nwasianweekly.com
January 24, 2004
A quick look at books
by Ann Marie Stillion
The
Girl Who Played Go, by Shan Sa, translated by Adriana Hunter. Published
by Alfred A. Knopf, 2003.
Although the title of this small novel is playful and even childlike,
the elements of "The Girl Who Played Go" are dark and disturbing.
I found it to have the fine tautness of a Bergman film — intelligent
and crazed at the same time. The young writer — a product of modern
China and a good French education — gives her prose powerful insight
and passionate complexity. It is a book to read slowly while savoring
the language and poetic turns of fate.
Her novelistic voice switches by chapter from the mysterious girl to a
young soldier. Both are caught in the historic events of Manchuria in
the 1930s. Throughout the fictional universe of Go, footnotes refer to
significant dates from Japanese and Chinese history and cultural highlights,
but the reader does not lose sight of the chaotic and steamy life of the
game-playing ingénue.
This is Shan’s first novel to appear in English. It first appeared
in France in 2001. There, she has won several prestigious awards for her
writing, including the Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman for Porte de la
Paix-Céleste. Born in Beijing in 1972, both of the talented writer’s
parents were writers and academics.
Shan says that she has never considered being anything besides a writer.
Indeed, even her childhood notebooks have been asked for by publishers.
Biographical notes often say that she also worked for the French painter
Balthus for two years. “He profoundly affected my life,” she
said. Balthus was a controversial figurative artist who came to fame late
in life.
I hope the French will not keep this excellent work to themselves too
much longer — and that American publishers figure out what we have
been missing.
Foolproof Thai Cooking, by Ken Hom. Published by Hylas Publishing,
2002.
When I served Hom’s recipe for Northern Thai chicken noodle soup
at Christmas time last year, my guests agreed that I could cook for them
anytime. Planning ahead, I had made the recipe ahead of time to make sure
it was a good one, but I was pleasantly surprised by the accolades. My
guests were so thrilled at the results that I decided to buy all the ingredients
in this book and just cook Thai food for a while.
Hom is one of the world’s celebrity chefs. Born in Tucson, Ariz.,
he now lives in France and — from the notes on the book jacket —
he consults and cooks all over the world. His claim to fame is providing
cooks with simple approaches to (presumably) new cuisines. Foolproof Thai,
though published by a different publisher, is a mirror image of Foolproof
Chinese Cooking. Both books are graced with elegant photography of finished
dishes as well as spotlight pictures of chilies, noodles and utensils.
There’s even a whole page of pictures of sauces and chili pastes
just so one can see the all-important color and texture up close.
His approach might sound too simple for some, but as far as I am concerned
it’s perfect. Some of the layouts actually show step-by-step pictures
of how to wrap a spring roll or how to peel, cut and crush lemongrass
stalks. The pictures, along with the text beneath them, make dishes that
could be difficult to navigate seem natural.
Sure, some of us have great-aunts and grannies who know (or knew) how
to make all of this from scratch. But if you forget to add a pinch here
or a slice there, then you always have Hom’s "Foolproof Thai
Cooking" to rely on.
Ann-Marie Stillion can be reached at annmarie@nwasianweekly.com.
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