Customer Reviews

The Taste of Apples

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Taste of Apples offers a collection of stark, bittersweet short stories. Following classic form, each one of Huang Chun-Ming's stories about rural Taiwan unravels perceptions about how things appear to be ... the plots are never predictable, and his language bare and minimalist, offering little flowery foreshadowing. The title "Ringworms" seems to have nothing to do with the subject of the aforenamed story, until the sudden, unsentimental ending.

Reading the folksy translation, it's easy to forget the stories are set in the Taiwan of some 30-40 years ago. Although the prologue portrays Huang Chun-Ming as a largely self-taught author, his tales are reminscent of Twain or O. Henry.

Howard Goldblatt lived up to the formidable challenge of interpreting obscure country colloquialisms into English, I could help but feel that some of the cultural contexts could have used more explanations, in the prologue or in footnotes. The exception to this is Sayonara/Zaijian, the last and best tale in this collection, in which cultural context is laid out in almost painful bluntness.

I had to read this book for class, but I enjoyed this book because the stories were hilarious and well written. They also give you an understanding of the culture, characteristics, and mindsets of the general Taiwanese commoners during the time period and their opinions and perceptions of one another and of foreigners. An entertaining read.

The book was on time, in good condition, and good price. Cheaper than buying at my university bookstore. would buy again from this seller.