The Girl Who Played Go

Rating:
Summary: A softly told story of a horrendous time in Chinese history!
Review: A 16-year-old Chinese girl living in Manchuria plays the game of Go with a stranger. This stranger, disguised as a Chinese man, is a soldier in the Japanese army doing a bit of spying in the country he is occupying. His duty is to sacrifice his life for his country of Japan. The young girl is in love with Min, friend of Jing, both of whom are part of the Chinese Resistance to the Japanese invasion of China.

This is a novel with spare prose and a very engaging story. It gives an account of the Japanese invasion of China from both country's perspectives in a very human way. The short chapters alternate between the thoughts of a young girl and those of the Japanese stranger who meets her to play the game of Go. Gentle writing moves the story through war-time China with a grace that at times belies the terror of that time. Showing a human connection between two people who, in all rights, should be enemies, is what gives this story its soul. The violence of that time, even though described, never seems to gain the upper hand over the softness of the prose.

Rating:
Summary: Ghastly Tale, Beautifully Done
Review: A good friend recommended this book highly, so, at the first opportunity, I sat down to read it. A young girl in a small Manchurian town plays Go with a stranger. We don't know her name. The man she is playing with calls her "the Chinese girl." He, in turn, is known to her as "the Stranger." Day after day they meet, without words, to play the ancient game, as the world around them descends into chaos. Later we learn that he is a Japanese officer, in disguise, spying for the Emperor.

The Japanese have overrun Manchuria--this is in the 1930s--and are preparing for the conquest of China. The social order is crumbling. The girl has a doomed affair with a young man who is fighting in the Chinese resistance. She tries to attend school and keep up appearances, but the only thing that really matters to her is the game of Go, continued from day to day, with the enigmatic Stranger. The two players form a strange, wordless relationship, exploring each other's minds through the intricacies of the game.

Things go from bad to worse. Indolent occupation turns into brutal warfare. The story moves relentlessly toward a ghastly, horrifying ending. You will have to read the book to find out what happens.

Author Shan Sa writes in short chapters, in a spare, lucid style. Still, it takes a while to figure out what is happening, because she leaves much unsaid. The chapters are narrated in the first person, alternately by the young girl and the Japanese officer. We never learn their names, yet we are immersed in their feelings. Sometimes I had to put the book down, to take a break from its searing intensity. It took me a while to really appreciate this book, but I can recommend it highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.

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Summary: Love, War and a Game of Go
Review: A very original story of two people drawn together through a game of Go, set in the 1930's Manchuria. One is a young rebellious Chinese girl, the other is a contemplative officer in the Japanese occupation army.

Set against a volatile environment ripe for war is the peaceful, if intense, game of Go. The game is played by placing stones on the intersections of the boards, the objective is to beseige the opponent's stones. As the violence between partisans and Japanese army escalate and the threat of large-scale warfare becoming ever more real, their game seems to become more and more abstract, and takes on greater significance. Can such cherished ritual of civilization survive the rising chaos and savagery all around it?

The story is told in alternating chapters from the point of view of the two characters. The writing is delicate and dream-like, at times it seems to float off the page. Yet some of the things described in the book, such as war atrocities, are as brutal and raw as they can get.

Unlike the previous reviewer, I felt the ending was very fitting and effective. It was the logical final step in the two characters' convergent stories, and as inescapable as the very last possible move in a game of Go.

Rating:
Summary: never "trite"
Review: I picked up the book from the library after reading a winning review about it in People magazine. I was not disappointed. It was not predictable. It was refreshing. It was sad. I am probably going to buy this many times over, and give it as gifts to my friends.

Rating:
Summary: The manipulations of go and a doomed relationship.
Review: Not long ago I read an anthology by famous writers, their insights, their theories, their speculations about the art and peculiarities of writing. One writer in particular caught my interest because his essay dealt with translations and how, despite his intense efforts to work with translators so that the mood, meanings and messages contained in his works would be accurately captured in another language, it was not possible because of the intricacies and subtleties of all languages . So now, when I read a translation such as this novel, I always wonder what has changed, what has been lost, what precisions of the original language have not been accurately captured.

'The Girl Who Played Go' (and we only find out her name at the bitter end) illustrates that historical time very well'that of the Japanese occupation of Manchuria. Shan Sa is particularly adept at saying much with few words. Her chapters are often only a couple of pages yet she aptly portrays the Japanese soldier 'her game opponent'as proud, vain, thoroughly steeped in the belief that the emperor is god and someone to gladly die for. That Japan and the Japanese are superior. That the Chinese people, the conquered, are inferior, worthy of being conquered and would eventually be the better off for having been dominated.

Shan Sa depicts the 16 year old girl as fanciful, idealistic, dissatisfied with her parents, her homelife, her unhappily married sister's lamentations, and her school. Life is a bore, except for 'go' where the girl gets to control her opponents. The dialogue and the girl's flare for the dramatic nonetheless remind me of a highly stylized soap opera. For example, post her abortion, she resumes the serial game of go with the soldier and feeling weakened from the procedure she asks him, 'Will you do me a favor?' This is pretty much out of the blue seeing there has been scant dialogue between them despite their continual parrying for a dominating role in the game. The girl's wish is to return to a temple she visited with her former lover. The reason? So that she can be watched over while she sleeps. A long nap at that certain hour of the day would cause suspicion in her home.

