LGBTQ+ Queer Fiction Book Club - Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin

QUEER FICTION BOOK CLUB!

Our next read will be ‘Notes of a Crocodile’ by Qiu Miaojin, translated by Bonnie Hiue’

Synopsis:

Book Description

The English-language premiere of Qiu Miaojin''s coming-of-age novel about queer teenagers in Taiwan, a cult classic in China and winner of the 1995 China Times Literature Award.

An NYRB Classics Original
Set in the post-martial-law era of late-1980s Taipei, Notes of a Crocodile is a coming-of-age story of queer misfits discovering love, friendship, and artistic affinity while hardly studying at Taiwan’s most prestigious university. Told through the eyes of an anonymous lesbian narrator nicknamed Lazi, this cult classic is a postmodern pastiche of diaries, vignettes, mash notes, aphorisms, exegesis, and satire by an incisive prose stylist and major countercultural figure.

Afflicted by her fatalistic attraction to Shui Ling, an older woman, Lazi turns for support to a circle of friends that includes a rich kid turned criminal and his troubled, self-destructive gay lover, as well as a bored, mischievous overachiever and her alluring slacker artist girlfriend.

Illustrating a process of liberation from the strictures of gender through radical self-inquiry, Notes of a Crocodile is a poignant masterpiece of social defiance by a singular voice in contemporary Chinese literature.

Purchase the book here:

Amazon Link

At the end of the meeting we will set the next book, based on ideas and feedback from the group, giving everyone two months to read the book. All the books will be LGBTQ+ themed, by LGBTQ+ writers, or with themes likely to be of interest to LGBTQ+ people and communities.

Please read the book ahead of the meeting and come with a view to share your opinions and views.

If you would like to attend but are unable to afford the book, please email Chris on cwray@kingstonlgbtforum.org.uk who will be able to help out.

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