The Invisibility Cloak
Ratings3
Average rating3.8
15
Ratings3
Average rating3.8
An NYRB Classics Original
The hero of The Invisibility Cloak lives in contemporary Beijing—where everyone is doing their best to hustle up the ladder of success while shouldering an ever-growing burden of consumer goods—and he’s a loser. Well into his forties, he’s divorced (and still doting on his ex), childless, and living with his sister (her husband wants him out) in an apartment at the edge of town with a crack in the wall the wind from the north blows through while he gets by, just, by making customized old-fashioned amplifiers for the occasional rich audio-obsessive. He has contempt for his clients and contempt for himself. The only things he really likes are Beethoven and vintage speakers. Then an old friend tips him off about a special job—a little risky but just don’t ask too many questions—and can it really be that this hopeless loser wins?
This provocative and seriously funny exercise in the social fantastic by the brilliantly original Ge Fei, one of China’s finest living writers, is among the most original works of fiction to come out of China in recent years. It is sure to appeal to readers of Haruki Murakami and other fabulists of contemporary irreality.
Reviews with the most likes.
I went into this book knowing nothing about China's class struggles and the day-to-day lives of its people and left knowing a bunch of names of audio equipment and with a love-hate (but mostly love) relationship with the story's protagonist. I liked how Ge Fei explained the world I was reading through, which made the book much more digestible than I expected it to be towards the beginning of the story. This easy-to-understand backdrop made drowning myself in the character of Mr. Cui much easier as a result, and he's a fun one to follow along with. My main gripe with this book would be that I felt some of the monologues about audio equipment went on for a bit too long, but when putting them in the context of the narrator they are right at home.
