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Hospital #1
Hospital
From acclaimed Chinese author Han Song comes a twisted, experimental narrative of one man’s mysterious illness and his journey through a dystopian hospital system.
When Yang Wei travels to C City for work, he expects nothing more than a standard business trip. A break from his day-to-day routine, a good paycheck, a nice hotel—nothing too extravagant, of course. No fuss, but all the amenities.
But this is where his problems begin. A complimentary bottle of mineral water from the hotel minibar results in sudden and debilitating stomach pain, followed by unconsciousness. When he wakes three days later, things don’t improve; they get worse. With no explanation, the hotel forcibly sends him to a hospital for examination. There, he receives no diagnosis, no discharge date…just a diligent guide to the labyrinthine medical system he’s now circulating through.
Armed with nothing but his own confusion, Yang Wei travels deeper into the inner workings of the hospital and the secrets it’s hiding from the patients. As he seeks escape and answers, one man’s illness takes him on a quest through a corrupt system and his own troubled mind.
When Yang Wei travels to C City for work, he expects nothing more than a standard business trip. A break from his day-to-day routine, a good paycheck, a nice hotel—nothing too extravagant, of course. No fuss, but all the amenities.
But this is where his problems begin. A complimentary bottle of mineral water from the hotel minibar results in sudden and debilitating stomach pain, followed by unconsciousness. When he wakes three days later, things don’t improve; they get worse. With no explanation, the hotel forcibly sends him to a hospital for examination. There, he receives no diagnosis, no discharge date…just a diligent guide to the labyrinthine medical system he’s now circulating through.
Armed with nothing but his own confusion, Yang Wei travels deeper into the inner workings of the hospital and the secrets it’s hiding from the patients. As he seeks escape and answers, one man’s illness takes him on a quest through a corrupt system and his own troubled mind.
405 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2016
1733 people are currently reading
4906 people want to read
About the author
Han Song
99 books61 followersBorn 1965 in Chongqing, Han works as a journalist for the state news agency Xinhua. His first short story collection, Gravestone of the Universe 宇宙墓碑 was published in 1981 in the Taiwanese journal Huanxiang 幻象. It waited ten years for publication in the People's Republic of China because publishers found its tone too dark.
Han has received the Chinese Galaxy Award for fiction six times. The LA Times described him as China's premier science fiction writer
Han has received the Chinese Galaxy Award for fiction six times. The LA Times described him as China's premier science fiction writer
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 174 reviews
February 18, 2023
3.5 Stars
This is a really unique piece of dystopian science fiction novel that explores the dark side of the medical system. The narrative feels especially dark because so much of the story pulls on the medical technology and ethics that exist in the present day.
As a translated work, I found the prose to be plain and not terribly pleasing. Likewise, I found the characters unfortunately quite flat. I've often found these challenges with translated Asian works so I wonder if it's a bit of a cultural barrier.
I would recommend this to readers looking for an complex and challenging story that explores a future medical system that feels terrifyingly real.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.
This is a really unique piece of dystopian science fiction novel that explores the dark side of the medical system. The narrative feels especially dark because so much of the story pulls on the medical technology and ethics that exist in the present day.
As a translated work, I found the prose to be plain and not terribly pleasing. Likewise, I found the characters unfortunately quite flat. I've often found these challenges with translated Asian works so I wonder if it's a bit of a cultural barrier.
I would recommend this to readers looking for an complex and challenging story that explores a future medical system that feels terrifyingly real.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.
January 13, 2024
Yang Wei travels to C City for a business trip, drinks a bottle of mineral water from his hotel minibar and is knocked out. He wakes up at the Hospital with a terrible stomach pain which is getting worse by the day without any prospect of betterment. Here, Yang Wei's kafkaesque voyage into the deeper workings of the Hospital begins and the established system is more corrupt and confusing than he ever could have guessed. And the worst is, the longer he lives in this weirdness, the more it starts changing him and his views.
"The hospital is here to eradicate genes and bring an end to the traditional meaning of life. Without life, there will be no sickness or disease. Once we do away with brains, failures of understanding will no longer be a problem. The same rationale that led to the formation of the hospital will also lead to its destruction. This is the real art."
This was a truly original, crazy, dystopic, horrific, satiric kind of experience. The titular hospital standing for as a metaphor for a whole existing system, it is a critique on that system, its bureaucracy and inner workings. Too bad it was so badly rated by so many people who partly didn't understand it or even didn't even bother reading it. What sucks is that publishers won't give space for translations to authors from these countries because of these ratings, because people felt offended by something completely metaphorical.
"The hospital is here to eradicate genes and bring an end to the traditional meaning of life. Without life, there will be no sickness or disease. Once we do away with brains, failures of understanding will no longer be a problem. The same rationale that led to the formation of the hospital will also lead to its destruction. This is the real art."
This was a truly original, crazy, dystopic, horrific, satiric kind of experience. The titular hospital standing for as a metaphor for a whole existing system, it is a critique on that system, its bureaucracy and inner workings. Too bad it was so badly rated by so many people who partly didn't understand it or even didn't even bother reading it. What sucks is that publishers won't give space for translations to authors from these countries because of these ratings, because people felt offended by something completely metaphorical.
July 9, 2022
Oh wow. This book. It's going to cause a quite a bit of controversy! Why? Because in a lot of ways, the way the author portrays illness in some , is very true. ( In my opinion) In other ways, it could be taken as unsympathetic to chronically ill people. I do believe it was excellently written. It makes you think. It tells a lot of harsh truths. It is just going to be one of those books that people either love or had....take the wrong way or completely understand. I do look forward to reading more from this very talented author.
Read
April 13, 2023HOSPITAL by Han Song (#gifted by Amazon Crossing) is a really weird book.
I feel like I have to preface this by admitting this isn’t going to be most people’s cup of tea. I feel the urge to review this publicly mostly for the sake of rebutting Goodreads reviews by white people that always make me face palm.
