Product Details

• Published on: 2006-12-13
• Format: Large Print
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 389 pages

Independent
'Earthy but erudite, with a spiced wit all its own.'

Daily Telegraph
"A quirky, entertaining read."

From the Publisher
Wonderful second novel from the author of the best-selling Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress.

Customer Reviews

Humour without a soul
The humanity and sense of hope against adversity that made Dai Sijie's first novel 'Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress' so endearing is nowhere to be found in his new novel. Instead 'Mr Muo's Travelling Couch' is a constant, unrelenting tease, a send-up from beginning to end. The premise is comic - the need to find a virgin inorder to satisfy the corrupt Judge Di so that Mr Muo, a psychoanalyst, can secure the release of his sweetheart from jail and engages us at the beginning. And so, at first, does Mr Muo's quixotic quest. The problem is that at each new encounter, the tale soon descends into farce, and the joke begins to pall. Two thirds of the way into the book I stopped caring whether Mr Muo found what he was looking for. Every person he met on the way had some kind of quirk - often described for several pages, and although Dai is an evocative writer, the desire to find the quirk in everyone is overdone and becomes gimmicky. The author spends so much time trying to be more outrageous, more funny, the joke becomes threadbare and the heart and soul that made Dai's first novel soar is buried under comic excess. This book will entertain, it may even surprise, but do not expect it to capture your heart.