It's all fairly sketchy, as even, for example, whatever terrible thing Jiang Songping did to Cui's sister many years ago remains unrevealed. He fills in - in sketch-form - his own background, as well as those of his friends and family. In chapters titled after sound equipment and pieces of music, Cui wends his way both through the present and the past. It throws a wrench in Cui's house-buying plans - yet things work out, one way or another.

It doesn't work out exactly as planned - aside from the fact that Ding Caichen, too, has little musical knowledge and can't fully appreciate the sound system, Cui doesn't get paid in a timely fashion - and money is hard to collect from the isolated super-rich (and possibly mob-connected). He does come across a house that's to his liking, and he comes up with a plan to raise the funds to purchase it: his prized possessions are two very valuable Autograph-speakers - in the divorce, his wife got the apartment and he got the speakers, and he maintains that was a fair split - and now he's willing to part with them, as part of a super-sound-system package he's willing to offer to one Ding Caichen, one of China's new super-rich, who lives in a well-protected estate outside Beijing. The Invisibility Cloak plods along fairly uneventfully.Ĭui is annoyed by his situation, but comes across as the type that takes things as they come and figures something will work out, one way or another. His father, who died when he was young, had worked in a radio tube factory and then, after getting laid off, would repair radios at home his son seems to have followed in that not very ambitious but tinkering-obsessed fold. Not that he thinks most of his customers, with their terrible musical taste, can really appreciate his work.

With even his friend Jiang Songping unwilling to help him out, about the only one he has left to turn to is his dead mother.Ĭui is an audiophile, earning his living by putting together sound-systems - specifically: building tube amplifiers. Past mid-life, he's finding himself almost entirely unmoored - whereby his sister's strong-arm efforts to hook him up with someone (like, immediately) also aren't particularly helpful. Cui.ĭivorced, nearing fifty, he now finds himself being not so gently nudged out of his home by his sister and, especially, brother in law. The Invisibility Cloak is narrated by Mr. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review 's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. In these ways the writer can smuggle vital truths past the censors.' - Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal (.) Ge Fei offers a wry example for Chinese novelists hoping to follow a more cautious path than Yan Lianke has: Don’t call attention to yourself master the tools of allusion, metaphor and silence. 'The novel’s relentlessly flat tone could frustrate, but amplification isn’t always necessary to produce a memorable effect.' - Publishers Weekly.General information | review summaries | our review | links | about the authorī+ : solid, laid-back novel of slice of modern China Trying to meet all your book preview and review needs.

Invisible cloak amazon