As for the review, I have one big gripe about this book, and it’s about the amount of times rape and incest are brought up in this book. I get what the author is trying to get at, but he could have done it any other way to show the breakdown of family conventions. But male writers really can’t contain themselves 🤦🏻♀️
The story itself though, is about a middle aged man named Yang Wei takes a business trip to a city to write a corporate jingle. He drinks a bottle of water and suddenly experiences stomach pain. He’s brought to a hospital as a patient. What he thinks will be a simple procedure turns into a nightmarish journey in a hospital system he can’t escape. It’s claustrophobic and frustrating. As he grows delirious, so does the reader as you try to figure out fact from fiction.
Goodreads reviewers always complain about Asian characters falling flat or being unrelatable. Honestly I think they just don’t know how to read anything that doesn’t follow western storytelling conventions. I feel like I have to constantly repeat myself when I say that Chinese storytelling is different and often the characters are subject to the whims of their surroundings. They aren’t always the hero characters. They’re often part of a bigger societal picture.
The second thing is the hospital setting. It’s very clear that this is some sort of allusion to something else, and not actually about being ill and ableism. The translator’s notes mention that it has a more political commentary. But like a lot of Chinese speculative fiction, you really have to read between the lines to figure out what’s actually happening. I do think part of this is due to years of censorship. And you have to have some context on Chinese politics to figure out that this book is about censorship in some roundabout way.
Yang Wei is trapped and then deluded where his sense of reality becomes distorted. I feel like I shouldn't have to spell it out how it riffs off of Chinese media and it's censorship. The author himself works for a Chinese news company.
Personally, I enjoyed reading it, since I'm always looking for more Chinese translated fiction.
This does feel a bit like a standard pick for English publishers looking for Chinese political content. I do wish the translator's note delved into it a bit more, but with a white translator, I do wonder if they often miss details that a Chinese translator would have caught. I also find a lot of white translators to be quite dry in their delivery, which I wonder if that's why this book read a bit drier. Clearly I've been a little spoiled by Ken Liu and Jeremy Tiang.
I think it could be interesting for someone interested in Chinese scifi literature, but I don't think this is really going to be everyone's choice.
Visit my Instagram @vanreads for more of my reviews.
I feel like I have to preface this by admitting this isn’t going to be most people’s cup of tea. I feel the urge to review this publicly mostly for the sake of rebutting Goodreads reviews by white people that always make me face palm.
As for the review, I have one big gripe about this book, and it’s about the amount of times rape and incest are brought up in this book. I get what the author is trying to get at, but he could have done it any other way to show the breakdown of family conventions. But male writers really can’t contain themselves 🤦🏻♀️
The story itself though, is about a middle aged man named Yang Wei takes a business trip to a city to write a corporate jingle. He drinks a bottle of water and suddenly experiences stomach pain. He’s brought to a hospital as a patient. What he thinks will be a simple procedure turns into a nightmarish journey in a hospital system he can’t escape. It’s claustrophobic and frustrating. As he grows delirious, so does the reader as you try to figure out fact from fiction.
Goodreads reviewers always complain about Asian characters falling flat or being unrelatable. Honestly I think they just don’t know how to read anything that doesn’t follow western storytelling conventions. I feel like I have to constantly repeat myself when I say that Chinese storytelling is different and often the characters are subject to the whims of their surroundings. They aren’t always the hero characters. They’re often part of a bigger societal picture.
The second thing is the hospital setting. It’s very clear that this is some sort of allusion to something else, and not actually about being ill and ableism. The translator’s notes mention that it has a more political commentary. But like a lot of Chinese speculative fiction, you really have to read between the lines to figure out what’s actually happening. I do think part of this is due to years of censorship. And you have to have some context on Chinese politics to figure out that this book is about censorship in some roundabout way.
Yang Wei is trapped and then deluded where his sense of reality becomes distorted. I feel like I shouldn't have to spell it out how it riffs off of Chinese media and it's censorship. The author himself works for a Chinese news company.
Personally, I enjoyed reading it, since I'm always looking for more Chinese translated fiction.
This does feel a bit like a standard pick for English publishers looking for Chinese political content. I do wish the translator's note delved into it a bit more, but with a white translator, I do wonder if they often miss details that a Chinese translator would have caught. I also find a lot of white translators to be quite dry in their delivery, which I wonder if that's why this book read a bit drier. Clearly I've been a little spoiled by Ken Liu and Jeremy Tiang.
I think it could be interesting for someone interested in Chinese scifi literature, but I don't think this is really going to be everyone's choice.
Visit my Instagram @vanreads for more of my reviews.
February 5, 2023
Kafka on steroids
This book was tortuous to finish. It was too long, too repetitive, the same Kafka-esque nightmare over and over, with the protagonist losing all sense of reality. Long passages of brainwashing techniques went on and on and on. The initial chapter was a spaceflight to Mars that had nothing to do with the rest of the book, it was just a metaphor apparently. The story was obviously meant to be a critique of Chinese political and social life. It started out with mild dystopia and just kept getting worse with every chapter detailing some new degradation of the character's humanity. Depressing beyond belief with no redeeming virtues.
This book was tortuous to finish. It was too long, too repetitive, the same Kafka-esque nightmare over and over, with the protagonist losing all sense of reality. Long passages of brainwashing techniques went on and on and on. The initial chapter was a spaceflight to Mars that had nothing to do with the rest of the book, it was just a metaphor apparently. The story was obviously meant to be a critique of Chinese political and social life. It started out with mild dystopia and just kept getting worse with every chapter detailing some new degradation of the character's humanity. Depressing beyond belief with no redeeming virtues.
February 24, 2023
What did I just read?
I was prepared for this book to be weird, but honestly, it made no sense. I was determined to finish this book but in the end my questions were not answered and the journey was not worth it.
There are several truly disgusting moments; a waterfall made of phlegm, incest with the main character's daughter, and plenty of mention of shit, piss, and gore. I have no idea what was a metaphor, what was a hallucination, and what was 'real' interms of this dystopia world. Were there problems with the translation? Did I struggle because I dont understand the health care system in China, or the Chinese point of view on medicine, or know much about Buddhism? Maybe partly, I dont know! There may be some interesting theories and philosophies about Buddhism,but again, it was all very confusing, and any real themes and plot must have gone over my head.
