Cover Image: This Fish Is Fowl

This Fish Is Fowl

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Member Reviews

This collection of “essays on being”, according to the cover of this book, was a concept I didn’t fully understand when I jumped in, and at the end of it, I’m still not sure exactly what that means. The essays explore language, identity, travelling between two homes, family, and writing, but they didn’t quite land for me. The first series of essays were too vague for me, the years of caring for Xi’s ailing mother , for me, were too repetitive - one essay could have done what many did (I think these were pulled from various publications she had written for, and when all bunched together, the same story was told multiple ways), and then when she finally hit on writing and working, the essays would start somewhere and end up somewhere else. I couldn’t find the unifying theme, or really the themes at all. All of this on a backdrop of his odd need to minimize her wealth (international schools and studies, high paying corporate jobs, a family that owned multiple properties in HK and employed three full time nurses for her mother, her own multiple properties owned, and months spent travelling and writing with no income) - I’m over defensive privilege. I think her best writing was about sexuality and bucking social convention, and some of the gleanings about her mother would have been impactful in one edited essay. This book for me was neither terrible nor great, remarkable nor forgettable, but it was absolutely very long. Thank you net galley for this ARC, opinions are my own.

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A collection of essays on a number of subjects that are deeply personal, thought provoking, and moving. Xi Xu doesn't back away from sensitive subject matter like her mother's long struggle with Alzheimer's and the impact it had on her family.

The writer's dark sense of humour shines through in an entertaining as well as compelling fashion, and her prose is a genuine delight to read.

Was glad to have come across this title.

Recommended.

With thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

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The Fish is Fowl written by Xi Xu a collection of essays that share her world her point of view.Xixu has a brilliant writing style each essay drew me in either to her personal life her thoughts on political topics.Always involved always topical always real Highky recommend would make great classroom bookclub discussions,#netgalley#uofNebraskapress

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Xu Xi’s prose is smart, poignant and fluid. She navigates between the personal and international experience through a deeply compassionate writing style and themes.

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