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Shanghai Baby, who am I?

Title : Shanghai Baby

Writer : Wei Hui

Publisher : Washington Square Press

No. of Pages : 263 Pages

"If your left foot hurts, my right foot will hurt. If you’re suffocated by life, my breathing will cease, too. If, when you want to express your love, there’s nothing but a black hole, then I won’t be able to make love either. If you sell your soul to the devil, a dagger will stab my chest, too."

Nikki, casually called Coco (after Coco Channel) by most of her friends and relatives is a 25 year old bare legged Shanghainesse girl. She’s a writer of "Shriek of the Butterfly" a well-known compilation of short stories that made her adored by most men, knowledge by most women but left her kind of empty pocket since it x-rated and not re-print for it vulgar content. Coco lived with her unadulterated yet impotent boyfriend whom she loved deeply, Tian Tian. He’s a painter who tried to buried his scars of absurd childhood and lack of love in his life.

"…this man enchanted me. It’s hard to put a finger on what made him so good looking in my eyes, but it had something to do with his air of world weariness and his thirst for love."

For quite sometimes Coco thought she won’t think of another man until one day faith brought her an unexpected surprise, packed in a tall handsome German man who works in a famous consultant bureau in Shanghai, Mark. Coco and Mark are both not single -Mark is married and Coco tightly devoted to Tian Tian- but physical attraction between the two passionate companion can’s stand it. The love-making scenes of Coco and Mark are quietly explicit, no wonder it is said that the book is burned and banned in China (for eastern loh ya…) beside of the (little) political issue contained in it. after all I can say that I’m enjoying Wei Hui’s imagination of love-making scene, it is frank but not made me scream out loud "pukeeyy!!!" as sum erotic scenes in some novels did. Boleh tahan

There are several (strong) characters around Coco, Mark and Tian Tian that makes the story even better. Madonna, previously a Mami who turns into a wealthy young woman whose life cycle basically is finding new man, smoochie-smoochie, break up, finding new man, and so on, and so on. Zhu Sa, Coco’s cousin who is very smart, have a good job (a typical of modern young women in Shanghai, according to Coco’s perspective) and have an angel fragile beauty that can melt a man’s heart. unlucky for her, she can melt her own husband’s heart. in nearly thirty, she watched "Titanic" and knocked down by the scene when the heroines left her exhausting fiancée for a short passionate love life with a high spirited man. she realized that she deserve something better than a no-sex yet boring marriage life she had with her husband, knowing that she never loved but ‘beaten’ so deeply. so she divorced and start her new worriless life. Flying Apple, a bisexual famous stylist in Shanghai who attracted Coco’s eyes and colored the story in such unique ways. Spider, a computer freak with uncountable high IQ who failed to fixing his future, from being a mean hacker stealing small things in big amounts he become owner of computer company but luck isn’t change in a click of a finger. Connie, Tian Tian’s mother whose leaved his only son and start new life with new husband in Spain. Her mother in law do believe that she’s the one who responsible for Tian Tian’s father mysterious death. She tried to reach her son back and make up all the years gone by.

all the characters perfectly fit in the circle of love and lust in Coco’s world. A world of spider webs, where a decision, even the smallest one will lead you to a cruel different direction than you expected to. A betrayal that is forgiven but bring out unimaginable disaster, "I Love you, and that’s how my love is". A fixation that failed to fulfill it determination, and only spread salt in an opened wound "I’ve been lying to you all along, but there’s one thing I’ve never lied about, that is that I love you". an unadulterated love that is demanding, "No matter what you do to me, I won’t blame you. I Love you. Remember that; please remember that."

This book’s revealed an inner secret and left us with one big question "Who am I?"

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WEI HUI studied literature at Shanghai’s prestigious Fudan University. She is the author of Shriek of the Butterfly, Virgin in the Water, Crazy Like Wei Hui, and Desire Pistol. Shanghai Baby, a San Francisco Chronicle bestseller, is her first full-length novel. She lives in Shanghai.

Kiky Mizanie

http://360.yahoo.com/keacurly20

Jakarta-yg-banjir, 5 February 2007