Notes of a Crocodile

by ,

Paperback, 242 pages

English language

Published May 2, 2017

ISBN:
978-1-68137-076-7
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OCLC Number:
956480138

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4 stars (4 reviews)

Set in the post-martial-law era of 1990s Taipei, Notes of a Crocodile depicts the coming-of-age of a group of queer misfits discovering love, friendship, and artistic affinity while hardly studying at Taiwan's most prestigious university. Told through the eyes of an anonymous lesbian narrator nicknamed Lazi, Qiu Miaojin's cult classic novel is a postmodern pastiche of diaries, vignettes, mash notes, aphorisms, exegesis, and satire by an incisive prose stylist and countercultural icon.

Afflicted by her fatalistic attraction to Shui Ling, an older woman who is alternately hot and cold toward her, Lazi turns for support to a circle of friends that includes the devil-may-care, rich-kid-turned-criminal Meng Sheng and his troubled, self-destructive gay lover Chu Kuang, as well as the bored, mischievous overachiever Tun Tun and her alluring slacker artist girlfriend Zhi Rou.

Bursting with the optimism of newfound liberation and romantic idealism despite corroding innocence, Notes of a Crocodile is …

1 edition

reviewed Notes of a Crocodile by Miaojin Qiu (New York Review Books Classics)

Confusing, but wonderful

5 stars

While the book can be kind of confusing from time to time, it’s a wonderfully written exploration on what it means to live in a world where you don’t fit. All the characters in the book have to find what it means to love, and how to love, outside of societal standards. I would definitely recommend this to other queer people as well.

And the bits about the crocodile are also a joy to read, a bit of levity and distraction from the heavy feelings that so often occurs in the rest of the book.

reviewed Notes of a Crocodile by Miaojin Qiu (New York Review Books Classics)

Review of 'Notes of a Crocodile' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

It's hard to express how I feel about this book. I usually use other people's words to describe art, but I can do so to describe my feelings.

There are many segments of the book filled with raw emotion, and self-hatred, in which the main character can't understand herself, and in turn, can't understand others.

And on the side, we have the segments of a crocodile hiding under human skin, in a world full of crocodile delirium.

The parts I like the most and feel sad about the most are the ones in which I can recognize my own thoughts and feelings. Knowing about the author's passing makes it even sadder.

In the end, I can't help to think many aspects of the book are probably lost in my lack of context. I would love to be able to read it again in a few years, if possible in its …

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rated it

4 stars
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rated it

4 stars

Subjects

  • Gays
  • Women
  • Lesbians
  • Fiction
  • History

Places

  • Taiwan
  • Taipei (Taiwan)