The Drink and Dream Teahouse Justin Hill Phoenix, 324pp, £6.99 ISBN 0752843966
Unlike much contemporary fiction about China, The Drink and Dream Teahouse is neither historical nor concerned with the Chinese diaspora, but is set in China today.
Although it necessarily draws on ideological clashes between communism and capitalism, this is primarily a novel about human failure and endurance. Faith is little more than a joke between muttering nuns in a run-down temple. Art is given voice by one woman belting Beijing opera from the balcony of her factory flat. Language has lost its meaning, somewhere between communist slogans, village proverbs and over-iterated ancient poetry. And yet the rituals of mourning and celebration continue, the social distinctions of old China persist (landlords who no longer own land, peasants who run video shops), and poetry still makes some people cry, or fall in love.
Many of Hill's metaphors are painfully overextended and he should perhaps check a distracting obsession with food and drink. However, this is a direct and powerful novel portraying modern China with humour and affection.
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