I was prepared for this book to be weird, but honestly, it made no sense. I was determined to finish this book but in the end my questions were not answered and the journey was not worth it.
There are several truly disgusting moments; a waterfall made of phlegm, incest with the main character's daughter, and plenty of mention of shit, piss, and gore. I have no idea what was a metaphor, what was a hallucination, and what was 'real' interms of this dystopia world. Were there problems with the translation? Did I struggle because I dont understand the health care system in China, or the Chinese point of view on medicine, or know much about Buddhism? Maybe partly, I dont know! There may be some interesting theories and philosophies about Buddhism,but again, it was all very confusing, and any real themes and plot must have gone over my head.
February 10, 2023
Wow, this was tedious. A few arresting images (like a waterfall of phlegm) were far from enough to rescue this boring, meandering, incoherent, pretentious, poorly structured mess of a book. Add in a main character whose attitude towards women was frankly revolting, and reading this felt like, well, drowning in a waterfall of phlegm.
July 27, 2022
“It’s not important who you are; the only thing that matters is what kind of illness you suffer from”
This book is intelligent and makes you think.
A good piece of social satire that’s a bit bizarre.
I don’t know if I enjoyed the book but I will definitely remember how it made me feel uncomfortable and questioning about how illness is perceived in society and power dynamics in particular.
This is a book you could read at anytime and take something new from it!
Thank you for the E-ARC.
This book is intelligent and makes you think.
A good piece of social satire that’s a bit bizarre.
I don’t know if I enjoyed the book but I will definitely remember how it made me feel uncomfortable and questioning about how illness is perceived in society and power dynamics in particular.
This is a book you could read at anytime and take something new from it!
Thank you for the E-ARC.
February 27, 2023
I missed the point the author was trying to make because I can’t really tell you what this book is about.
Illness in a hospital, if I had to take a guess.
I skimmed a majority of this book because the first 15 chapters did not hold my interest, felt very repetitive, and did not move the plot forward.
The book is dystopian for sure. I’m not sure if the reader needs a background in Chinese medical culture or the translation was missing elements or something different altogether. This is not a book I’d recommend for many people.
Illness in a hospital, if I had to take a guess.
I skimmed a majority of this book because the first 15 chapters did not hold my interest, felt very repetitive, and did not move the plot forward.
The book is dystopian for sure. I’m not sure if the reader needs a background in Chinese medical culture or the translation was missing elements or something different altogether. This is not a book I’d recommend for many people.
February 18, 2023
When Yang Wei travels to C City for work, he expects nothing more than a standard business trip. But after drinking a complimentary bottle of mineral water that results in excruciating stomach pain, Wei is sent to a "hospital," where he receives no diagnosis or discharge date, just a guide to the labyrinthine medical system he's now circulating through.
Set in a future dystopia where medicine has transcended all its technological bottlenecks and can treat any disease, HOSPITAL reads like a fever dream as we follow Wei's journey of navigating the complicated medical system. The story examines fascinating medical advancements, such as gene therapy, artificial organs, stem cell treatment, and designer babies.
Apart from the futuristic sci-fi plots, Song brilliantly examines the extreme power imbalance between doctors & patients. He challenges the notion of powerful institutions (the hospital) requesting the people they serve (patients) to blindly trust their decisions without any repercussions and how that extreme power corrupts the foundations of tradition, family, and humanity.
Some parts of HOSPITAL contain quite misogynistic descriptions that may be uncomfortable for readers. I'd say from the scale of Cixin Liu to Murakami Haruki, the majority of the gender dynamic is closer to Liu, with one particular scene really pushing to the Murakami extreme.
The translator's note is extremely helpful in understanding and interpreting HOSPITAL. It actually validates some of my hypotheses while reading the book, and I'm glad it wasn't all in my head, especially when the other Goodreads reviews seem to be very different from my interpretations. Those with a better understanding of the Chinese political landscape may be able to derive more nuance from HOSPITAL. I encourage interested readers to start with the translator's note before reading the book.
HOSPITAL is a thought-provoking and unsettling book that challenges me to examine my attitude towards politics, power, and technology and how they intersect with traditions and humanity.
Thank you to Wunderkind PR for the gifted copy.
Set in a future dystopia where medicine has transcended all its technological bottlenecks and can treat any disease, HOSPITAL reads like a fever dream as we follow Wei's journey of navigating the complicated medical system. The story examines fascinating medical advancements, such as gene therapy, artificial organs, stem cell treatment, and designer babies.
Apart from the futuristic sci-fi plots, Song brilliantly examines the extreme power imbalance between doctors & patients. He challenges the notion of powerful institutions (the hospital) requesting the people they serve (patients) to blindly trust their decisions without any repercussions and how that extreme power corrupts the foundations of tradition, family, and humanity.
Some parts of HOSPITAL contain quite misogynistic descriptions that may be uncomfortable for readers. I'd say from the scale of Cixin Liu to Murakami Haruki, the majority of the gender dynamic is closer to Liu, with one particular scene really pushing to the Murakami extreme.
The translator's note is extremely helpful in understanding and interpreting HOSPITAL. It actually validates some of my hypotheses while reading the book, and I'm glad it wasn't all in my head, especially when the other Goodreads reviews seem to be very different from my interpretations. Those with a better understanding of the Chinese political landscape may be able to derive more nuance from HOSPITAL. I encourage interested readers to start with the translator's note before reading the book.
HOSPITAL is a thought-provoking and unsettling book that challenges me to examine my attitude towards politics, power, and technology and how they intersect with traditions and humanity.
Thank you to Wunderkind PR for the gifted copy.
December 4, 2024
Alright, I'll admit that I skimmed a lot of this book. I got to the 60% mark and gave up and started skimming. It's just a lot of repetitive, pretentious, verbose nonsense. This would qualify as weird fiction because nothing makes sense.
