The Old Capital: A Novel of Taipei

T'ien-hsin's impressive collection reveals a society's inner conflicts over everything from politics to sex, but especially identity. In "Death in Venice" the reader is taken through the creative process as the narrator becomes wrapped in his own story's mechanics. "Man of La Mancha" and "Hungarian Water" both center around philosophical inquiries into death and identity. In the first, a man worries about the mundane contents of his wallet, which prompt him to make mundane adjustments to what he carries. In the other, two men reminisce about the women they've known in an attempt to postpone and "outlast" the inevitable. The young narrator in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" spars with an older writer who is trying to understand the city's "new humans." The title novella (a rewardingly complex second-person tale) speculates on the reliability of memory as a woman revisits the changing urban scenes of her youth, leaving her to wonder "What is this place?" Goldblatt's expert translation captures the subtleties of competing Eastern and Western influences. The result is an accomplished and intelligent portrayal of Taipei's cultural evolution. (Apr.)