TBJ Online Book Club: First Impressions of The Magician of 1919 + Discussion
Now that the book is officially launched, it’s time for us to break open our copies and start reading! Welcome to the start of our first online book club. In this first post, we’ll start with some initial impressions and include some discussion questions to guide our reading.
I picture you a perceptive bunch, so you’ve probably noticed by now that The Magician of 1919 includes two short stories: The first, “The Magician of 1919,” is a farce about a street performer on the eve of the May Fourth Movement in Beijing.
The first thing we notice is that Li’s writing style is very tongue-in-cheek. He introduces Bigshot Cowrie (the traveling magician) and his amazing polyglot parrot, and sets up the context of an old Beijing steaming with offal soup, all with a bit of a twinkle in his eye. Later, the smash of characters and historical references sometimes clouds the clarity of his voice, but this seems an unavoidable cost of bridging large linguistic and cultural gaps for readers through the imperfect art of translation.
The second story, “Christmas Eve,” is also set in Beijing, though very rooted in the present. It’s December 24, and the locals are celebrating an imported holiday – though family dinners and nativity scenes somehow got replaced with partying and debauchery mid-transit. This story is more mature in tone, painting a sad neon portrait of Mr. Chin in his newsstand as young Beijing stirs around him.
We’ll throw out some discussion questions for both stories. As we’re early on in the reading, please be sensitive about revealing “spoilers” (though Li’s plots don’t give us a ton to “spoil” in the Stephen King sense).
Now, click over to the discussion forum we've set up for this book club, and have at it!
1. In “The Magician of 1919,” how well does Bigshot Cowrie fit into the historical events that surround him? Do you find the melding of fact and fiction convincing?
2. How might our own knowledge (or ignorance) of these historic events affect our reading of Li’s story?
3. What do you think happened to Bigshot's queue?
4. How well do you understand or sympathize with the characters (Bigshot, his budgerigar, Gu Hongming) through Li’s narration style? What do you think his intent is in this regard, and does he achieve it?
5. The way Bigshot fits into the events of the May Fourth Movement is hapless, irreverent and a bit absurd. What kind of statement do you think this makes?
6. In “Christmas Eve,” Li Er doesn’t set a year for which the story takes place. When would you place it?
7. Which story did you enjoy more? (Let’s start a feud! Unless we all liked the same story better … then we’ll just be a boring civilized book club, sans feud.)
Of course, these are just some initial questions to get us started. Feel free to include comments outside the realm of these questions.
For those of you just joining us, you can still take part! Email tbjbookclub@gmail.com with your name and phone number, pick up your (10% off) book at The Bookworm and jump in.
Photo: courtesy of the publishers