Yang is travelling for work and staying at a hotel in City C. He drinks a bottle of mineral water from the minibar and the next thing he knows, two women are fussing over him because he is sick. He's taken to The Hospital. And I'm afraid that's when the tomfoolery begins. He goes from room to room, meeting patients, doctors, and random mysterious people. He's sick, tested repeatedly, never diagnosed, and eventually he realizes that he can't leave The Hospital (reason: “Whoever says he is not sick must be terribly, terribly ill"). Eventually, he meets a 'medical punk' named Bai Dai and they start a little quest together: to reveal how doctors die.
This book was a critique of the hospital system in China. It actually reminded me of stories from some of my friends who lived in China. But overall, the Buddhist stuff flew over my head. The constant pompous philosophizing (?) on life, death, and health culture was just so brutally nonsensical and redundant. It made me wonder if the author got paid per character written.
I won't go into what every other review talks about. Instead, I'll just show you my "favorite" bits (this is sarcasm btw):
As far as I was concerned, the surgical scars on Bai Dai’s body were beautiful, full of vibrant colors that made her much sexier. Humans were no longer limited to the nine orifices. Her wounds were like the feathers of a peacock, her procedures more effective than any cosmetics or plastic surgery. Her feminine qualities, her womanhood, combined with the heroic spirit of a man, making it appear as if anything could be inserted into virtually any part of her body.
--
“My body lacks rubidium.”
“What are the symptoms?”
“I can’t turn on.”
“You can’t turn on?”
“I can’t turn on my man anymore."
--
"Zhu Lin was on the plump side. She had large breasts, her eyes were shaped like teacups, and her long black hair went down past her shoulders like a disheveled clump of wild grass. She had just turned sixteen but was as mature as any adult."
--
This is only chapter 6 but it's when I realized this was a 1-star:
It was precisely at this awkward moment that a steel storage cabinet in the room started to rumble. And then it exploded open. I was scared out of my wits, but then out of that cabinet came the two women from the hotel, their faces lit up with a triumphant look of happiness as they squeezed out and, like two heavenly maids scattering flowers, waved my medical records in the air. It turns out that behind the cabinet was a secret tunnel leading directly to an underground storage facility.
Yang is travelling for work and staying at a hotel in City C. He drinks a bottle of mineral water from the minibar and the next thing he knows, two women are fussing over him because he is sick. He's taken to The Hospital. And I'm afraid that's when the tomfoolery begins. He goes from room to room, meeting patients, doctors, and random mysterious people. He's sick, tested repeatedly, never diagnosed, and eventually he realizes that he can't leave The Hospital (reason: “Whoever says he is not sick must be terribly, terribly ill"). Eventually, he meets a 'medical punk' named Bai Dai and they start a little quest together: to reveal how doctors die.
This book was a critique of the hospital system in China. It actually reminded me of stories from some of my friends who lived in China. But overall, the Buddhist stuff flew over my head. The constant pompous philosophizing (?) on life, death, and health culture was just so brutally nonsensical and redundant. It made me wonder if the author got paid per character written.
I won't go into what every other review talks about. Instead, I'll just show you my "favorite" bits (this is sarcasm btw):
As far as I was concerned, the surgical scars on Bai Dai’s body were beautiful, full of vibrant colors that made her much sexier. Humans were no longer limited to the nine orifices. Her wounds were like the feathers of a peacock, her procedures more effective than any cosmetics or plastic surgery. Her feminine qualities, her womanhood, combined with the heroic spirit of a man, making it appear as if anything could be inserted into virtually any part of her body.
--
“My body lacks rubidium.”
“What are the symptoms?”
“I can’t turn on.”
“You can’t turn on?”
“I can’t turn on my man anymore."
--
"Zhu Lin was on the plump side. She had large breasts, her eyes were shaped like teacups, and her long black hair went down past her shoulders like a disheveled clump of wild grass. She had just turned sixteen but was as mature as any adult."
--
This is only chapter 6 but it's when I realized this was a 1-star:
It was precisely at this awkward moment that a steel storage cabinet in the room started to rumble. And then it exploded open. I was scared out of my wits, but then out of that cabinet came the two women from the hotel, their faces lit up with a triumphant look of happiness as they squeezed out and, like two heavenly maids scattering flowers, waved my medical records in the air. It turns out that behind the cabinet was a secret tunnel leading directly to an underground storage facility.
March 23, 2023
Unsettling, nearly unrelenting, kinda triggery, I asked myself if this might be what 'The Magic Mountain' would look like if written today.
Rounding up from 3.5 stars. I was put off by the Buddhist "preface" ... the dialogue felt wrong, the actions didn't fit the scenario, but I stuck around for the subsequent chapters, and it kept me going, that's for certain.
This book is not going to be everyone's cup of tea.
Rounding up from 3.5 stars. I was put off by the Buddhist "preface" ... the dialogue felt wrong, the actions didn't fit the scenario, but I stuck around for the subsequent chapters, and it kept me going, that's for certain.
This book is not going to be everyone's cup of tea.
September 5, 2024
this turned out to be the most underrated novel of the decade for me (average score of 2,33 on goodreads).
if i had to recommend one novel out of all the novels i’ve read in 2024, it would probably be this one. there's some franz kafka in it, some philip k. dick, & some han song, but ultimately, the novel's more than the sum of its parts. other than that, i won’t tell you much more—i believe it‘s best to go in completely blind.
i do respect everyone's opinion, but if you ask me, the low rating's probably resulting from false expectations/false marketing. it's deep literature, although at times it has echoes of surrealist and absurdist literature.
if i had to recommend one novel out of all the novels i’ve read in 2024, it would probably be this one. there's some franz kafka in it, some philip k. dick, & some han song, but ultimately, the novel's more than the sum of its parts. other than that, i won’t tell you much more—i believe it‘s best to go in completely blind.
i do respect everyone's opinion, but if you ask me, the low rating's probably resulting from false expectations/false marketing. it's deep literature, although at times it has echoes of surrealist and absurdist literature.
February 26, 2023
“Hospital” is certainly a work that garners a lot of strong opinions. I fall somewhere in the middle, I suppose. As a translation, I’m sure that there are many things and points that I don’t connect as intended (and as much is said in the translator’s note at the end of the book), so I do also have to give some leeway for my own lack of insight.
