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“The Drunkard” by Liu Yichang

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A novel set in capitalist Hong Kong in the 1960s and steeped in alcohol, prostitution and stream-of-consciousness narration might not suggest a controlled work of fiction. Yet Liu Yichang’s classic…

A novel set in capitalist Hong Kong in the 1960s and steeped in alcohol, prostitution and stream-of-consciousness narration might not suggest a controlled work of fiction. Yet Liu Yichang’s classic The Drunkard , in Charlotte Chun-lam Yiu’s new translation, is measured, uninhibited and very good. The unnamed middle-aged narrator shares qualities with literature’s more memorable failures. He’s in some respects one of society’s superfluous men, a writer whose artistic vision is at odds with that of his materialistic world, in this case a city caught up in a period of blindingly rapid economic gr

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