Taipei Story

Taipeh – eine Stadt voller flimmernder Lichter, verborgener Sehnsüchte und Geschichten, die sich erst im Halbdunkel offenbaren. In Taipei Story entführt Kuang in eine Welt zwischen Tradition und Moderne, zwischen Aufbruch und Entwurzelung. Mit atmosphärischer Dichte entsteht das Bild einer Stadt, in der sich die Suche nach Identität mit der Frage nach Heimat und Zugehörigkeit verbindet. Hinter der glänzenden Fassade des urbanen Lebens werden die leisen Risse sichtbar, die entstehen, wenn sich eine Welt wandelt und der eigene Platz darin unsicher wird. Eine faszinierende, nachdenklich stimmende Lektüre, die noch lange wie das Echo einer fremden Stadt nachklingt.

I was very lucky to receive an ARC for this title and cannot state how excited I've been to read Rebecca Kuang's latest novel. The coming-of-age-story follows Lily Cheng, a Yale student, going to Taipei to improve her Chinese, and finding out more about her heritage. The book is written exceptionally well, as always, and Kuang proves yet again, that whether she writes fantasy, fiction or anyhting else, the result will definitely be one of great quality. While I am personally more of a plot-focused reader (and enjoy novels with twists and turns a bit more), this character-driven story was very much enjoyable and entertaining. The usage of hanzi in the book is also really well executed and made me enroll in a course to learn Mandarin :) To me, the story lacked a bit of action though, as all of Lily's problems seem to boil down to miscommunication and being misunderstood, which almost exclusively resulted in people being unfriendly/hostile towards her. Nevertheless, it is evident how she grows through these situations and continues to develop as the story unfolds. While I would've wished for a bite more 'drama/high stakes' (as in Yellowface), I enjoyed Taipei Story and look forward to what R. F. Kuang will put her mind to next!

This book is about not belonging in either of your home countries and cultures. It is also about not fitting in with the people around you. However, it also doesn´t belong on my bookshelf. If you liked The Idiot by Elif Batuman, you will probably love this. The story has the same feel to it, boring and unlikeable characters and A LOT of academia, also boring. In my opinion, Kuang did a lot of telling instead of showing in this novel. I´d rather recommend Yellowface by her!