Customer Reviews

The Song of Everlasting Sorrow, Translated by Michael Berry and Susan Chan Egan: A Novel of Shanghai (Weatherhead Books on Asia)

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This book is about Shanghai and the people who reside there. Anyi Wang not only describes the physical atmosphere so well you can vividly visualize it, but she evokes the emotion of the city. You can FEEL Shanghai - the activity, the secret lives, the energy. There were times I stopped reading so as to fully formulate the images she was painting in my mind's eye, not just the physical but the emotional as well, understanding the characters more deeply.

Anyi is eloquent and provocative. Her characters are fully fleshed out, both the good and the bad. When you are finished with the book, even those characters who act reprehensibly at times are still human. You feel for them, for their circumstances. All her characters make mistakes but most all are redeemed, as they pay the price for their decisions.

The story is winding, multi-faceted, covers a few decades and often spell-binding. Definitely a book for a leisurely read and one for those who like personal detail, to fully understand a character.

Recommended for mature teens and adults. The reason I say mature teens is because it is not a fast-paced book. The teen would have to be a perceptive person with an active mind who enjoys a slow, deep read.

Like some other classics of Shanghai fiction, this novel focuses on the the inner life of a smart, attractive, but somewhat materialistic girl/woman, and narrow scope is both the problem - and the blessing --of the novel. A problem for the reader who is curious about what's happening in the world outside the heroine, Wang Qiyao's, kitchen and bedroom -- especially to all the interesting secondary characters who arrive and then drop out of sight. But a blessing for the reader who savors intense moments of personal interaction that seem so perfectly drawn . It was popular enough in China to have been made into a feature film, but what it really calls for is a cook book and a line of cosmetics or designer jeans.

I am not sure whether to give Ms. Wang or Berry/Egan (translators) the most credit. This is a heck of a book. It can seem slow at times but the author/translators provide a very deep and profound look into the heroine's, and Shanghai's, soul. This is very difficult to do as a writer and it will be one of the few books I am motivated to go back and read a second time -just for the enjoyment of the prose.

this is not a good book. you don't get to know the characters and it might as well take place in arizona b/c you learn almost nothing about shanghai or china. don't waste your time.

The novel arrived quickly and was at a fair price and met my expectations. -- norman Michaud