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World and Town: A gem that I was compelled to go back and buy

The author, Gish Jen, 2010. [CC BY SA 3.0] via Wikimedia.

World and TownWorld and Town by Gish Jen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



This book caught my eye at the bookstore but I bought Ha Jin's Waiting instead. Soon after I regretted not buying World and Town and I was compelled to go back to the bookstore and buy it. I am glad I did. 

I usually find it difficult to give five stars to modern literature because I often find the classics so much better. Will this be a classic? I don't think so, but it might just be one of those long-lost gems in years to come. 

This novel covers so much ground yet brings it together so well. It is a book of contrasts. Old age, youth. Children, death. Multiculturalism but from so many angles. Chinese history. Cambodian history. Vietnam veterans, the disintegration of the family farm, the end of long-term marriages, foster homes. Religion - Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism, burial, suicide, ethnic gangs, multilingualism, academia, science versus religion, religion versus science, pets, old love, new love. Kids who say "like" in the middle of every sentence, small town life, emails from home to the diaspora (like letters that form part of the dialogue in earlier novels), music, farming, hippies. 

In many ways it presents a version of the United States as it is rather than as it is imagined by some (I can only guess, but it resonates with the realities of Australia's cultural diversity). And it all concentrates on a small town in the north. I wondered if Hattie, the protagonist, would start to bore me. She just seemed so old. I think of Scott Fitzgerald who said nobody wants to read about poor people. 

But Hattie is so complex, so interesting. She is nosy, an artist, a scientist, a teacher, lonely. Yet she has a drive and a sense of self-discovery that makes you forget she is an old retired Chinese-American widow living in a small town. The connections with the rest of the world, the different ideas of filial responsibility, of God's work versus the manipulation of churches that prey (not pray!) on the vulnerable. 

The book even mentions the idea of "third culture kids" (something I have only ever read about in academia). It taught me a few things about adaptability and change, too (p. 232):
Even pigeons try to connect what they do with what happens to them. Really, they have no control. But they're wired to try anyway. They have a connection bias, just like people - a tendency to look for cause and effect, whether it's there or not.
Did you know that "Houdini had a tool pocket in the lining of his mouth"? I didn't. Now I have to find out if it's true. Do you know (p. 246):

...what it meant to have had our structures adapted and readapted, but never fundamentally redesigned[?]
I didn't. I don't know whether to call this a lovely story or an inspiring yet realistic tale. But I did love the book and I look forward to reading some more of Gish Jen's work. In an era of xenophobic nonsense, this novel sheds some light on what the world is like beneath the veneer of how things used to be.




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Patricia Piccinini: Curious Affection for the Uncanny Valley

Patricia Piccinini's "The Comforter", Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, 24 July 2018. Photo by Michael de Percy.

The "Uncanny Valley" creeps me out no end, so I entered Patricia Piccinini's recent exhibition at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art with some trepidation. 

The art works on display are so real, I kept waiting for one of the figures to blink or turn around. Like Nathan, the stuffed lion at the South Australian Museum. I stood there looking at him in his glass  box. And then his tail moved.

I was completely freaked out. Thankfully, the story of Nathan confirmed that there was indeed a windscreen wiper motor driving the tail, but it was so infrequent, and so life-like. I still shudder. 

At "Curious Affection" (thank God), nothing moved, but it was so real I expected it to happen at any moment.

This incredible blend of fantastical creatures with human and life-like qualities is not to be missed. The layout of the first half of the exhibition gave the impression that it was all over, except for a large outdoor balloon bladder thing  (Pneutopia) that could be viewed from inside and out.

As I followed the signs towards the exit, a small sign read "Exhibition Continues". And here I walked into a darkened room for the full uncanny valley experience.

The second part of the exhibition was quite the uncanny valley experience. Photo by Michael de Percy.

I admit that I was most comfortable when other people were in the vicinity. This would be a great setting for an uncanny valley horror movie. I found The Couple mesmerising and had to return to it several times.

Patricia Piccinini's "The Couple" at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art. Photo by Michael de Percy.

I mean, Duane Hanson's "Woman with a Laundry Basket" is enough to freak me out, but that couple in the caravan, now that freaked me out no end. I couldn't look away.

Piccinini takes this type of art to a whole new level. I saw the Curious Beasts exhibition at the SA Museum in early 2017. It was not uncommon for fake mermaids and other unnatural curiosities to be made and sold for profit in the 19th century. But Piccinini's work defies imagination.

With Piccinini's work, you know it is not real, it doesn't pretend to be real, but you can't really be sure. Now that's the uncanny valley.



Book Launch and Presentation: Road Pricing and Provision: Changed Traffic Conditions Ahead: Tuesday 4th September 2018

Road Pricing and Provision [ANU Press] CC By-NC-ND 4.0 


On Tuesday 4th September 2018, our book will be launched and I will be giving a presentation entitled: Road Pricing and provision: Where are we now and how did we get here?

To register for the event, please visit the registration page.

The electronic version of the book is available for free download at ANU Press.


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