Books Lunch Date: The Gift of Rain
posted by on April 28 at 12:42 PM
(A few times a week, I take a new book with me to lunch and give it a half an hour or so to grab my attention. Lunch Date is my judgment on that speed-dating experience.)
Who’s your date today? The Gift of Rain, by Twan Eng.
Where’d you go? La Puerta, at the top of the Broadway Market.
What’d you eat? Three beef tacos, beans, and rice ($6.75).
How was the food? I was thoroughly unimpressed. My mom has made me better tacos by strictly following the directions on an Old El Paso taco kit box, and I’ve had better refried beans out of a can. There’s been some love for La Puerta in the past on Slog, but I can’t get on that “it’s-just-like-authentic-Mexican-cafeteria-food” train: Cafeteria food is cafeteria food no matter where you go.
What does your date say about itself? The Gift of Rain was shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize. It’s a novel set in World War II, about a young half-Chinese man who learns the Japanese martial art of aikijutsu from the world’s greatest aikijustu master. It has been compared to The Quiet American by more than one reviewer.
Is there a representative quote? “It was a typical afternoon in the biggest town in Malaya: the English would leave their sweltering offices, go to the Spotted Dog to have a gin and tonic, play some cricket, and then return home for a bath before coming back to the Club for dinner and then dancing. It was a good life, a rich life filled with ease and enjoyment.”
Will you two end up in bed together? Yes, though I’m slightly on the fence on this one. The novel is slow, to say the least, but there’s a definite sense that something good is going to come at some point. The only question is, will the goodness come too late to retain my interest? Possibly. Time will tell.
You should read Yokohama Burning.
The representative quote is really, really off-putting to me. Post a follow-up (if you can) if you make it through the book.
@2: That's the thing! There's no good representative quote. Maybe it's telling of my inability to read non-snappy writing or something, but I'm getting the sense that I'm reading something that's intended to be serious and literary and is instead just not interesting. But I will post a follow-up if I can, if I do.
You've got to order the right things at La Puerta-- it's owned and operated by an awesome Mexican family from Guadalajara and they're as authentic as it gets.
However, a lot of their menu caters to whitey. Order the tacos and you're bound to be disappointed. Order the mole or the cochinita pibil and you'll swoon.
Give 'em another try! Seriously, you won't be disappointed.
You're right--I love this book and have read it twice, but can't pull an individual "representative quote" that gives a sound bite for this book. The observations and descriptions stop me in my reading tracks with the world and the thoughts that they evoke, but they are part of a fictional fabric, tightly woven to form a cohesive picture. Pulling them apart does the novel no service.
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