Review of The Ping-Pong Champion of Chinatown
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PughJ
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Review of The Ping-Pong Champion of Chinatown
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Ping-Pong Champion of Chinatown" by James Hanna.]
James Hanna's The Ping-Pong Champion of Chinatown is a gripping tale of a slice of the extraordinary life of Gertrude McDowell as narrated by an extremely arresting Gertrude. Gertrude's ambition and self-awareness lead her onto crazy adventures which take her to very satisfying highs and depressing lows. However, through all that Gertrude maintains her fearless approach to life, and armed with sharp witty criticisms she makes quite an impact on the lives of everyone she interacts with.
The book is blessed with having such a strong and engaging narrator. Hanna makes excellent use of imagery to describe situation after situation, setting after setting, and this gives the reader a clear image of what is going on at any point in the story. The deliberate effort by the narrator to constantly check in with the reader creates a sort of checkpoint at major points in the story ensuring the chronological order of events in the book is not lost. Furthermore, the amount of emotion felt by the narrator is captured in such a subtle but effective manner that is quite satisfying to the reader.
As much as I thoroughly enjoyed the book, the language used throughout is a dialect of the narrator and as such, some expressions and sentence structure posed a challenge for me. Also, some of the references used by the narrator were quite unknown to me, and since these were vital to the flow of the story, the back and forth between research and the story was a bit tedious. Nonetheless, the general concepts of Gertrude's amazing narration are not lost and upon a second reading, the joy springing from a reinvigorated understanding of the book is simply unmatched.
I would give the book a 4 out of 4 rating given the excellent storytelling, the clearly defined timelines, the depth possessed by characters, and the book being interesting generally. It was a challenge judging the grammar given the difference in dialect but otherwise, the editing was on point.
The book deals with some dark themes and at one point or two, there was the use of strong language to correctly capture the main character's flow of thought and as such, it might not be appropriate for younger readers. Since the book captures the mindset of a critical and free-thinking character, there might be some prejudices mentioned which may or may not pose an issue with a few readers. Readers with a background in films will find the book quite charming given the references, and most above all, lovers of strong narration will find it hard to put the book down.
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The Ping-Pong Champion of Chinatown
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
James Hanna's The Ping-Pong Champion of Chinatown is a gripping tale of a slice of the extraordinary life of Gertrude McDowell as narrated by an extremely arresting Gertrude. Gertrude's ambition and self-awareness lead her onto crazy adventures which take her to very satisfying highs and depressing lows. However, through all that Gertrude maintains her fearless approach to life, and armed with sharp witty criticisms she makes quite an impact on the lives of everyone she interacts with.
The book is blessed with having such a strong and engaging narrator. Hanna makes excellent use of imagery to describe situation after situation, setting after setting, and this gives the reader a clear image of what is going on at any point in the story. The deliberate effort by the narrator to constantly check in with the reader creates a sort of checkpoint at major points in the story ensuring the chronological order of events in the book is not lost. Furthermore, the amount of emotion felt by the narrator is captured in such a subtle but effective manner that is quite satisfying to the reader.
As much as I thoroughly enjoyed the book, the language used throughout is a dialect of the narrator and as such, some expressions and sentence structure posed a challenge for me. Also, some of the references used by the narrator were quite unknown to me, and since these were vital to the flow of the story, the back and forth between research and the story was a bit tedious. Nonetheless, the general concepts of Gertrude's amazing narration are not lost and upon a second reading, the joy springing from a reinvigorated understanding of the book is simply unmatched.
I would give the book a 4 out of 4 rating given the excellent storytelling, the clearly defined timelines, the depth possessed by characters, and the book being interesting generally. It was a challenge judging the grammar given the difference in dialect but otherwise, the editing was on point.
The book deals with some dark themes and at one point or two, there was the use of strong language to correctly capture the main character's flow of thought and as such, it might not be appropriate for younger readers. Since the book captures the mindset of a critical and free-thinking character, there might be some prejudices mentioned which may or may not pose an issue with a few readers. Readers with a background in films will find the book quite charming given the references, and most above all, lovers of strong narration will find it hard to put the book down.
******
The Ping-Pong Champion of Chinatown
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
