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Writing Reptiles: Qiu Miaojin’s Notes of a Crocodile | Los Angeles Review of Books

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The crocodile of Taiwanese writer Qiu Miaojin’s recently translated first novel Notes of a Crocodile is and is not a metaphor, is and is not a character, is and is not really a crocodile at all. The crocodile — the subject of a half-dozen surreal and witty vignettes sprinkled throughout the novel’s overarching coming-of-age story — exists halfway, appearing here and there in fragments, snippets, prose that functions somewhere between fiction and theory. It’s that halfway feeling that’s so essential to and so refreshing about the book, the ambiguity of sex, gender, queerness, desire, and the question of identity itself, all the more sobering to read in today’s political climate. The crocodile’s favorite treat, the unnamed narrator slyly notes, is cream puffs. Pass the cream puffs, please. I first encountered the work of Qiu Miaojin nearly two years ago, when I stumbled across a translation of her raw and elegant second (and final) novel, Last Words from Montmartre, completed shortly bef

Writing Reptiles: Qiu Miaojin’s Notes of a Crocodile Writing Reptiles: Qiu Miaojin’s "Notes of a Crocodile" By Rhian Sasseen June 17, 2017 The crocodile of Taiwanese writer Qiu Miaojin’s recently translated first novel Notes of a Crocodile is and is not a metaphor, is and is not a character, is and is not really a crocodile at all. The crocodile — the subject of a half-dozen surreal and witty vignettes sprinkled throughout the novel’s overarching coming-of-age story — exists halfway, appearing here and there in fragments, snippets, prose that functions somewhere between fiction and theory. It’

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