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paperback HK$120.00
Inkstone Books
Paddyfield.com
More reviews by Sasha Seth
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Love & Lust by Hong Kong Writers' Circle
The HONG KONG WRITERS' CIRCLE's fourth annual publication LOVE & LUST is a sexy suite of seventeen stories by a mixture of eighteen local Hong Kong and expat writers. This book may not be a perfect bedroom companion -- there are no predictable heaving bosoms or hot rods, but plenty of introspection: an Asian blend of romantic tales that transcend the normal definitions of love and lust.
One of the most unique pieces is Their Voices, Varied and Many, a creative endeavor by local poets Tammy Ho and Reid Mitchell featuring a mixture of monologue and dialogue, presenting the interconnected stories of three couples of different ages living in the same apartment building. Mr and Mrs Yeung and Mr and Mrs Wong reveal their desperation for love when a young couple living next door, Sarah and Charles, become more than just neighbours. In this intricate piece, Ho and Mitchell demonstrate that love and lust are not merely emotions, but can transform lives.
The more sentimental at heart will be moved by Michael Gibb's poignant story of old love, Frozen Time, set among the scarred memories of North Korea and communist East Germany. In the early sixties, Rosina Munz and Hyun Chol, a Korean exchange student, meet in Dresden in East Germany, fall in love, get married and have two children. However, a few years later, Hyun Chol is forced to leave his family in Dresden to return to North Korea; and Rosina Munz never hears from him again. The story tells of Rosina's voyage years later to Pyongyang to "breath the same air that her husband breathed, to wake to the same morning and feel the same rain".
In Jane Wallace's Coming Home, Fei Yan, a Chinese teacher in Xian, longs for the return of her long-absent American boyfriend, Jonathan. More than two years have passed since Jonathan left and Fei Yan still pines for her lover and is convinced he will return. Fei Yan's mother thinks otherwise; the tension between mother and daughter is as caustic as the seeping cold of the ancient city of Xian.
Ian Greenfield, the author prominent in the HONG KONG WRITERS' CIRCLE's previous collection, Hong Kong Whodunnits, brings suspense into his oddly-named romance, Sunev -- The Three-legged Dog of Love, about Dr Jacobsen, the protagonist, and a pretty and enigmatic Sharon Wan. There is plenty of romance and conflict, but Greenfield also manages to weave a devastating twist in the end.
Several of the stories deftly explore the less glamorous elements of love and lust. In The Pussy Man Blog, HONG KONG WRITERS' CIRCLE Chairman Lawrence Gray portrays the downfall of an aging expat who dares to reveal his wildest fantasies online. Journalist Mohammed Cohen's Bali Low, is a short but well-defined story of twisted passion in steamy Bali. Judy, a sexually-frustrated diplomat lusts after Richard, her underling. The result is a darkly comic climax which the reader is unlikely to forget. Finally, B. B. Wei's The Swing-bed leaves the bitter taste of opium in the reader's mouth. The protagonist, a fifteen-year-old prepares to marry her grandfather's best friend, although remains in love with her grandfather. In this drug-laced story, the incestuous love is hard to swallow but the reader is addicted till the end.
Some stories are steamy, some satisfying, some disturbing, and some sweet: they fit together perfectly with their common Asian flavor.
Sasha Seth
14/04/2008
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Sasha Seth is a Hong Kong-based writer. |
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