Sour Sweet by Timothy Mo – it was shortlisted for The Booker Prize for Fiction in 1982, the year when Schindler’s Ark won the top spot https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/07/schindlers-ark-by-thomas-keneally.html - 8 out of 10

 

Sour Sweet by Timothy Mo – it was shortlisted for The Booker Prize for Fiction in 1982, the year when Schindler’s Ark won the top spot https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/07/schindlers-ark-by-thomas-keneally.html

 

8 out of 10

 

Sour Sweet is also included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, for whatever reason, I am already jesting here and offering the conclusion of my encounter with this book, it was not my cup of tea, although it seemed promising, and then it is clear that others know better, and you should already look for a professional review

 

We have a trio of main characters here, albeit we could put Chen and his wife, Lily, ahead, with top stop going to the female, who is tough, she had been trained by her father, a fighter, to win in physical combat, and then she also has a peculiar resistance, determination, in short, she is the number one personage, if we take it that way

They live in London, first the man, then he takes his wife, who had worked in some of those gruesome factories in Hong Kong – I think – some decades ago, and they also have Lily’s sister, Mui, in the same, rather small premises, which would change after some chapters, when they embark on a new adventure, start a business

 

For a while, Chen works as a waiter, and it seems to be going well, they are not affluent, evidently, but they go by, until trauma is changing things, the reversal involves Chen’s parents – Husband, as he is called by his spouse, in the period when he is respected, he loses some face at times, and then he is taken down a notch

Chen senior has been obstinate, continued with a lawsuit – even now, after so many years, the courts in China would still give the verdict the communists want, I think it is over 99% if you oppose the officials, or those approved by them – which he lost, and to cap it all, the old man falls sick, and that is a disaster in more ways

 

Financially, this means there is a burden on the son – The Far East has a different culture, Confucianism is centered on respect for elders, the family has to care for them, there is more on that in Confucius https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-analects-by-confucius-8-out-of-10.html reading the Analects

You could also give a look to Outliers, a classic of psychology by Malcolm Gladwell, in which he gives you the formula for massive success, which is ten thousand hours of practice or exercise over ten years, that is three hours every single day, which means you can reach the top, if you meet some other criteria, but this is sine qua non

Malcolm Gladwell has looked at biographies from different walks of life, from Steve Jobs to The Beatles, from Bill Gates to Olympic teams, and came up with that result, for those extraordinary achievers have all worked extremely hard to reach the pinnacle of success, and this means that we can all try to use the formula…

 

There is another thing in Outliers https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/outliers-by-malcolm-gladwell.html which regards the culture of the Far East, based on the cultivation of rice, which is very demanding, and has contributed in making the people there hard working, resilient, and we see that in Sour Sweet

In other words, there is much to like, admire in the novel, that is if you still have the patience and you are a satisfizer, and not a maximizer, which is what I am becoming, apparently, for I want to love the characters I read about, they have to be inspiring, Nobel, sensational and lovable, not just interesting, notable

 

The Paradox of Choice https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-paradox-of-choice-by-barry-schartz.html by Barry Schwartz is another psychology classic and it presents you with two different types, the satisfizer, the one who wants excellent options, and accepts them, the other is the maximizer, who wants perfection

It looks like I am in the wrong team, I expect too much from the books that I now take, and then when they do not scintillate, appear luminous, if there is no rapture, then I complain and like with Sour Sweet, I just abandon the project midway, it is at page 150 or so that I decided to stop, but then lost concentration before that

 

It may have to do with the Triad, since along the characters aforementioned, we have gangsters, the Chinese version, who operate drug distributions, ask for protection money – just like the Orange Pig was doing a while ago, saying that he will only protect Taiwan, if that country pays up, as if he was out of Goodfellas

I was not keen on reading about the Triad, so skipped those passages, but then Chen gets entangled, he has to send money for his father, who is ill, and thinks maybe he can gamble and win, pushed as he is by a colleague, he loses money and gets indebted to those ghouls, tries to escape by moving from his present flat

 

They open a business, with Chinese food, which actually fake, because Westerners want that, they would not buy the original recipes, and try to live away from the path of the Triad, when they invite a woman and a former colleague, Chen is worried that the villains might get word of his new place and come to get him

We see the interaction with customers, tax man, Mui finds some distributors, drivers who have access to drinks and ice-cream, they transport them, and then part of the goods get damaged, so they claim some losses, but sell them to Mui…

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”