Life In 19x19

Has anyone read this book? Im thinking about ordering it but dont know if its any good I´d love to hear someones opinion on the book

It depends on your taste. It's not a happy story.
I thought it's OK.

It is not really about go. It is basically a sad romance between two people who play go. Good read, but don't buy it just because you are a go player.

It's got Go in it so it's probably worth reading. .. but I thought it was a badly written. It seemed to include a lot of cultural cliches that I found annoying.

My favourite quote from the book:

"I allow myself half an hour of meditation before I respond."

The story is slow but worth reading (as a go player).

Cheers,
Vesa

DrStraw wrote:It is not really about go. It is basically a sad romance between two people who play go. Good read, but don't buy it just because you are a go player.

An alternative to buying a book is to request it from your local library (assuming that they have "inter library loan" should they not have it).

I will disagree a tiny bit about it not being about go. While not about playing the game, you might well want to consider that it is about the role of go in these cultures as a matter of social class across the ethnic divide. This is perhaps not the place to discuss how the Japanese were treating the Chinese at that time but ......

a) If she did not play go, there might have been sex, but not romance.
b) If she did not play go, he would not have considered her a class equal worthy of honorable treatment (why it ends the way it does).

So the book is about go in the sense that go can serve as a bridge between these peoples.

Good story, not about go