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Chu T`ien-wen. Notes of a Desolate Man. Howard Goldblatt, Sylvia Li-chun Lin, trs. New York. Columbia University Press. 1999. viii + 169 pages. $19.95. ISBN O-231-II608-X.
Chu T'ien-wen (Zhu Tianwen in the mainland's orthography) is a current star in contemporary Chinese fiction from Taiwan, her prose associated with decadent and fin-de-siecle syndromes by her book titles, themes, and a style that appeals to all the senses. Constantly reaching for exotic experiences, she finds and records them in everything from Western, Japanese, and Chinese pop culture to the erudite philosophical discourses of all those cultural realms.
This time Chu set herself the difficult task of writing as a male homosexual; the entire text is in his voice, a stream of consciousness with flashbacks and seesaw temporal interpolations. Presented as a series of never-ending "notes" in diary form - as the subject's attempt to come to terms with life and his...