In another example, the girl tells the soldier that as a result of their many game sessions she's been able to see into his soul as they've played the game of strategy. Conversely, even though he is supposed to be acting as a spy for the Japanese because of his gift for the Chinese language, he also fantasizes about her, her clothing, her eyes, the color of her skin.

The brutality of the Japanese conquerors is vividly described when the girl's lover, a resistance fighter, is caught along with his other secret lover. They are tortured by an interrogator who revels in his brutality. The soldier is invited to observe.

The method utilized by the author is engaging. Few words, extremely short chapters nonetheless keep the reader interested, while knowing ultimately that the subtle but growing infatuation of both the young girl and the soldier is doomed. No happy endings possible here. Keeping in the tone of the novel, the ending is also highly melodramatic! The girl finally tells the soldier her name. She has been apprehended by the Japanese, the soldier goes to rescue her, knowing that his fellow soldiers will sexually assault her. It is a true operatic ending!

Rating:
Summary: The book to read this year!
Review: Shan Sa is brilliant and insightful and a wonderful writer. "Girl Who Played Go" should have a title like "Heart of Darkness" because, like Conrad's story of the Congo River Empire of King Leopold, it reveals universal truths using an accurate account of historical events. I write this note because Americans are unlikely to understand the title and not recognize the important subject matter of this great novel. The setting of "The Girl" is the Japanese occupation of Manchuria in the 1930's. Like "Heart of Darkness" you will want to read it in one sitting, even if it keeps you up past 3:00 a.m. on a work night, as it did me. You don't need any interest or knowledge of the Chinese/Japanese board game, go, to fully appreciate this 5 star book.

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Summary: A Startling Game
Review: This book is a tale told in dream like prose. Life, love, betrayal and death all float by in short lyrical chapters that seem to be recalled from the dreamer's memory.

The story itself, while being compelling, isn't one that you haven't read before. If you have ever watched any old black and white movie from the 1940s, you know the ultimate ending from page one; but that isn't the point, the telling of the tale, like the game of the title, is about construction and the patterns made - life and art. If the universe is contained upon the surface of a Go board, than the scope of human emotions and relations are pretty much all contained within this book. This "small" tale is told within the context of a greater historical event (in this case the Japanese invasion of Manchuria); but like the game itself, the final shape and totality of those cosmic events are only composed of tiny pieces played one at a time at single points and places.

This is one of those books that Hollywood will probably want to make a movie of; and if they do, it most likely will be very successful. However, they will never be able to match the fragile verbiage that make this book so moving and memorable even when telling of violence, carnage and death.

Rating:
Summary: The manipulations of go and a doomed relationship.
Review: This is a great book that I think anyone would like. It is set in 1930's Manchurian China, during the war. The book has short chapters that alternate between two main characters: a Chinese girl who is in school, and a Japanese soldier who is part of the occupation of China.

The book does an excellent job of showing the difference in culture of both of these people, who come from far different backgrounds. In chapters with the soldier's perspective, you get a very serious and tactical view of everything, and in the chapters with the girl, you get a very emotional view of everything.

I cried at the ending, and even though the criticisms may be right about the plot line being obvious, I still think it is a great book. I think that everyone would like it.

Rating:
Summary: An extremely good book
Review: This is a great book that I think anyone would like. It is set in 1930's Manchurian China, during the war. The book has short chapters that alternate between two main characters: a Chinese girl who is in school, and a Japanese soldier who is part of the occupation of China.

The book does an excellent job of showing the difference in culture of both of these people, who come from far different backgrounds. In chapters with the soldier's perspective, you get a very serious and tactical view of everything, and in the chapters with the girl, you get a very emotional view of everything.

I cried at the ending, and even though the criticisms may be right about the plot line being obvious, I still think it is a great book. I think that everyone would like it.

Rating:
Summary: An hour later...
Review: This is one of those books that presents a nice first impression, a good read, and almost nothing in the way of lingering effect. The game is Go, the black and white stones represent Yin and Yang, the first few stones, like the first few chapters, simply present themselves on the board (which is not "checkered", but a 19x19 network of straight lines -- you play on the intersections, not the squares.) It's a nice conceit, in the classical Elizabethan sense of the word -- the book is about Go, so the structure of the book is LIKE Go, up to a point. The middle is kind of muddled, metaphor wise, but eventually you get to meet The Girl (Yin, who plays White) and the Jap (lighten up, it's a war novel about Nanking, you're supposed to hate him; Yang, who plays Black.) As the story develops, you realize you probably knew someone in college like The Girl -- a self-centered adventuress who eventually edits herself out of the gene pool -- and her pair of nebbishoi lovers. But unless you collect comic books, you haven't met the Japanese soldiers, although to Shan Sa's credit she plasters enough childhood and upbringing scenes on her Soldier to bring him from the background to the unconvincing foreground, detestable but understandable, and more or less drafted by bushido anyway. Meanwhile, the Go board is getting more tangled, more complex, as the forces of Yin and Yang writhe and convolve in each other without ever losing their own identities. Until the end, when Shan Sa's fusion of Yin and Yang into the Void (the white space after the text stops, evidently) leaves the realm of Taoism and enters the magic bag of literary devices on how to end a novel which has slipped beyond its author's control or interest. Some of the language and imagery is pretty good, but this book was written in French, not Chinese, so it's not certain how many of the nice touches in this nice book are due the English translator.