While I was reading this I couldn’t help but be reminded of Mieko Kawakami’s Breasts and Eggs, a novel of hers I did not particularly care for ( heaven is so much better in my humble opinion). Notes of a Crocodile‘s unconventional structure, while certainly unique, does come at the expense of its characters, plot, and story. In many ways the narrator’s inner conflict regarding her sexuality, desire, and otherness brought to mind Giovanni’s Room, but Miaojin’s storytelling is far more experimental and uneven than James Baldwin’s one. I was certainly surprised and struck by Miaojin’s modernist style and by how on point her discussions surrounding gender, identity, and sexuality were. Originally published in 1994, Notes of a Crocodile is now considered by many a ‘cult classic’.
On the one hand, this was certainly ahead of its time, on the other, I found Qiu Miaojin’s brand of angsty nihilism somewhat trite.
0 kommentar(er)
