Received today to review for Front Street Reviews.

See the full review at Breeni Books.

Tom Te-wu Ma, author of ten published books as well as countless newspaper articles, translates 21 short stories from the Chinese book Liao Zhai by Pu Song Ling in his most recent release, Tutor: 21 Love Stories Between Humans and Spirits. Honoring Chinese lore and the combined mysticism of Buddhism and Taoism, the 21 stories within Tutor encompass the human fascination with the spiritual unknown. Te-wu Ma includes a brief introduction to the customs and beliefs of traditional Chinese superstition that prompted the original tales. This proves to be very helpful to the reader in understanding the motivations and interactions of each character.

I'm far from an expert on Chinese legend, but there are definitely several themes followed in almost every story. There is a beautiful, country-dwelling peasant who is off limits to the wealthy courtier, or there is a beautiful courtier who is off limits to the poor peasant. Many feature a young gentleman studying desperately to pass governmental exams to become an official of some sort, hence the title "Tutor." In almost all of them, the spirit will inevitably be the female lead, possibly her family, as well. The Chinese belief that all beings and inanimate objects possess spirits is represented in many of the ghosts being spirits of animals rather than humans.

Each story is complemented with a black and white illustration reflecting the subject matter. The illustrations are creations of Hsiung Chen, who also collaborated with Te-wu Ma on Chinese Ghost Stories for Adults: Sex, Love and Murder Between Spirits and Mortals, and Chao-han Sun.

Due to the historical nature of the tales and the translation into English, the writing style is simplistic and brief. It alternates between tragedy and bliss. The desire to observe beauty in all things is evident. The stories are very appropriately compiled in their similarity. Te-wu Ma has provided an interesting glimpse into ancient Chinese folklore.

©2007 Sabrina Williams for Front Street Reviews

RELEASE NOTES:

To nimrodiel. Enjoy!

I was going through my books to be read basket and found a few I forgot to journal. So, it's here :)

I originally received this from Breeni when she did a drawing for it on her book blog. I found this a wonderful look into Chinese folk tales. I enjoyed the stories for their interactions between the spirit world and the normal world. Though the writing was a bit simplistic due to the translation to English this was a wonderful collection of stories.

RELEASE NOTES:

Book was left in the window of a yellow free paper box facing the station entrance.