The Guest (嘉宾) by Yu Shuang (鱼霜): Review
Apr. 28th, 2024 06:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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baihe_mediaThe Guest (嘉宾, pinyin: jiabin) turned out to be very different from I Think About You Day and Night (朝思慕暖, pinyin: zhao si mu nuan), the last Yu Shuang novel I read. Clocking in at a slim (by webnovel standards) 82k words, it's rather muted in terms of mood, and strives for realism rather than the indulgent drama stylings of I Think About You Day and Night. Unlike the latter novel, it has a tragic ending.
The main character of The Guest, from whose (fairly tight) POV much of the novel is told, is Lan Yan, an interior designer who has just returned to China from Canada, where her mother lives and where she went to university (she also finished her high school education there, though she started that in China, for reasons that will become obvious). At the start of the novel, Lan Yan is approached by a high school classmate, Chen Lin, who wants Lan Yan to redecorate the apartment she's just bought with her fiancé, which they plan to move into right after their impending wedding. Chen Lin also brings Lan Yan a second client: Jiang Jinyue, another high school classmate, who is also Lan Yan's high school girlfriend. Like Chen Lin, Jiang Jinyue is also recently engaged (to a man named Yu He) and she, too, wants Lan Yan to redecorate the apartment they'll be moving into after their wedding. And while Lan Yan is clearly still very hung up on her relationship with Jiang Jinyue, Jiang Jinyue has seemingly put it all behind her, and treats Lan Yan as if she were just another old friend from high school.
The first half or so of the novel is structured rather like a detective novel. Where did Jiang Jinyue, who was raised by a working-class single mother, get the money for her apartment from (we learn at one point that she's basically bought the whole apartment in cash, and there's no mortgage over it)? Why does Yu He live in a completely different apartment within the same complex? Why is Jiang Jinyue, who always loved children (she and Lan Yan used to discuss the possibility of adopting a child in future), now claiming to be fine with the idea of not having any, simply because her husband doesn't want them? Why does Yu He have the number of Dr Luo, who treated Jiang Jinyue's mother during the latter's final illness, saved in his phone under the name 'baobei'? Woven through the narrative are flashbacks from Lan Yan and Jiang Jinyue's high school days. We learn that Lan Yan lived with her grandmother until the latter's death, after which time she was, in practice, semi-adopted by Jiang Jinyue's mother, who would buy her snacks, plan her birthday parties, and frequently invite her over to visit. When Jiang Jinyue's mother found out that the two girls were dating, she objected to the relationship (less on expressly homophobic grounds and more 'but you have to think about the impact on your future if people find out'). She strikes a deal of sorts with Lan Yan (which Jiang Jinyue is also cognisant of): Lan Yan is to leave Jiang Jinyue alone until the latter finishes university, after which they're free to do as they like, if they find they still care for each other. Lan Yan agrees, and leaves for Canada to see out her final year of high school and to attend university thereafter, while Jiang Jinyue remains in China.
The detective element of the story kept me interested for a bit, but that didn't last long, because the answer to 'what's going on with Jiang Jinyue' is pretty obvious if you're an Asian drama veteran: she's dying from a terminal illness (in this case, cervical cancer), and she doesn't want to get back together with Lan Yan so that the latter doesn't have to suffer the heartbreak of another separation. The story plays out pretty much as you'd expect: Lan Yan finds out the truth (with some help from Yu He), and she and Jiang Jinyue have a few short days of happiness before the latter dies.
There was a lot of sobbing in the comments section of the novel, so I assume many readers found this affecting. I... did not. This was partly due to the fact that I was not in a state to give the novel the full emotional energy and attention it deserved (being extremely tired and stressed at work), but mainly because it didn't have much of an emotional through line, or a thematic arc and motifs. There were many aspects of it that could have, with very little additional work, been turned into effective motifs. The author could have written in more past memories of Lan Yan and Jiang Jinyue planning their future dream home together (which would have tied into the redecoration aspect), or told us about how Lan Yan had spent the last few years planning to make a grand traditional marriage proposal to Jiang Jinyue (we're shown, at one point in the story, that she has specially commissioned an exquisite set of jewellery for Jiang Jinyue, but that comes rather out of nowhere), or made more of the way Jiang Jinyue used to tease Lan Yan about not being able to keep up with her when walked anywhere together in high school (there's a bit near the end that could have real resonance if the author had done this: Jiang Jinyue leaves Lan Yan a final note saying 'This time, I want you to go slower, don't try to keep up with me). But instead, the author gave me very little, with the result that the novel felt more like undifferentiated Extract of Helpless Lesbian Sadness rather than anything else.
I read the Chinese original of the novel here on JJWXC. The novel is named after the song 'The Guest' by the Chinese singer Zhang Yuan, which is sung from the perspective of a man who has been invited to attend his ex-girlfriend's wedding.
