Bryn Hammond’s Reviews > The Three Leaps of Wang Lun: A Chinese Novel > Status Update
Bryn Hammond
is 23% done
This is a reprint of the first English translation put out by the Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, 1991--Wade-Giles and all. 'Virtually unknown in English', people should read it so we get a new trans. I'm putting it beside Herman Broch's Death of Virgil as Great Modernists do Historical Fiction. Except the Broch has a miraculous translation by Jean Starr Untermeyer, great in itself. This deserves an equivalent
— Aug 02, 2020 10:28PM
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Bryn’s Previous Updates
Bryn Hammond
is 75% done
Weirdly, the second half -- when he turns from the sectarians to the doings of emperors -- has descended into turgid, superficial historical fiction that isn't very good. Thomas Mann's Joseph did that when he reached Egypt.
— Aug 15, 2021 02:41AM
Bryn Hammond
is 50% done
The sect has split: one body continues with celibacy, the other practices free love.
— Aug 02, 2021 09:43PM
Bryn Hammond
is 16% done
Wang Lun, an unthinking young thug whom his village was glad to be rid of, does a good deed almost by accident: attempts to rescue a persecuted Muslim neighbour he respects. The act (and its failure) transforms him.
— Jul 31, 2020 08:40PM
