Creative and Quick

"UFO In Her Eyes" is a creative and enjoyable experience. Never having read Xiaolu Guo before, I was very pleased to see such originality.

The book is barely 200 pages, a deceiving number since there are quite a few blank lines given the unusual nature of the book. It is written as a series of interviews conducted by security agents checking up on some unusual allegations. A few other "documents" are including in the book as well. Like many other modern works of fiction coming to the West from China, "UFO In Her Eyes" is a bit absurd: the breakneck speed of development, the characters misunderstanding their own worlds, the authorities' callous attitude toward people.

The names of the agents hold some significance. Agent 1919 (perhaps named for the year when the May Fourth Student Movement began, an event that helped give rise to the Communist Party) is an impatient hothead from Beijing. Agent 1989 (perhaps named for the year of the Tienanmen Square protests, another student movement that attempted to put in place democratic thinking) is a provincial police officer who is able to communicate with the villagers. Agent 1978 (perhaps named for the year Deng Xiaoping came to power, beginning a trend of economic liberalization) joins Agent 1989 from the provincial office. Each year represents a major shift in economic thought, starting with being enamored with communism to disenchantment to abandonment. This is the same trajectory that the village chief seems to travel, using the episode of a UFO incident and the brief visit of a foreigner as a means to further her village's development. The costs of that development are great, though.

The non-traditional narrative is enjoyable. A map is included at the beginning of the book and the start of each interview includes a small note card in which relevant information of the interviewee is written. This makes the need for description and narrations somewhat redundant. This also means that the book moves very quickly. The interviews are between one and four pages long. ( )

Oh my goodness me this book was engrossing.

First of all, I have to start with the way this book is designed. The texture of it is incredible - there's pictures, images, post-it notes, blacked out text, maps even holes of the binder towards the spine so it feels like it's been photocopied.

This book all centres around a woman who sees a UFO in a rice field, what happens after that. It's really interesting to read - it was awesome as a reader to be able to piece together all the fragments of information from all the different interviews.

I started and finished this book in a day and I have to say it's going to be added to one of my newest and favourite niche genres: Chinese science fiction.

If you like, uneasy, ominous, well-crafted books, you should check this out. c: ( )

I don't know how it got onto the Tiptree longlist 2009, there's nothing remotely SF&F in it. One person thinks they see a UFO and the whole dull tale is built on that. ( )

In dem abgelegenen chinesischen Dorf "Silberberg" sieht eine unverheiratete Bäuerin, die noch bei ihrem Großvater lebt, ein Ufo. Direkt danach findet sie einen Menschen, der von einer Schlange gebissen wurde, den sie versorgt, der aber dann verschwindet. Diese beiden Vorfälle läuten eine kapitalistische Wende in dem verarmten Dorf ein.
Das Buch erzählt in einer temporeichen witzigen Satire diese Geschichte. Stilistisch ist es kein durchgehender Roman, das Buch besteht aus fiktiven Dokumenten, etwa den Verhörprotokollen zweier polizeilicher Ermittler, die aus der Stadt in das Dorf kommen.
Ich fand das Buch recht witzig und gut zu lesen. ( )

Dieses Buch ist schwer zu beurteilen, da es sich hier um keine "typische" Geschichte handelt. Die Geschichte, wenn man sie so nennen will, besteht eigentlich nur aus (zum Teil geschwärzten) Protokollen, die sich mit der UFO Sichtung, dem Alien und der daraus resultierenden Veränderung befassen. Mir persönlich hat diese Art der Umsetzung sehr gut gefallen, gerade weil dieses Buch im Gegensatz zu "normalen" Geschichten mal ein ganz anderes Leseerlebnis bietet, wobei die Geschichte als solches trotzdem immer deutlich erkennbar ist. Da das Buch eine Satire auf Bürokratie und Fortschrittsglauben (nicht nur in China) ist, konnte ich an einigen Stellen auch innerlich schmunzeln. Erst wenn die letzte Seite gelesen ist, bleibt einem so eine gewisse Nachdenklichkeit zurück und Bücher die zum Denken anregen finde ich immer irgendwie schön. ( )