Catherine C. (c-squared) reviewed on 11/7/2011 + 181 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

After reading Dreams of Joy and The Hundred Secret Senses, I was kind of on a roll with Communist China village life and this little book was sitting on my stack of books to read. It proved to be different than the other two. One obvious difference is that it's written by a man who grew up during the Cultural Revolution and even went through "re-education," as opposed to Tan and See, who were both born in the U.S. And given the author, it's not too surprising that this novel doesn't focus on mothers and daughters. In fact, there aren't a whole lot of parents around, since this book focuses on two young men who have been sent from the city to a small mountain village to be re-educated.

Balzac (and other foreign, and therefore forbidden, writers) appear in the form of their translated novels, providing a more impressive education than the back-breaking labor of village life. The little seamstress becomes a love interest for both the narrator and his friend. These strands and others are woven together in a beautifully & simply written little novel.

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