That said, the book is divided into three sections. Section 1 seemed a bit too… heavy handed? I was interested in the premise (dystopian hospital? Sounds up my alley), which is why I picked it up as my Amazon First Read this month, but it felt like a bit of a chore to slog through the endless repetition about the hospital, it’s systems, it’s doctors, it’s patients, just HOW dystopian we were going. Then, in Section II I felt like I was getting into the book and it’s discussion, felt like I was getting somewhere (though, TRIGGER WARNINGS all through this book for sure - medical trauma/coercion/violence, incest, just… all sorts of bodily horror/excrement and various fluids everywhere) with the exploration of the meaning of being a patient/doctor/human…. But then Section III went in quite a different direction. While I could certainly take something from it, and I really did “enjoy” some of the discussions between the main character and (to avoid a spoiler) a new character, I guess I had come into the book hoping for dystopian hard sci-fi, which is…. Not really what I got? It was… something.
So, all in all, am I glad I stuck with it and finished it? Yes. Would I read it again, continue with the next in the series if they are translated as well? Most likely not. Would I recommend it to others? Probably not, unless you’re really looking for a medical horror dystopian fever dream with a lot of religion and politics in the mix - and you’re willing to do a lot of work picking through cultural references and satire that are not innate to you (assuming you’re reading the translation).
A few other notes:
- the prologue put a lot of people off, I see, but it does connect in some ways.
- it would have been interesting to have gone into the book having read the translator’s note FIRST, it definitely gave new insights to digest, but I’m not sure the experience would have been the same. So I guess just be aware of this text having a pretty interesting translation process, and that it DOES differ from the original text - though Michael Berry worked directly with Han Song on how and why those changes happened.
- there are a lot of concerns I see in other reviews about the treatment and discussion of people with chronic illness. Absolutely out of context of the overall theme of the book I can see this being really upsetting and a completely fair point (so trigger warning there too), but in the context of the book….. ok, so it’s still pretty upsetting for sure, but it ultimately doesn’t just single out chronic illnesses that people struggle with (speaking as someone with at least one of those chronic illnesses). Again, trying not to spoil…. But ALL patients are treated in a way that people with chronic illness would recognize, and I think that’s part of the point. But it absolutely smacks of ableism and medical trauma (especially in section I), so please be aware of that as well.
In conclusion: oof. This review is clearly not a strong recommendation, as I don’t think this is a book the majority of people would enjoy. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it either. But I can’t give it a lower rating because I definitely see where it was trying to go, and there were some points that really clicked in for me and several passages I had to stop and read out loud to my partner. If I could give half stars, I would call this one 2.5. If you go into it, really be aware of what you’re waking into, mind the trigger warnings, and commit to the 400+ pages - this could definitely have benefited from being a bit shorter in my opinion, with slightly less repetition, but it you cut off and DNF in section I you’ll come away with a pretty skewed idea of where the book is going (or trying to go).
That said, the book is divided into three sections. Section 1 seemed a bit too… heavy handed? I was interested in the premise (dystopian hospital? Sounds up my alley), which is why I picked it up as my Amazon First Read this month, but it felt like a bit of a chore to slog through the endless repetition about the hospital, it’s systems, it’s doctors, it’s patients, just HOW dystopian we were going. Then, in Section II I felt like I was getting into the book and it’s discussion, felt like I was getting somewhere (though, TRIGGER WARNINGS all through this book for sure - medical trauma/coercion/violence, incest, just… all sorts of bodily horror/excrement and various fluids everywhere) with the exploration of the meaning of being a patient/doctor/human…. But then Section III went in quite a different direction. While I could certainly take something from it, and I really did “enjoy” some of the discussions between the main character and (to avoid a spoiler) a new character, I guess I had come into the book hoping for dystopian hard sci-fi, which is…. Not really what I got? It was… something.
So, all in all, am I glad I stuck with it and finished it? Yes. Would I read it again, continue with the next in the series if they are translated as well? Most likely not. Would I recommend it to others? Probably not, unless you’re really looking for a medical horror dystopian fever dream with a lot of religion and politics in the mix - and you’re willing to do a lot of work picking through cultural references and satire that are not innate to you (assuming you’re reading the translation).
A few other notes:
- the prologue put a lot of people off, I see, but it does connect in some ways.
- it would have been interesting to have gone into the book having read the translator’s note FIRST, it definitely gave new insights to digest, but I’m not sure the experience would have been the same. So I guess just be aware of this text having a pretty interesting translation process, and that it DOES differ from the original text - though Michael Berry worked directly with Han Song on how and why those changes happened.
- there are a lot of concerns I see in other reviews about the treatment and discussion of people with chronic illness. Absolutely out of context of the overall theme of the book I can see this being really upsetting and a completely fair point (so trigger warning there too), but in the context of the book….. ok, so it’s still pretty upsetting for sure, but it ultimately doesn’t just single out chronic illnesses that people struggle with (speaking as someone with at least one of those chronic illnesses). Again, trying not to spoil…. But ALL patients are treated in a way that people with chronic illness would recognize, and I think that’s part of the point. But it absolutely smacks of ableism and medical trauma (especially in section I), so please be aware of that as well.
In conclusion: oof. This review is clearly not a strong recommendation, as I don’t think this is a book the majority of people would enjoy. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it either. But I can’t give it a lower rating because I definitely see where it was trying to go, and there were some points that really clicked in for me and several passages I had to stop and read out loud to my partner. If I could give half stars, I would call this one 2.5. If you go into it, really be aware of what you’re waking into, mind the trigger warnings, and commit to the 400+ pages - this could definitely have benefited from being a bit shorter in my opinion, with slightly less repetition, but it you cut off and DNF in section I you’ll come away with a pretty skewed idea of where the book is going (or trying to go).
March 2, 2023
I have mixed feelings about this book because on one hand the premise of the story — a social and political commentary on Chinese society, the medical system and so forth — was interesting, but on the other hand the book felt like an absolute drag to get through. It felt like it went on for far too long, it felt too long winded, and as if the author wasn’t exactly sure where he wanted the story to go — like he made it up on the go.
