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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Story will stay with you long after you close the book, September 17, 2007
This review is from: Lust, Caution: The Story (Paperback)
(Afterword by film director Ang Lee and essay by James Shamus. Translated with a Foreword by Julia Lovell)
Anchor Books has printed Eileen Chang's short story, Lust Caution, just as it is about to be released as a major motion picture. Talking place in Japanese-occupied Shanghai of the 1940s, this storyline is equal parts spy-thriller and love affair. Chang's vivid descriptions of decadent Shanghai are candy for the imagination, and yet it's the heart and mind of heroine Chia Chih that hold the imagination captive. Chia Chih's story is told in only fifty pages, and yet I think one could spend a lifetime trying to understand this complex heroine. Why did she decide to do it? Was it worth it?
Though it is rich in character, I found this short story difficult to follow at first. Lust, Caution is incredibly terse. Eileen Chang packs quite a bit of punch in every single line of this short story. In fact, her word economy is so tight that I found myself confused in a few places. Anchor Books has helped out by packaging the short story along with an informative introduction by translator Julia Lovell, a reflection by film director Ang Lee, and a thoughtful essay by James Shamus.
I highly recommend reading these extra features as they add clarity and depth to the reading experience. In fact, I think this book would be a good pick for a summer book club. The afterward and the essay pose some great discussion questions, and they help to illuminate some of the deeper complexities in the story.
Lust, Caution is a short story that will sear itself into your memory for a long time. Thoughts of love, betrayal, trust, deception--these will all swirl around in your mind as you ponder the unexpected turn-of-events in this short story.
Author Eileen Chang, who herself lived in occupied Shanghai, has succeeded in sifting out the human element from the revolutionary events of her day.
Armchair Interviews says: A thought-provoking read worth your time.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Woman's Heart, November 16, 2007
This review is from: Lust, Caution: The Story (Paperback)
It is difficult to fully appreciate the significance of this short novel in the English translation, and so for people who may not understand the original Chinese version, the key to understanding it is to watch the uncensored version of the film by Lee Ang as well. The sex scenes draws one's attention to the innermost feelings and thinking of a woman in love. Although the story was about a woman dedicated to a political cause and who was prepared to give up her life for it, ironically, gave it up for love.The story reveals in a sensual way, the mind and desires of a woman, and how she responded to the conflict between heart and mind; and how in a crucial moment in which in a briefest of time, she had to make a choice between duty and dereliction. No one reader may agree as to whether her choice was right or wrong, whether it was noble or foolish, but many will surely understand a woman better for it.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fluid translation of a captivating tale, December 17, 2007
This review is from: Lust, Caution: The Story (Paperback)
I read this book first in Chinese and then in English because I wanted to know how it got translated. Even for the Chinese reader Eileen Chang's original text could be hard to follow and necessitate rereading to fully grasp the details. Chang's writing is famously dense, lush, sensuous, and chock full of puns, symbolism and suggestions. She wrote with a vocabulary distinctive of her era and to her world. Her description of colors, for example, can be foreign to many contemporary Chinese readers. To translate her work will therefore inevitably strip the writing of that period flavor. Julia Lowell did an admirable job in presenting Chang's story in a very fluid and stylish manner in English, even if she could not adequately convey the mood that Chang evoked. In fact, it was easier to follow the plot by reading the English translation.
Unlike her other fiction pieces, Chang's Lust|Caution was extremely spare. Though Chang had always been precise and terse with her language she never skimmed on details. In Lust|Caution, however, she seemed to have deliberately skipped some descriptions. Chang provided the motive for the two central characters to become drawn to each other: Chia-chih and Mr. Yee chose their diametrically opposite paths during Japan's invasion of China but in the process both became emotionally repressed, insecure, and isolated. This void drew them together, but Chang only informed the readers twice that they had become intimate without further details. This was unlike her other novels/novellas in which she at least briefly described the seduction (Red Rose, White Rose) or what the character was thinking during intimate moments (Love in a Fallen City). Such deliberate omissions added to the mystique of Chia-chih's impulsive and fateful decision at the end, leaving readers lingering with imagination and postulation long after they finished the story. For Chang's fans, in particular, we wonder if the conciseness stemmed from Chang's reluctance to delve into a personal wound that inspired the story.
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