Review: Il cinese

Il cinese by Andrea Cotti
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The interesting part of this was reading about the Chinese communities and triads in Italy. I'm not sure how closely it actually resembles real life, but it seemed pretty convincing to me. 

There were some issues with the story itself. I thought it was over the top in some instances, and gratuitous with its violence, etc., and other points just seemed odd. For example one of the bad guys is killed while in jail, which means that, at best, they have police officers being paid off. And yet, they continue to hold other suspects in jail with seemingly no worries, and we never discover exactly who the corrupt police officer was. 

Also, I don't buy a woman losing her only child and still keeping her mouth shut due to fear. 

And, not be pedantic, but it mentions several times while they are chatting in Wenzhouhua, that they switch to informal tense. As far as I know, no Chinese dialect has a formal tense. 

3.5 stars. Mainly because it educated me on the Chinese communities in Italy. 

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