The Lost Daughter of Happiness by Geling Yan

First published in 2001

The Lost Daughter of Happiness is a remarkable novel, a love story unlike any I've read. It unfolds in alternating points of view. Writing in the second person, as if she were speaking to Fusang, looking back at Fusang's life from the present day, the narrator's language is factual, unemotional, sometimes bordering on contemptuous: You are a prostitute, she says, brought to California from China, one who didn't die during the long voyage, who didn't succumb to disease or beatings after being sold into slavery. "I certainly won't let people confuse you with any of the other three thousand whores from China." Occasionally the narrator quotes histories of the California Gold Rush from which she draws her account of Fusang. Occasionally she tells Fusang tidbits about her own life as a recent Chinese immigrant, about her own perplexity understanding the ways of white people, including her husband.

The other point of view is third person, telling the story of Fusang in its own time, sometimes shifting to the lives of others, particularly Chris, the white teenager who quietly worships Fusang's beauty, whose life changes because of her. The other central character is Fusang's Chinese warlord-like kidnapper. Both men love Fusang, and to some extent hate her, in their own warped ways. Fusang, in turn, has special feelings for both men--as distinguished from the hordes of undifferentiated men who want to sleep with her, whose names she's incapable of remembering.

Whether she's describing a battle between Chinese clans (of which Fusang is the indirect cause) or the culture shock and isolation experienced by Chinese immigrants past and present, Geling writes with a fluid grace. Geling avoids sympathetic language, yet her stark portrayal of Fusang's plight is incredibly moving. Still, Geling paints Fusang as largely unaffected by pain or trauma. Fusang may just be simple-minded, but she evinces a knowingness that the other slave girls lack. She understands how to steal pleasure from pain, how to find freedom in enslavement. Unlike the other prostitutes, she's content with a diet of fish heads. There is something zen-like about her simplicity.

Geling writes powerfully about race riots in San Francisco more than a century ago and about present day skinheads who profess their racial hatred on talk shows. She writes about rape and redemption. This short but wide-ranging novel is filled with tension and ugliness while maintaining a soft, quiet tone, but it is also filled with hope and beauty. It is a stunning performance. The Lost Daughter of Happiness deserves a much larger audience.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Adios Muchachos by Daniel Chavarria

Published by Akashic Books on May 1, 2001

Alicia is a bicycle prostitute in Havana. She dresses in shorts and wiggles her butt as she pumps her pedals. One pedal is rigged to fall off, allowing her to tumble in front of the foreign men she seeks as customers. When one helps her up, she persuades him to give her a ride home where her mother makes dinner. The mother then leaves while Alicia seduces the man. Pretending to be too proud to accept money from him, she instead accepts gifts of air conditioners and motor scooters, which she stores in the garage until mother sells them. Because Alicia's wiggling butt is irresistible, she is confident that sooner or later the right man will fall in love with her -- the right man being the one who meets her high standards of wealth and virility.

From this premise, written in prose that borders on hilarity, Daniel Chavvaria crafts a novel that is more a comedy than a mystery -- and a very funny comedy it is. Alicia is hired to have sex with men while a couple watch from behind a mirror. The arrangement leads to prosperity for Alicia, but unfortunate circumstances involve her in what seems to be a kidnapping scheme that goes awry. Alicia maintains her cheery self-confidence throughout the novel, an attribute that makes her a very likable character. The phrase "wickedly funny" could have been invented to describe this book. It isn't deep, it isn't a traditional mystery, but it's loads of fun.

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Nelly's Version by Eva Figes

First published in 1977

A woman arrives at a country inn, checks into a room under (she tells us) an assumed name, and finds a large sum of money in her suitcase as she unpacks. She does not remember her identity, does not know the reason she has taken up residence in an inn, but believes that someone will come for her to make her mission clear. As the days slowly unfold, she explores the town and has curious experiences. Cases of mistaken identity abound. She befriends strangers who may actually be friends or family members. When she is finally persuaded to move out of the inn and into a house, she wonders whether the house is hers and about the identity of a mysterious occupant.

I enjoyed puzzling about just how unreliable the narrator was, what was real and what wasn't. Is she suffering from amnesia, from paranoia (she's suspicious of everyone, sees conspiracies everywhere), from delusional thinking? The novel bears rereading in an effort to grasp its meaning. The mysteries aren't neatly resolved so if you can't abide a novel that leaves loose ends dangling, you might want to give this one a pass. I thought the ambiguity was delicious, given that the point of view is that of a disturbed mind.

Figes writes in a quiet but penetrating voice that moves a compelling story along with wit and wry charm.  This is the best of the Figes novels I've read.

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4 by Pelevin by Victor Pelevin

Published by New Directions in September 2001

The four stories in this short collection are perceptive, fiercely imaginative, and wildly funny. My favorite, "The Life and Adventures of Shed Number XII," is told from the viewpoint of a storage shed that dreams of being the bicycle it stores, then loses the dream when a barrel of cucumbers replaces the bicycle, before finally recapturing its memory of the freedom it yearns to achieve. Similarly, "Hermit and Six Toes" concerns two chickens who want something better than the fate that awaits them on a production line. While those two allegorical tales stand out, I also enjoyed the two stories about people, particularly the story of a woman whose job as a men's room attendant is transformed by perestroika when the men's room becomes a shopping outlet--albeit one that retains its memory of sewage. That story and the final one (a satirical look at leadership in the USSR) would probably be even more enjoyable for those who have a more intimate knowledge of recent Russian history. That sort of background isn't necessary, however, to appreciate Pelevin's unique vision. Any fan of strong, inventive writing infused with sharp humor should enjoy this small collection.

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The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier

First published in 2006

The Brief History of the Dead is a book that stayed with me long after I finished it. I don't understand why so many readers disliked it. Some apparently had a preconceived notion that the novel would mimic a particular movie or book they liked and were disappointed to find that it was a different story entirely. So be warned: don't expect this novel to be quite like anything else you've encountered. If you take it on its own terms, you might enjoy it. I certainly did.

This well-written, haunting story imagines a virus that wipes out all life on Earth.  The dead reside in a sort of limbo as long as someone on Earth remembers them.  Point of view shifts between the residents of limbo (who are winking out of existence as the people who remember them die) and the last survivor on Earth, a woman in the Arctic who is struggling not with the virus, but with isolation and her unforgiving environment.

Here's why I liked this novel: The concept is imaginative. The nature of the Limbo-like existence of the dead is a stimulating mystery through much of the novel, until the characters in Limbo realize what their continued existence (at least in their Limbo-like state) depends upon. The writing is vivid. The images of Laura Byrd fighting for her survival are haunting. The novel raises intriguing questions about the nature of death and its relationship to the memory of the dead among the living.  As I said, this novel not only held my attention but made me think.

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