Seaside Room

This representative collection of short stories by emerging Taiwanese novelist Huang Liqun features twelve broken people, twelve breathtakingly good stories. The novelist crafts elegant, refined Chinese with meticulously crafted compositions, neatly slicing the joys and sorrows of life, depicting the bleak world of urban misfits: an abandoned daughter and her adoptive father in an old apartment, a rural fortune teller and his ailing son, a sleepwalking otaku, a middle-aged woman living alone and her calico cat... The playful language, unexpectedly frozen endings, and meticulous observations of ordinary human life create a unique literary tension. Impermanence is often the most commonplace, and this tale of the world, written by an old soul with warmth and a touch of elegance, stirs the hearts and minds of ordinary people, the passions and sorrows of the frustrated, and the daily hardships and loneliness of our lives.
Highlights★ Impermanence is often the most commonplace. This masterpiece by emerging Taiwanese novelist Huang Liqun, published in simplified Chinese for the first time, is a masterpiece. Winner of numerous Taiwanese literary awards, acclaimed by writers from across Taiwan and across generations, and highly anticipated on Douban, the highly anticipated Chinese-language novel "Room by the Sea" arrives this summer. Huang Liqun is a representative figure of Taiwan's emerging generation of novelists. Her short story collection "Room by the Sea" has won numerous Chinese-language awards, including the Times Literary Award, the United Daily News Literary Award, and the Lin Rongsan Literary Award. The film adaptation of the novel was selected for the Golden Horse Film Festival. This simplified Chinese edition, featuring three new stories hand-selected by the author, represents the culmination of over two decades of her writing career.
A love fortuneteller, writing about the world from a seasoned soul, tinkering with the subtle mechanisms of fate—with a shrewd heart and a shrewd pen, novelist Huang Liqun crafts elegant and refined Chinese, delicately crafting stories that predict love and fate, neatly slicing the drama of human joy and sorrow. Her writing, warm and playful, yet cold and captivating, stirs the hearts and minds of ordinary people, the passions and sorrows of the frustrated, and the daily struggles and uncertainties of life. Be captivated by the masterful beauty of Chinese, and immerse yourself in Huang Liqun's formula for love.
The world of urban misfits, twelve broken people, twelve breathtakingly good stories—a love song for the lonely, a place to settle in life's treacherous journey. "I write about all sorts of unpleasantness, fragmentedness, withering, and ruin—those little flaws in life that I can't help but repeatedly touch. If a person can't find a comfortable place in society, they must deceive themselves, and long-term self-deception will only lead to their destruction." The playful language and unexpected, frozen reversals of endings create the unique literary tension of Huang Liqun's works.
"It's been a long time since I've reached such a fever pitch while reading, feeling my skin burn." Writers from both sides of the Taiwan Strait, including Guo Qiangsheng, Luo Yijun, Ke Yufen, Zhang Yiwei, and Qi Jinnian, raved about her. -- "She possesses a splendid and elegant talent, yet within that beauty lies a subtle chill. Huang Liqun's writing is as warm as the sun, as swift as wind and rain. On a quiet, sunny afternoon, I still feel the warmth and joy of peaceful times, but in the blink of an eye, dark clouds appear from nowhere, and heavy rain falls."
◎ Comments and Recommendations: Writing possesses an innate nobility. Her stories are like the inconceivable, graceful movements of amoebas under a microscope. — Luo Yijun Liqun is just like this, possessing a splendid and elegant talent, yet within that beauty lies a subtle chill. Her writing is as warm as the sun and as swift as the wind and rain. On a quiet, sunny afternoon, one still feels the warmth and joy of peaceful times, but suddenly, dark clouds appear out of nowhere and the rain pours down. — Ke Yufen Liqun's novels invite us to hear another kind of "why not?" question: Why can't pure love be hard to swallow? Why can't despair be boring and trivial? Her novels reveal a leisurely pace, a reluctance to seek novelty, a reluctance to overthink things, and instead cultivate a unique theme: beautiful fragmentation. There aren't many novels worth anticipating, but I've finally gotten this one. — Guo Qiangsheng It's been a long time since I've felt this way: facing a book, slowly reading word by word, afraid to finish it, reluctant to read too fast; reaching a boiling point, nearly burning my fingertips as I touch the pages. I was astonished to discover such a brilliant novelist—Huang Liqun's "Room by the Sea" is a collection of novels that truly defines what a masterpiece is. Qi Jinnian: a shrewd mind, a shrewd pen, and a self-satisfied person. Fu Yue'an's writing is exquisitely sharp, its structure clear and layered, astonishing. I've never seen female jealousy portrayed so profoundly and so deeply. Ji Ji: Reality is most unpredictable, yet the characters themselves yearn for a normal life; the dialectic between impermanence and normality is the main theme of Huang Liqun's latest collection of novels. "Oh, you're here too?" Zhang Ailing asked. Where? In the investment market, like Huang Liqun's kind face, donning the vest of regulating the rhythm of time, tightening it a little, then a little, and joining her in her obsession with the formulas she loves. Ji Dawei: Huang Liqun's "Tasting the Dish" explores the complex connotations of maternal love through a small incision. In Taiwan, Huang Liqun has a vast readership, not just because she has won four of the island's three major newspaper literary awards in five years, but also because she captures the turbulent life she depicts through her writing, restoring the story to its true essence, neatly and cleanly, a play of tragedy and comedy for the reader. The first work of hers I read was the short story "Bosuanzi," about AIDS. A sick son cares for his adoptive father, a game of rock-paper-scissors between illness and aging. The novel is written with a calm and composed demeanor, layering down the typical lows, neither fighting nor fleeing. To put it in a trendy way, the ultimate emptiness of life is like an unfinished chess game stagnating within the family. It's a tricky subject, but there's a moving line in the text: Huang Liqun writes, "Impermanence is often the most ordinary." —Zhang Yiwei: The most original aspect of Huang Liqun's most celebrated short story, "The Room by the Sea," lies not in the violence, sensuality, or even the ethical dramas so commonplace in social news and film and television dramas, but in the author's attempt to capture a certain "uncanny self-evident quality." Thus, the absurdity of reality, so often spoken of by us, is transformed into the "natural order" of the human world by the novelist. —Zhang Dinghao: This author isn't wielding a pen, but a knife. —Douban netizen Zhinuan: "I felt the same surprise I felt when I first read A Yi's "Bird, Saw Me," but I discovered a different theme." "Abnormal love" may be the most striking theme in Huang Liqun's short stories, but she goes far beyond that. With a sophisticated plot and a casual style, she seemingly understates but in fact deeply explores numerous "possibilities," loneliness, emptiness, waiting, and even the absurdity and black humor of ordinary life. There are some echoes of McEwan's early years, particularly in "First Love, Last Rites." ——Douban user MagicDon

2021-08-01

河南文艺出版社

Ideal Country

224

9787555911630