Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme started by @Lauren’s Page Turners but is currently hosted by Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog. This meme is quite easy to follow – just randomly pick a book from your to-be-read list and explain why you want to read it. It is that simple.

This week’s book:

Fortress Besieged by Qian Zhongshu 

Blurb from Goodreads

The greatest Chinese novel of the twentieth century, Fortress Besieged is a classic of world literature, a masterpiece of parodic fiction that plays with Western literary traditions, philosophy, and middle-class Chinese society in the Republican era. Set on the eve of the Sino-Japanese War, our hapless hero Fang Hung-chien (á la Emma Bovary), with no particular goal in life and with a bogus degree from a fake American university in hand, returns home to Shanghai. On the French liner home, he meets two Chinese beauties, Miss Su and Miss Pao. Qian writes, “With Miss Pao it wasn’t a matter of heart or soul. She hadn’t any change of heart, since she didn’t have a heart.” In a sort of painful comedy, Fang obtains a teaching post at a newly established university where the effete pseudo-intellectuals he encounters in academia become the butt of Qian’s merciless satire. Soon Fang is trapped into a marriage of Nabokovian proportions of distress and absurdity. Recalling Fielding’s Tom Jones in its farcical litany of misadventures and Flaubert’s “style indirect libre,” Fortress Besieged is its own unique feast of delights.

Why I Want To Read It

Happy Monday everyone! Rather, happy Tuesday everyone! How was your weekend? I hope you spent it resting and recovering. I hope that despite it being a brief reprieve, it has prepared you for the tough workweek ahead. I know, Monday is nearly everyone’s least favorite day of the week. How I wish weekends were longer. Thankfully, tomorrow is a holiday here in the Philippines in commemoration of the Day of Valor. It also happens to be my mother’s birthday. Nevertheless, I hope you had a great start to the workweek, or at least you kicked the ground running. There are still four (three) days before the next weekend so I hope you conserve your energy for the rest of the week. I hope everyone makes it through the week. More importantly, I hope everyone is doing well, in mind, body, and spirit, not only this week but for the rest of the year.

Speaking of. How time flies! It is already April. It feels like a lot has happened while, at the same time, not that much has happened. Regardless, we are provided with a new month, hence, a new opportunity to go after what our heart desires. How has the year been? I hope it has been kind and generous to everyone. If it is going otherwise, I hope the coming months will shower everyone with blessings, good news, and kindness. With the start of the week, month is a fresh Goodreads Monday update. This weekly blogging meme has, over the years, become a weekly ritual. It allows me to feature books I am looking forward to. This year, I commenced my reading journey with works of East Asian writers. With the first quarter of the year done, I have transitioned to full Asian literature. As such, I will be featuring works of Asian writers in this month’s Goodreads Monday updates.

But since East Asia is still a part of Asia, I am featuring a work by a Chinese writer. It was only today that I first encountered Qian Zhongshu (Chinese name: 錢鍾書 / 钱钟书). He is, I have just learned, a widely acclaimed writer and is quite prominent in Chinese literary circles. He is renowned for his wit and erudition, with several literary pundits even proclaiming that his achievements were unrivaled in 20th-century China. These have piqued my interest. Of his works, one truly stands out. Fortress Besieged has become synonymous with his name and his achievements. First published in 1947 as  围城/圍城 (Wéichéng), it is a satirical novel set against the backdrop of the tumultuous 1930s China.

It was actually while searching for best works of Asian literature that I first came across the book and the writer. The book’s premise caught my attention but further research made me truly look forward to it. It tackles the absurdities and intricacies of the modern clashing with the traditional. Now, this is a territory I am quite familiar with but in the ambit of Japanese literature. It would be interesting to see how this subject is explored from a different voice and perspective. Interestingly, while the novel was widely translated after its publication, it was only in the 1970s that it started gaining attention in Qian’s native China. There is so much to look forward to in the book; it also provides an opportunity to further expand my foray into Chinese literature.

For now, I just hope I get to obtain a copy of the book. How about you fellow reader? How was your Monday? What books have you added to your reading list? Do drop it in the comment box. For now, happy Monday and, as always, happy reading!