Photo/ Norman Rockwell
Editor's note: At the end of each year, many media outlets will launch the "Good Book of the Year" list. Review the 2016 best-seller list and good book recommendation list, some of which have good sales and high expert ratings, but after reading, they are greatly disappointed, and it is difficult to call "the best book of the year". Taking stock of the annual "book of disappointment" and "picking mistakes" for the list of good books is the second, and re-expressing our insistence on serious reading and judging the criteria for good books in criticism is the most important.
Text/Xiao Renfeng
I. Concise Modern Chinese History
Author: Feng Ke Translator: Chen Yao
Publisher: Kyushu Publishing Co., Ltd.
Publication year: 2016-3-1
For the Chinese people who have long been poisoned by the old historiography, Feng Ke's book must be refreshing, like discovering a new continent. Even readers who are tired of mainland innuendo historiography are prone to the illusion of high trust in texts because of Feng Ke's foreign status.
The problem, however, is that it is valuable to jump out of the revolutionary partisan narrative and the tragic narrative of oppression, but if we write too much about forty-nine years ago, we still fall into the ills of overcorrection; departing from the historical background of the tide of national awakening in the twentieth century and abandoning the imprint of the era of sovereign independence and national awakening, and the writing falls into the withdrawal posture of colonialists.
In the narrative of the history of the Republic of China, Feng Ke's cutting and interpretation of the materials is excessively kind and suspicious, and sometimes it is even obvious that Feng Ke first made a theory and then looked for traces of historical materials. Feng Ke was impatient to overturn the case, so much so that he completely ignored the historical facts that the party-state had been established since 1928. In historical research, it is not uncommon for historical narratives to take the lead in arguments, and we are not unfamiliar with historical research that glorifies evil, while Feng Ke only presents the other side of the coin.
Second, the west wind and the east earth: the setback of the two worlds
Author: Xiong Peiyun
Publisher: Nova Press
It must be noted that the diary genre determines the content of the text, but the problem is that the publication time of the diary determines the evaluation coordinates, before and after the birth, very different. Publishing a diary before death, if it does not deal with irrelevant information, will inevitably lead to the text falling into a trivial and boring journal chronicle, lacking the depth of writing that precipitates and fermenting, or messy due to lack of tailoring.
In this Japanese study diary, the narrative of daily life is greater than the excavation of the title itself, and the internal argumentative discourse is vague and repetitive, and the whole book is like a thick coat that has just been lifted from the water but has not yet been twisted, so that irrelevant words are more than insightful words.
For example, the author's pursuit of Ishibashi Zhanshan can be partially deleted to form a more expressive chapter to complete the narrative of him. However, the author can write so many words a day in the diary, the diligence is really commendable, and the biggest highlight of the book may be the literary gossip, because it is not much abridged and seems real and interesting.
Iii. The Unfinished Chinese Origin: An Autobiography
Author: John Patton Davis
Translators: Chen Feng / Zhang Xiang / Li Min
Publisher: Social Science Literature Publishing
Publication year: 2016-7-10
As a diplomat, his memoirs were so trivial that I didn't know what he wanted to present.
When I finished reading it, even the memoirs of Ma Hinata were extremely speculative, but quite conceited, such as the US aid during the anti-Japanese period of the Republic of China was not used for anti-Japanese resistance, but for Annei. Of course, from this endless speculative memoir of diplomats, we can see why the United States abandoned the national government.
The Demise of the Habsburgs:
The outbreak of World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
Author: Jeffrey Wavro Translator: Huang Zhongxian
Publication year: 2016-7
The fall of the Habsburgs has always been a key issue in world history and a favorite topic for history lovers. However, under the author's pen, the book was eventually written as "Austro-Hungarian War Fiasco", and the Habsburgs were written by the author as a stupid and extremely vulnerable waste joke, which makes people feel slightly suspicious to read, like an Austro-Hungarian black work that precedes the argument.
In addition to the first few parts of the writing of the internal dilemma is relatively clear, the chaos of the whole book also follows, the author intends to lay out the grand observation, but with more than enough and insufficient strength to suddenly retract the description of the details of the battle, only focusing on the analysis of the war on the Eastern Front but also insufficient analysis, and finally like a historical drama that was scattered in the middle, the reader fell into a trivial and boring reading experience.
After reading it, I found that I was deceived by the title of the book, so it was better to use the original title: A Mad Catastrophe: the Outbreak of WorldWar I and the Collapse of the Habsburg Empire.
V. Before the people sing and cry the banner:
Old style poems from the Mao Zedong era
Author: Hero Mushan Translator: Zhao Jinghua
Publisher: Life, Reading, and New Knowledge Triptych Bookstore
Publication year: 2016-1-1
For the study of old-style poetry, China has indeed lagged behind, still staying in the appreciation of ancient poetry, thus delaying the study of the evolution of old-style poetry in modern times. Kiyama hero looked for a good research topic, and under rough reading, it was very good.
