The dog

Frankly I didn't intend to read more than one or two of these short stories but I ended up reading all of them. Well written with characters that had an authentic feel, each tale provides a little glimpse into Chinese life on a simple but fascinating level.

If you enjoy the short story format, this is a wonderful book on the culture of modern China.

Writing fiction set in a culture foreign to your own is fraught with peril: it’s so easy to sound “off,” like speaking a foreign language with a distinctly flat American accent. Which makes Jack Livings’ accomplishment in The Dog, a collection of short stories set in China, all that more impressive, because he seems to pull it off effortlessly.