📗 "Mourning a Breast" by Xi Xi, translated from Chinese into English by Jennifer Feeley
Originally published in 1992, apparently this was one of the first Chinese-language books that openly talked about breast cancer. The author discusses her diagnosis and treatment (mastectomy & radiation), but also just about everything else in her life. The information about cancer might be kind of general knowledge by now, but gives some insight on how taboo and unfamiliar it still was some 30 years ago.
This is one of those memoirs that might suit fiction readers more than people who mostly read non-fiction. The author really follows her interests and thoughts into anything. When you're in the mood, it reads like sitting on a park bench next to an interesting lady who's telling you the most fascinating life stories and you can't wait to hear more. When you're not in the mood, you feel like a cashier and this kind old lady just won't stop talking and the line of customers is getting longer and longer and longer and please, please get on with your day, ma'am!
Funnily enough Xi Xi very much knows her reader, and she doesn't mind you getting impatient or bored. Sometimes when things go on for too long, she gives you hints on where to skip to in the book to get on with her original recounting of her cancer. You go on ahead, I'm not done yet watching the grass move in the wind! She doesn't give a shit, haha.
There's an afterword by the translator that gives a little more context. I was sad to read that Xi Xi passed away in 2022 (not due to cancer) during the translation process, so she never saw this English edition completed. In the book she often talks about English-Chinese translations and comparing international translations for fun, so I assume it must've made her excited to see at least the work getting started.
#AmReading #memoir #WomenInTranslation #DisabilityLit #NYRB
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