However, this pleasure of reading is born out of historical gossip and textual scale. For the topic of "old style poetry of the Mao Zedong era", the vision of the material is not broad enough, often focusing on the political old style poetry under the tide of revolution, and completely abandoning the study of old style poetry in literature itself or other aspects.
Moreover, the study of the old style poetry of those people in the book often describes the ups and downs of the characters in history and lacks more discussion of the old style poetry itself, and more is "historical evidence of poetry", and the poetry itself is not discussed enough. In addition, sometimes there is a slight sense of alien identity, and historical gossip is also occasionally wrong.
6. Naito Hunan: Sinology and Politics
Author: Fu Foguo Translator: Tao Demin/He Yingying
Publisher: Jiangsu People's Publishing House
Publication year: 2016-3
As a famous sinologist in modern times, Naito Hunan (1866-1934) published a large number of political articles on China's current politics in the press. Whether it is Naito Hunan as a historian or Naito Hunan as a public intellectual, the publication of his biography is bound to be expected by domestic readers.
The first half of Fu Foguo's book, from the close connection between life, thought and era, sorts out for the reader how Naito Hunan, between politics and scholarship, became a generation of sinologists. However, in the second half of the book, when introducing Naito's political and historical views, it is almost like a pile of historical materials and re-reading quotations, so that many key questions have not been clearly answered, and when it comes to things that damage the reputation of Naito Hunan, it is inevitable that the words are vague in order to protect the owner.
Vii. Entering the Republic:
The Mental Journey of Those Who Witnessed the Regime Change Period as Seen in the Diary (1911-1912)
Author: Sang Bing
Publisher: Beijing Normal University Press
Publication year: 2016-1
Old historical materials are not distinguished, and the personal views in the contents of the diary are not interpreted and analyzed, and are used as real contexts.
Viii. Polar flowers
Author: Jia Pingwo
Publisher: People's Literature Publishing House
The old writers of Jia Pingwa's generation seem to lack the vision to discover new themes once they reach the age, and from the selection of topics, people feel the repetition of themes and the obsolescence of writing, and even still fall into the desire of the elders to preach.
Jia Pingwo still has not come out of the narrow threshold of his own experience, and he lacks the ability to observe the times and society, even if he intends to explore new social issues, so as to seek a new direction for social development or pursue accountability, but he still has a sense of inadequacy.
Could it be that his shallow taste is because of the strategy adopted by his status position? The writing of the countryside should not only stay in the repeated grievances and hangings as usual, but should jump out of the cognitive vision of male power in the new era. Of course, the social significance of the feminist controversy and rural discussion caused by this book is far greater than the significance of Jia Pingwa's writing itself, which is the biggest social contribution of "Polar Flower".
9. Look forward to the spring breeze
Author: Ge Fei
Publisher: Yilin Publishing House
Publication year: 2016-6
The avant-garde temperament of Ge Fei has lost more and more aura in recent years. I don't know if it is related to age, but it has become more and more stable and conservative writing style and repetitive themes, and the structure has become loose and disorganized. From Western-influenced experimentalism to a return to the fusion of tradition, Ge Fei has a refined side, but also a chaotic side.
It is still a Márquez-esque beginning, and the repeated use over the years can still bring suspense to the reader, and the exquisite beginning gradually slides into the chaos within the narrative. If it is only the first half of the publication of "Harvest", of course, the problem lies precisely in the second half of "Harvest" that is not published.
The traditional order depicted in the first half encounters a political movement, and Ge Fei has a solid understanding; the economic changes presented in the second half tear apart the homeland, but they are pale and scrawled, and the plot of dog blood and lack of real understanding makes the whole book like a nostalgic aria that ends hastily.
10. Dragon head and phoenix tail
Author: Ma Jiahui
Publisher: Sichuan Literature and Art Publishing House
Publication year: 2016-10
It was Wong Tak Wai's preface and Ma Ka-fai's friends who fueled the book's high expectations. As the author's first novel, like young people who have just learned to write, they always express excessive desire and do not know how to restrain themselves, the stalls are too big, and the feelings are too much, which eventually creates an embarrassing situation in which the beginning is rough and the end is hasty, and the "dragon head and phoenix tail" becomes "tiger head and snake tail".
Intending to construct a large historical background, but cramped and uneasy to go to the small family, the grand pattern of the beginning eventually becomes more and more hasty due to poor penmanship, creating an awkward reading experience between the ambition of writing and the content of the text.
In addition, the author is too caught up in the spectacle of writing: wine color and wealth, everything is available; penis worship, gay lace, group P, incest and even SM, meat is not taboo. The excessive pursuit of the spectacle of scale brings sensory stimulation to the whole book, but it is difficult to understand the real role of this kind of writing. After reading the whole book, and then reviewing Wang Dewei's preface, we know how entangled and rigid the contemporary Chinese cultural ecology is.
What disappointment books have you read this year?
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