The main character of The Guest, from whose (fairly tight) POV much of the novel is told, is Lan Yan, an interior designer who has just returned to China from Canada, where her mother lives and where she went to university (she also finished her high school education there, though she started that in China, for reasons that will become obvious). At the start of the novel, Lan Yan is approached by a high school classmate, Chen Lin, who wants Lan Yan to redecorate the apartment she's just bought with her fiancé, which they plan to move into right after their impending wedding. Chen Lin also brings Lan Yan a second client: Jiang Jinyue, another high school classmate, who is also Lan Yan's high school girlfriend. Like Chen Lin, Jiang Jinyue is also recently engaged (to a man named Yu He) and she, too, wants Lan Yan to redecorate the apartment they'll be moving into after their wedding. And while Lan Yan is clearly still very hung up on her relationship with Jiang Jinyue, Jiang Jinyue has seemingly put it all behind her, and treats Lan Yan as if she were just another old friend from high school.
The first half or so of the novel is structured rather like a detective novel. Where did Jiang Jinyue, who was raised by a working-class single mother, get the money for her apartment from (we learn at one point that she's basically bought the whole apartment in cash, and there's no mortgage over it)? Why does Yu He live in a completely different apartment within the same complex? Why is Jiang Jinyue, who always loved children (she and Lan Yan used to discuss the possibility of adopting a child in future), now claiming to be fine with the idea of not having any, simply because her husband doesn't want them? Why does Yu He have the number of Dr Luo, who treated Jiang Jinyue's mother during the latter's final illness, saved in his phone under the name 'baobei'? Woven through the narrative are flashbacks from Lan Yan and Jiang Jinyue's high school days. We learn that Lan Yan lived with her grandmother until the latter's death, after which time she was, in practice, semi-adopted by Jiang Jinyue's mother, who would buy her snacks, plan her birthday parties, and frequently invite her over to visit. When Jiang Jinyue's mother found out that the two girls were dating, she objected to the relationship (less on expressly homophobic grounds and more 'but you have to think about the impact on your future if people find out'). She strikes a deal of sorts with Lan Yan (which Jiang Jinyue is also cognisant of): Lan Yan is to leave Jiang Jinyue alone until the latter finishes university, after which they're free to do as they like, if they find they still care for each other. Lan Yan agrees, and leaves for Canada to see out her final year of high school and to attend university thereafter, while Jiang Jinyue remains in China.
The detective element of the story kept me interested for a bit, but that didn't last long, because the answer to 'what's going on with Jiang Jinyue' is pretty obvious if you're an Asian drama veteran: she's dying from a terminal illness (in this case, cervical cancer), and she doesn't want to get back together with Lan Yan so that the latter doesn't have to suffer the heartbreak of another separation. The story plays out pretty much as you'd expect: Lan Yan finds out the truth (with some help from Yu He), and she and Jiang Jinyue have a few short days of happiness before the latter dies.
There was a lot of sobbing in the comments section of the novel, so I assume many readers found this affecting. I... did not. This was partly due to the fact that I was not in a state to give the novel the full emotional energy and attention it deserved (being extremely tired and stressed at work), but mainly because it didn't have much of an emotional through line, or a thematic arc and motifs. There were many aspects of it that could have, with very little additional work, been turned into effective motifs. The author could have written in more past memories of Lan Yan and Jiang Jinyue planning their future dream home together (which would have tied into the redecoration aspect), or told us about how Lan Yan had spent the last few years planning to make a grand traditional marriage proposal to Jiang Jinyue (we're shown, at one point in the story, that she has specially commissioned an exquisite set of jewellery for Jiang Jinyue, but that comes rather out of nowhere), or made more of the way Jiang Jinyue used to tease Lan Yan about not being able to keep up with her when walked anywhere together in high school (there's a bit near the end that could have real resonance if the author had done this: Jiang Jinyue leaves Lan Yan a final note saying 'This time, I want you to go slower, don't try to keep up with me). But instead, the author gave me very little, with the result that the novel felt more like undifferentiated Extract of Helpless Lesbian Sadness rather than anything else.
I read the Chinese original of the novel here on JJWXC. The novel is named after the song 'The Guest' by the Chinese singer Zhang Yuan, which is sung from the perspective of a man who has been invited to attend his ex-girlfriend's wedding.
no subject
Date: 2024-04-29 01:09 am (UTC)Slightly disconcerting that the woman who dies of a terminal illness has the same surname as me. :o
I never really understood the point of a story being so sad. Probably cathartic for the writer in some way. Anyway, this was a short and not-so-sweet story and thanks very much for your review.
no subject
Date: 2024-04-29 06:01 pm (UTC)