well babe, actually I read it in Vietnamese, honey. much better than reading it in English. the Vietnamese translation is good. so when it is, go straight to it.
technically, there are two things to learn from this book. firstly, history. if you study history, you may know that the World Was II started when Japanese attacked Chinese in 1931 in Manchuria, where and when the story takes place. and I found the book very useful to study those stuffs about the WWII and Chinese History. secondly, it is the teenagers' mental-growth. we watch the changing of the girl, from an innocent to somewhat an experienced naive woman. don't know if you have this feeling or not, but I really have the same feeling and thinking with the girl when there is the sexually change in her/my body and mind, the curiousity, the desire, the fear, the attraction, the happiness, the pain... of course my situation if really different, but there're still some parts that are similar. have some sympathy for her.
(anyway, dude, if you're worrying about what I've just said, I would tell you that I haven't, and will never, watch any kind of "pig movies", or porn, in my word)
moreover, the book is also so good as a book, a story, a novel too. any characters that appeared are different and particular, the Girl's friend (don't remember her name. maybe Huong, right?), her sister, parents, the Japanese General... those people gave me great impression. they are like, very significant, very special, but also are the normal people we may meet somewhere on the street on a normal day...
words being used in the book is, well, I'm speechless! don't have to repeat what I said above! just, perfect!
ofcourse, you can read the book your way, evaluate it your way. you may see the death of the Girl and the Man selfish and unthoughtful. I see it as the helpless situation of people during WWII. feel so sorry for them. find the strength to follow the path. be more human being.
anyway, for the beauty of such a novel like The Girl Who Played Go, it should be such an ending. sad sad ending. you know, it's not the kind of "Thep da toi the day" novel. I DO know that I won't love this story this much if it goes that way. and you won't, either, dear.
response to your comment, I really don't think that they end up nowhere, babe. they got to somewhere they can be free, where there could be two persons loving each other, no Japanese soldier, no Chinese girl, there are only two lost souls that found the other half. they had lived all their life being the persons others wanted them to be, they ended up their lives for the Man and the Girl they want to be, the Girl of the Man and the Man of the Girl...
have you ever been in love, dear? it's something so happy but painful. it feels like paradise being with the one you love, but it feels like distroying yourself losing them. each single piece of you are teared to smaller pieces, burned so bad. you find no air to breath, you feel like there's no happiness, no joy in life when you don't have that one to share your life with. that's why many people die for their love, like in Romeo & Juliet. to be honest, I did use to think that they are so so so stupid, so silly, like how you think. but now I now what it is being so deeply in love. you'll know it, when you are, honey.
p.s: about DVC, I found it no interesting at all. can't read a book with a contain water, even if it has rich vocab source, rite? it makes no sense but a little vocab built. no, I need more from a book. if you want vocab, why don't you just read The Last of the Mohicans? in the summer I was like spending two hours of my Study Hall reading the book everyday, but even at the point we stopped reading it, I still couldn't get half the words! hard book to read, but superb contain!
ah, talking about vocab, I love The Little House series :x easy to read, but words in those books are so so interesting ^^ I learned all the churning, baking... words from there ^^ tinkling old cute words
