. The only book that stops me cold in Green Apple is entitled Porn Star Portraits (near the comics, bottom shelf). Some pictures are worth two thousand words.

Discovering a novelist and reading his work back to back is a dicey endeavor. When I tried to binge on Sinclair Lewis it didn't take, and even old man Dickens needs space between reads. Yu Hua's To Live was a good book, and the title of his other available novel was enough to give it a go. Chronicle of a Blood Merchant was published in China in 1995 and recently released stateside.

Sanguan works in the silk industry and one day he falls for Yulan, who's tied up with another suitor. Sanguan lays it out before Yulan's old man, telling him he's the better choice, and Yulan reluctantly takes up and marries him. They raise three boys, selfish pricks all, and one day word spreads around town that Sanguan's oldest looks a lot like Yulan's former suitor. The book turns on this harsh discovery, but there's a ton of comedy here too; Yulan confesses her sexual misdeed to her three children and the kids' eyes pop out of their heads; Sanguan visits a fat former hotty whom he fucks to ease the pain of being a cuckold; Sanguan breaking balls in a restaurant after he has sold his blood.

Chronicle of a Blood Merchant, like To Live, explores China's history and its effect on one family, but Yu Hua takes his time with this better book, exposing the times and trials with greater detail and insight. When the Cultural Revolution breaks, Mao's agents come for Yulan and make her stand in the town square covered with a sign reading 'prostitute'. Sanguan, originally a spiteful ass for having spent ten year's worth of cash raising a bastard, gradually comes to life when he sacrifices his reputation and health to comfort his wife and children. His wisdom, whether post a fight or atonement, renders perfect lines like, "She's like a broken pot that's not afraid of shattering, and I'm a dead pig who no longer minds that the water's coming to a boil." I don't entirely know what that means, and I don't know if it's literature, but it's spot-on sentiment of a hot tempered family man dealing with life's harsh ebb and flow.

I hope I've missed a great novel from this past year, but it's doubtful. I understand why most readers prefer non-fiction to this imaginative nonsense, but I'm not gonna throw in the towel, not yet. 1995's Chronicle of a Blood Merchant is 2004's book of the year.