This isn’t surprising when reading the translator’s commentary, which btw provides a great insight into the translation process, core understandings of the source text, and a short description on the references in the book to parts of Chinese society. The translator basically talks about, when it comes to the translation process, that the text he translated was from the original draft and not the final book, and that the author and him basically cut-and-pasted wherever. It seems like a very creative process, I’m sure it was a very interesting and unique experience, but I feel it’s also what left things to be desired in the book.
As I said, it felt long winded and that it was simply just too long. I wish it had been shorter. I also wish it didn’t leave the reader feeling like nothing was accomplished in the end — like why leave a reader feeling like the reading process was initially for nought? I guess the ending and the overall story is all up to interpretation and however you interpret it, makes the overall reading experience different to others.
I’ll give the book credit for keeping my interest piqued enough to want to continue, just to find out what was actually happening (I got no answer) and also out of stubbornness as this was an ARC I finally read through from last year. There were weird and hilarious moments, it felt very satirical and very “weird fiction” a lot of the time, but then you had intense moments of misogyny and off-putting rapey comments which really took me out of my reading experience.
Hospital by Han Song was overall an Experience™ and one which I dreaded engaging in, but alas here we are at the end, so I can’t justify a very high rating of it.
I received an ARC by the publisher, Amazon Crossing, through NetGalley for an exchange of my honest review.
This isn’t surprising when reading the translator’s commentary, which btw provides a great insight into the translation process, core understandings of the source text, and a short description on the references in the book to parts of Chinese society. The translator basically talks about, when it comes to the translation process, that the text he translated was from the original draft and not the final book, and that the author and him basically cut-and-pasted wherever. It seems like a very creative process, I’m sure it was a very interesting and unique experience, but I feel it’s also what left things to be desired in the book.
As I said, it felt long winded and that it was simply just too long. I wish it had been shorter. I also wish it didn’t leave the reader feeling like nothing was accomplished in the end — like why leave a reader feeling like the reading process was initially for nought? I guess the ending and the overall story is all up to interpretation and however you interpret it, makes the overall reading experience different to others.
I’ll give the book credit for keeping my interest piqued enough to want to continue, just to find out what was actually happening (I got no answer) and also out of stubbornness as this was an ARC I finally read through from last year. There were weird and hilarious moments, it felt very satirical and very “weird fiction” a lot of the time, but then you had intense moments of misogyny and off-putting rapey comments which really took me out of my reading experience.
Hospital by Han Song was overall an Experience™ and one which I dreaded engaging in, but alas here we are at the end, so I can’t justify a very high rating of it.
I received an ARC by the publisher, Amazon Crossing, through NetGalley for an exchange of my honest review.
September 20, 2023
Hospital is a dystopian, Lovecraftian sci-fi horror and Juvenalian satire of political-economic focus. It reads like Vita Nostra in space, a little Babel by RF Kuang too. But first:
People reviewing this and calling it ableist are absolutely lying. I have chronic major depression, ADHD, and sciatica and I love the way it portrays modern Healthcare systems as the failing, profit-minded, elder-abusing bastard it can be.
I've also seen that people are calling this book anti-communist???
A DYSTOPIAN world where you have to gift your doctor money under the table AFTER YOU PAY THE BILL to recieve treatment does NOT sound communist to me. If anything, a satire that makes a hypercapitalist world its primary focus of critique is * anti-capitalist *. I think the reviews on multiple sites, such as Goodreads, are being review-bombed by sinomisiacs.
If you have disabilities, or if you've known someone who has had to see 3 specialists to get a diagnosis they guessed on their own before even getting their first referral... If you had to lose days of work to get said diagnosis... If you can't afford to take an ambulance to the hospital in an emergency... If you have ever been hit with a single "surprise fee" because you are sick and, OBVIOUSLY, it isn't your fault... If you've had to wait months to get HRT etc etc etc... this book is more than for you.
Seriously, the reviews have no idea what they're talking about.
I went through Audible for my audiobook version. The tone is snarky and playful and well done. This is probably the greatest satire of the healthcare-industrial complex of our century- and that's an easy title and bar to set seeing that there isn't much of it.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/arc...
People reviewing this and calling it ableist are absolutely lying. I have chronic major depression, ADHD, and sciatica and I love the way it portrays modern Healthcare systems as the failing, profit-minded, elder-abusing bastard it can be.
I've also seen that people are calling this book anti-communist???
A DYSTOPIAN world where you have to gift your doctor money under the table AFTER YOU PAY THE BILL to recieve treatment does NOT sound communist to me. If anything, a satire that makes a hypercapitalist world its primary focus of critique is * anti-capitalist *. I think the reviews on multiple sites, such as Goodreads, are being review-bombed by sinomisiacs.
If you have disabilities, or if you've known someone who has had to see 3 specialists to get a diagnosis they guessed on their own before even getting their first referral... If you had to lose days of work to get said diagnosis... If you can't afford to take an ambulance to the hospital in an emergency... If you have ever been hit with a single "surprise fee" because you are sick and, OBVIOUSLY, it isn't your fault... If you've had to wait months to get HRT etc etc etc... this book is more than for you.
Seriously, the reviews have no idea what they're talking about.
I went through Audible for my audiobook version. The tone is snarky and playful and well done. This is probably the greatest satire of the healthcare-industrial complex of our century- and that's an easy title and bar to set seeing that there isn't much of it.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/arc...
March 13, 2023
The third star is for me because I finished it. When I got to the translator's note at the end, he said that he and the author worked together on an earlier version of the text instead of what was originally published in Chinese. At this point I assumed the whole thing was an elaborate troll. This is apparently the start of a trilogy; it's one and done for me.
March 1, 2023
I struggled a bit to get into the book but it was so rewarding in the end!
Like Yang Wei, I had no idea what was going on and all I could do was rely on my guide and follow them into unknowingness, anticipating everything would start making sense soon. But having previously read Han Song, I should have known better. The plot instead grows increasingly bizarre until, suddenly I realize I’m utterly hooked.
Reading HOSPITAL is a harrowing experience, like being served a plate of rotting flesh and maggots laced with opium for dinner. It’s vile, grotesque, repulsive… and indescribably addicting.
