The Private Banquet (Storycuts)

Oct 4, 2024 3:35 AM

Author:Su Tong,Howard Goldblatt

Bao Qing was a classic example of what people in Maqiao meant when they spat out the word 'intellectual'. Coming home to his old town for the holidays was just as much trouble as not coming home, for this was a town where his old schoolmate Fatcat had every local business in his pocket. And Fatcat considered the returning 'professor' a celebrity. Bao Qing was about to get an invitation he could not refuse.

Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published in the collection Madwoman on the Bridge.

Reviews

How does Murakami manage to make poetry while writing of contemporary life and emotions? I am weak-kneed with admiration

—— Independent on Sunday

Enchanting...intriguing... All of these tales have a wonderfully surreal quality and a hip, witty tone

—— Wall Street Journal

All the stories take place in parallel worlds not so much remote from ordinary life as hidden within its surfaces: secret alleys that afford unexpected - and unsettling - views

—— New York Times

Like the best thriller fiction, it nags you with the sensation that Something Nasty is about to happen

—— Sunday Times

Most collections of short stories work by the interplay of different voices. This one offers the more satisfying rewards of a novel: unity of tone and a richness of recurring detail that creates its own texture: spaghetti, lawns, hamburgers, beer-drinking, kid sisters, Sunday afternoons, a man's name

—— Independent

One of the most popular novelists in the world...his fiction hits a nerve... Haunted breaks new ground

—— Observer

Tóibín's deceptively straightforward style continues to manage somehow to encompass both lucidity and ambiguity, precision and poetry

—— Irish Times

Exquisite

—— Metro, Fiction of the Week

These stories are always intensely interesting and sometimes profoundly provocative

—— Irish Independent

Perfect; and as good as the best of William Trevor, than which there can be no higher praise

—— Scotsman

A blinding display of mischievous wit and excruciating humour

—— Uncut

One of the greatest short story writers alive

—— Ben Rice

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