
My
partner called in the morning. I had just had a bowl of congee agt a
noddle shop. The Chinese say that the poor like congee because it
gives them the taste of what it would be like to be rich and the rich
like it because it reminds them of when they were poor. I was
drinking coffee, a bad Western habit I learned from Grandfather.
John Lanchester, Fragant
Harbour, London, 2003