While genetic engineering in a dystopian setting opens the doors to highly controversial possibilities, medical experimentation as a sci-fi element was actually a very enjoyable part of the book for me, unethical as it may be.
HOSPITAL is a multi-layered novel, simultaneously allegorical and satirical. It’s dark, funny, critical, and deeply philosophical. Han Song is a demigod at the craft of weird literature and shows us why he is the undisputed king of Chinese dark fiction.
Thank you to the publisher, Amazon Crossing from whom I received an ARC via Netgalley.
Like Yang Wei, I had no idea what was going on and all I could do was rely on my guide and follow them into unknowingness, anticipating everything would start making sense soon. But having previously read Han Song, I should have known better. The plot instead grows increasingly bizarre until, suddenly I realize I’m utterly hooked.
Reading HOSPITAL is a harrowing experience, like being served a plate of rotting flesh and maggots laced with opium for dinner. It’s vile, grotesque, repulsive… and indescribably addicting.
While genetic engineering in a dystopian setting opens the doors to highly controversial possibilities, medical experimentation as a sci-fi element was actually a very enjoyable part of the book for me, unethical as it may be.
HOSPITAL is a multi-layered novel, simultaneously allegorical and satirical. It’s dark, funny, critical, and deeply philosophical. Han Song is a demigod at the craft of weird literature and shows us why he is the undisputed king of Chinese dark fiction.
Thank you to the publisher, Amazon Crossing from whom I received an ARC via Netgalley.
March 22, 2023
Interesting concept, but terribly executed. The epitome of verbiage.
February 1, 2023
Ah, my first "did not start and would not recommend" of 2023!
Fellow reviewer Adrienne explained precisely why anyone with a drop of sanity would not want to read this book:
Sorry, is chronic illness a joke to you, Mr. Author? You think my father being in pain for nearly twenty-eight years is something he made up to get attention? Maybe you think that I invented twenty-six years of depression and panic disorder to get out of going places and mooch off the system? Checking myself into the hospital 11½ years ago...was that a polite fiction to cover my laziness, so I didn't have to train for my new job or do my homework for a week?
Soulless, brainless people like this author disgust me.
Fellow reviewer Adrienne explained precisely why anyone with a drop of sanity would not want to read this book:
Song writes of the ill as just wanting to be sick, finding comfort in pain, desiring diagnosis because they want to have the condition, and wanting unnecessary treatments.
Sorry, is chronic illness a joke to you, Mr. Author? You think my father being in pain for nearly twenty-eight years is something he made up to get attention? Maybe you think that I invented twenty-six years of depression and panic disorder to get out of going places and mooch off the system? Checking myself into the hospital 11½ years ago...was that a polite fiction to cover my laziness, so I didn't have to train for my new job or do my homework for a week?
Soulless, brainless people like this author disgust me.
Want to read
February 5, 2023If you have Amazon Prime; this is up for free this month. Great selection this month, so choose wisely!!
March 18, 2023
If you're going to read this book, start with the "Translator's Afterword" which really should be at the beginning.
Reading this book was a strange and not especially pleasant experience, which I think would have been true even back in 2016, when it was first published in China. Reading it in 2023, I couldn't help seeing it through COVID-colored lenses. I saw it as a metaphor for the brutality and oppressiveness of the COVID lockdowns, how entire cities became focused on protecting the narrowly defined health of the populace to the detriment of their spiritual and mental health, and even to the detriment of their physical health by any definition other than viral infection. That view point was enhanced by passages about genetically modified viruses escaping from the lab, and by the almost god-like figure, Dr. Bauchi.
Interestingly, although the Chinese version of the book was written in 2016, much of the translation was done in 2020, and as the translator, Michael Berry, describes it, the translation process involved much re-writing and creating new material (Han wrote this new material both in English and his native Chinese), and I do imagine that some of this new material was influenced by the COVID lockdowns that both Han and Berry were experiencing. On the other hand, the overall concept predates COVID, as does, apparently the name "Bauchi" (that character is apparently named Dr. Hua Yue in the published Chinese version, but the name Bauchi comes from an earlier draft, prior to 2016).
Beyond the COVID angle, there are wide ranging ideas stemming from the the medicalization of society. Yang Wei, the protaganist, argues that after undergoing gene therapy, a patient is no longer genetically the same person, and is no longer genetically related to their parents, children or other family members. Genetic engineering and in vitro fertilization eliminate the need for sexual reproduction, and eventually eliminate the need for sex. Sexual contact between people becomes therapy without pleasure, and this eliminates the impact of rape or incest.
Later the parasite that infects him presents the idea that we are all born terminally ill, and that the universe is also a terminally ill organism, infected by all life forms, which are merely pathogens. Or I might be mixing up what the parasite says with what the doctors in the underground labs say. I don't really have an interest in wading back into the book to clarify any of my impressions.
I don't have a deep enough understanding of Buddhism to know if these are Buddhist concepts taken to an extreme, or turned upside down and inside out, or perhaps it's an offensive bastardization of Buddhism. At any rate, Buddhist philosophy runs deeply through the book, and a Buddhist reading it would experience it very differently than I would. I paused a couple of times in reading to look up specific figures, and to read about philosopies, but I wasn't enjoying the base text enough to get excited about the process of figuring out what he was talking about. Maybe if the book were half as long, or a third as long, it would have lent itself to a more intense or thoughtful reading experience, but there was so much of it, that eventually I just decided to slog through it to see if anything happened in the end to put it into perspective.
The answer is no; there is no pay off in the end. My three-star rating is sort of arbitrarily chosen. Can I recommend this book? Not really, but it's certainly more thoughtful and intelligent than most of the two-star or one-star books in my library. If you have a group of friends with a strong interest in modern China, and a deep understanding of Buddhism, and you're all willing to wade through this lengthy rambling text about unpleasant experiences, you might find it leading to some interesting conversations. On the other hand, if you typically read for fun, you'll probably want to stay away from this book.
