Imagine living in society where you can only read state-sanctioned literature. Sijie takes us back to Communist-era China during the Cultural Revolution in Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. Two young men are sent to the countryside to be 're-educated' out of their urban, bourgeoisie ways b...
I like the book a lot. It was interesting to see two teens in the midst of culture re-education. However I was confused towards the end of the book. The author switched tactics of writing with no warning and wrote from the view point of other characters in the book. The ending didn't seem to go ...
As educated young city men, being re-educated on Mt Phoenix was not only hard physically but also mentally. One of the things they mist most is novels. And so, here's a story of 2 young men who is sharing an accomodation (house on stilts) who through some daring acts, obtaines a suitcase full of nov...
Not sure what I expected to get out of this book, but it was a rather strange and simple story. The setting was unusual and exotic, and I did not realize any of the back story that was described, but the overall effect of the book was pretty bland. Not my cup of tea.
It was pretty good...except for that bizarre 6-page section 3/4ths of the way through, where one portion was told from changing points of view. I have no idea why the author did that, and it was extremely jarring. I'll admit that I was so thrown by it that I just skimmed that section, and started ag...
Rating: 3.5* of fiveI don't, like so many others, think this book is brilliant or even particularly original. I do think it's fascinating as a cultural document of a time and a place that I know zero about and find very intriguing.The Cultural Revolution was inconceivably vast, like everything else ...
Books mentioned in here:Ursule Mirouet by BalzacPere Goriot by BalzacJean-Christophe by Romain RollandEugenie Grandet by BalzacThe Count of Monte Cristo by DumasLost Illusions by BalzacCousin Pons by BalzacColonel ChabertThe Hunchback of Notre DameMadame Bovary
While I enjoyed this book, I found it was somewhat of a disappointment to me. Someone told me that the English version was translated from French, so maybe that was the problem. I was expecting the more lyrical style that I am used to from the other Asian literature that I have read (Gail Tsukiyama...
I started this once before and put it aside after a few pages, so I wasn't prepared to be as pleased as I was by this story. So much of it is so funny, and some scenes delightfully ridiculous in their Chinese way. And among the books in the secret suitcase must have been a copy of Pygmalion.I was bu...
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