Hi friends, happy Wednesday! I hope you’re all doing well. Today I’m posting my review of Sheung-King’s novel You Are Eating an Orange. You Are Naked.

I read this for my Canada Reads project (reading all the nominated books for #CanadaReads).

You Are Eating an Orange. You Are Naked by: Sheung-King: A young man who translates for a living frequently travels for work with his lover. Their relationship is a mystery as they tell each other folk tales and talk about philosophy to pass the time. The even stranger part is his lover always seems to disappear. This novel was something different, something the reader hasn’t really read before and that intrigued them. Told in a mixed point of view of first and second person was a bit of an odd pairing; at times it was hard to follow who the main character was talking to or about. The way the main character described things was strange and the person he was in love with seemed to not really care about him so it was a bit of a bizarre relationship, but it was also interesting in a mundane sort of way. As the novel went on it moved away from the everyday life and more to existential topics, mainly focusing on race, and it was actually quite fascinating to think about because there were things the reader never really thought about. The reader didn’t care for the romance of this novel, but it did get the reader thinking. This novel won’t be for everyone; the writing alone is unusual and not what most are accustomed to; the author shied away from Western norms to create something of their own and this reader enjoyed reading something out of the ordinary.