Rare Earth

A hilarious and utterly believable reflection of the modern PRC.Anyone who knows China should take care reading: This book may trigger a flashback to some-or-other hilarious incident you yourself may have experienced, at or near a KTV, probably involving baijiu, beer, various security services, party members, a drug dealer, prostitution, thought-crime, a business deal, guanxi, and/or a horse (or other animal - for me, personally, it was a camel).

Hectic and difficult to follow the surreal story of fantasy and corruption in modern China. Unconvincing.

A very entertaining book from one of the better practitioners of British journalism. Worth reading on the beach or from the glow of your tablet in a darkened room . This is the sort of novel I'd like to write.

A bit different

Brilliant, colourful fun read.

Great

Paul Mason is better known for his appearances on BBC Newsnight whenever the occasions merit a serious and radical appraisal of British, European or worldwide erconomic issues. His three works of non-fiction - Live Working or Die Fighting, Meltdown and Why Its Kicking off Everywhere should be forced feeding for Conservatives everywhere, especially those who still persist in beliving that austerity economics can provide a pathway out of recession, or that the poor should suffer to get us out of a crisis the rich got us into.Rare Earth is his first effort at fiction and has the full benefit of his knowledge of contemporary China and its political contradictions - Communist in name, capitalist in practice. The storyline featuring an exploration by western journalists of China's environmentalist claims becomes flawed by both western arrogance and Chinese introversion. The characterisation could have done with being a bit beefier but that is more than compensated by the introduction of a group of Chinese supermodel hells's angels who are dedicated to the promotion of both Chinese Communist dogma and Neo-liberal economics. Farcical in parts but thought-provoking in others. Well worth a read.

Paul Mason is the well respected Economics Editor of Newsnight so I was looking forward to his first foray into fiction. Well, Rare Earth was certainly not as I expected it to be! I get the impression that following his visit to China a couple of years ago he was left with a huge amount of information and ideas about the complexity of modern China and was unsure what to do with it all. Without proper journalistic evidence to rely on much of what he gleaned could not be used in serious reporting. So a novel trying to made sense of all the craziness may fit the bill.....China has a virtual monopoly on Rare Earth elements which are a vital component in many modern items: hard disc drives, wind turbines, MRI scanners. But these minerals are mined at great environmental cost - the process causes a range of cancers in the miners and people living nearby. This is the serious core of the novel as a slightly grumpy middle-aged TV reporter, Brough, attempts to get a handle on the story, while at the same time being thwarted by his ambitious eye-on-the-main-chance producer.What follows is a wild and wacky ride for both Brough and the reader. He meets the Steel Fuchsias - a girl biker gang who are believers in free market forces but are loyal and steadfast supporters of the Communist Party. There are gangsters, corrupt officials, spies, prostitutes, Tiananmen Square survivors and the spirits of dead ancestors. The plot rips along at a great pace but there is much darkness as well as all the fun and games.What he does make clear is that outsiders cannot really know modern China in all its complexity. As one character says: "Whole swaths of China are ungoverned: ruled by mobsters and corrupt officials. ....At the centre is a walled palace, only it's not the Forbidden City it's the Communist Party HQ."I thoroughly enjoyed Rare Earth - I will forgive you the silly sex scenes, Paul. The best parts involved the conflict within the Channel 99 news team - he should use this as the basis for his next book.....