Reading this book was a strange and not especially pleasant experience, which I think would have been true even back in 2016, when it was first published in China. Reading it in 2023, I couldn't help seeing it through COVID-colored lenses. I saw it as a metaphor for the brutality and oppressiveness of the COVID lockdowns, how entire cities became focused on protecting the narrowly defined health of the populace to the detriment of their spiritual and mental health, and even to the detriment of their physical health by any definition other than viral infection. That view point was enhanced by passages about genetically modified viruses escaping from the lab, and by the almost god-like figure, Dr. Bauchi.
Interestingly, although the Chinese version of the book was written in 2016, much of the translation was done in 2020, and as the translator, Michael Berry, describes it, the translation process involved much re-writing and creating new material (Han wrote this new material both in English and his native Chinese), and I do imagine that some of this new material was influenced by the COVID lockdowns that both Han and Berry were experiencing. On the other hand, the overall concept predates COVID, as does, apparently the name "Bauchi" (that character is apparently named Dr. Hua Yue in the published Chinese version, but the name Bauchi comes from an earlier draft, prior to 2016).
Beyond the COVID angle, there are wide ranging ideas stemming from the the medicalization of society. Yang Wei, the protaganist, argues that after undergoing gene therapy, a patient is no longer genetically the same person, and is no longer genetically related to their parents, children or other family members. Genetic engineering and in vitro fertilization eliminate the need for sexual reproduction, and eventually eliminate the need for sex. Sexual contact between people becomes therapy without pleasure, and this eliminates the impact of rape or incest.
Later the parasite that infects him presents the idea that we are all born terminally ill, and that the universe is also a terminally ill organism, infected by all life forms, which are merely pathogens. Or I might be mixing up what the parasite says with what the doctors in the underground labs say. I don't really have an interest in wading back into the book to clarify any of my impressions.
I don't have a deep enough understanding of Buddhism to know if these are Buddhist concepts taken to an extreme, or turned upside down and inside out, or perhaps it's an offensive bastardization of Buddhism. At any rate, Buddhist philosophy runs deeply through the book, and a Buddhist reading it would experience it very differently than I would. I paused a couple of times in reading to look up specific figures, and to read about philosopies, but I wasn't enjoying the base text enough to get excited about the process of figuring out what he was talking about. Maybe if the book were half as long, or a third as long, it would have lent itself to a more intense or thoughtful reading experience, but there was so much of it, that eventually I just decided to slog through it to see if anything happened in the end to put it into perspective.
The answer is no; there is no pay off in the end. My three-star rating is sort of arbitrarily chosen. Can I recommend this book? Not really, but it's certainly more thoughtful and intelligent than most of the two-star or one-star books in my library. If you have a group of friends with a strong interest in modern China, and a deep understanding of Buddhism, and you're all willing to wade through this lengthy rambling text about unpleasant experiences, you might find it leading to some interesting conversations. On the other hand, if you typically read for fun, you'll probably want to stay away from this book.
March 4, 2023
The premise and beginning had me wanting this to be a good book. I think it did not translate well from Chinese into English. I got tired of the medical jargon. Then I didn't like the sex and description of women near the end. The middle got so slow that once I got to the third act, I lost so much steam. It was a weird plot twist. I never want to not finish a book, but I ended up skimming through the last of it to hope to get answers. I remained too bored on the philosophical blabbering. I don't know if I'd want to actually try to read this whole book at some point. I was hoping for so much better. It was very long and repetitive at some situations he kept finding himself caught in.
April 6, 2023
I hate to abandon a book, so I pushed on and finished this one. I have to agree with a bunch of other reviews I've seen - this book was much too long. I found the first part interesting (though very repetitive) as an exploration of a look at a totalitarian state's way of dealing with itself and its subjects. Then it just got dystopian and bizarre, but not in any way that even made sense. Maybe I can blame the translator for some of it, but certainly not the overall story line. Oh well, I know I've read worse things in my day, but mostly when they were assigned reading for some class.
December 27, 2022
A twisted dystopian story about Yang Wei. Yang is an imaginative character who is put into some difficult situations and all he wants to do is the right thing. This story is a rollercoaster ride that will keep the reader engrossed in the story until the very end.
Disclaimer: Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon Crossing for this ARC, I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Disclaimer: Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon Crossing for this ARC, I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
May 30, 2023
1 star - did not finish
I don't want to comment on the quality or content of the work because I don't feel like I am A) the target audience and B) schooled enough in Chinese politics and censorship to make any sense of this.
It felt like I was reading someone's drug trip - but translated into English and missing any of the emotion or nuance that was probably written into the original manuscript.
I don't want to comment on the quality or content of the work because I don't feel like I am A) the target audience and B) schooled enough in Chinese politics and censorship to make any sense of this.
It felt like I was reading someone's drug trip - but translated into English and missing any of the emotion or nuance that was probably written into the original manuscript.
October 27, 2022
I admit I just ended up skipping some parts to try to get to the good bits. Perhaps some meanings were lost to me because it is a translated fiction (I find a lot of English translations awkward, even the best of them), but I found this just mainly bizarre and I don't think I liked it.
February 9, 2023
Too philosophical!
Unless you are a huge fan of Nietzsche don't bother with this one. Admittedly I didn't understand where the author was heading and grew bored almost immediately. Too deep for the average reader, which is me.
Unless you are a huge fan of Nietzsche don't bother with this one. Admittedly I didn't understand where the author was heading and grew bored almost immediately. Too deep for the average reader, which is me.
March 1, 2023
Hard going
I adore the premise, and came prepared for Kafka-esque. The ideas raised are compelling, But the narrator is unreliable, and his experience recursively torturous. Both those sins are visited on the reader and, even if purposeful, it makes for a hard slog.
I adore the premise, and came prepared for Kafka-esque. The ideas raised are compelling, But the narrator is unreliable, and his experience recursively torturous. Both those sins are visited on the reader and, even if purposeful, it makes for a hard slog.
March 20, 2023
в личном хит-параде совершенно fucked up книг наметился новый лидер. роман китайского автора, больше похожий на лихорадочный бред, который мог привидеться пациенту реанимации за несколько минут до смерти. хорошая эта книга? хз! произвела она на меня впечатление? еще какое!
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