Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat (1928)

Also have Penguin (108) ed., 1954, 256 pp. ( )

One of the most enjoyable of the supremely entertaining B.A.F. serie. ( )

This is not quite a novel, really. It is a series of tales told by Kai Lung, master storyteller in an ancient China utterly charming. It is like a novel, though, in that poor Kai Lung has an arc story to go through, and in this arc Bramah hangs the tales. A classic work of "Orientalism," and thus I'm sure totally unacceptable to modern thinkers. But it was not written for them. It was written for those who like droll stories told elegantly, with wit and good humor. And some sense of mystery. ( )