The Painted Wall and Other Strange Tales

Lisa Arsenault is an elementary-school teacher in Ajax, Ontario.

The title refers to the last story in this compilation of 23 Chinese
tales of the supernatural. They were selected and adapted from a body of
nearly 500 of these tales called the Liao-chai chih-I (Strange Tales
from a Studio of Leisure) that were collected from all over China by a
17th-century scholar. They tend to be morality tales with an emphasis on
celebrating virtue and punishing vice (often very painfully). The
parsimonious, arrogant, and foolish get their just desserts, while the
meek, generous, and scholarly are rewarded. All the stories have an
element of the supernatural (spirits, fairies, demons, and magicians,
shape-shifting, reincarnation, invisibility, illusions, etc.).

In the preface, we are asked to imagine a lazy summer afternoon with a
breeze blowing off the river and the scent of lotus flowers perfuming
the air. We have paid our coin to hear a professional storyteller work
his magic: let the stories begin. The ensuing tales do not quite live up
to this propitious beginning. All of the stories are very short
(parables, really), and some are too short, lacking any true resolution
or explanation. They also lack literary sophistication; with the
exception of one selection, there is little imagery or even much
descriptive detail. Emotional content is generally absent, too. Not a
first-choice purchase.