Goodreads rating: 3.41/5
First published: 1990
Author: Ma Jian
Translator: Flora Drew
Genre: Satirical fiction, Asian literature, Short story
#tbntbookchallenge:
1) Read a book by a Chinese author or a red book
From Ma Jian, the highly acclaimed Chinese dissident, comes a satirical novel about the absurdities of life in a post-Tiananmen China.
Two men meet for dinner each week. Over the course of one of these drunken evenings, the writer recounts the stories he would write, had he the courage: a young man buys an old kiln and opens a private crematorium, delighting in his ability to harass the corpses of police officers and Party secretaries, while swooning to banned Western music; a heartbroken actress performs a public suicide by stepping into the jaws of a wild tiger, watched nonchalantly by her ex-lover. Extraordinary characters inspire him, their lives pulled and pummeled by fate and politics, as if they are balls of dough in the hands of an all-powerful noodle maker.
Ma Jian's satirical masterpiece allows us a humorous, yet profound, glimpse of those struggling to survive under a system that dictates their every move.From Ma Jian, the highly acclaimed Chinese dissident, comes a satirical novel about the absurdities of life in a post-Tiananmen China.
Two men meet for dinner each week. Over the course of one of these drunken evenings, the writer recounts the stories he would write, had he the courage: a young man buys an old kiln and opens a private crematorium, delighting in his ability to harass the corpses of police officers and Party secretaries, while swooning to banned Western music; a heartbroken actress performs a public suicide by stepping into the jaws of a wild tiger, watched nonchalantly by her ex-lover. Extraordinary characters inspire him, their lives pulled and pummeled by fate and politics, as if they are balls of dough in the hands of an all-powerful noodle maker.
Ma Jian's satirical masterpiece allows us a humorous, yet profound, glimpse of those struggling to survive under a system that dictates their every move.
The above taken from Goodreads.
To be honest, this book did not grasped me as much hence I took quite a while to finish it even though it's a novella. Being not as engaging, I tend to read others in between but I had to force finish it so that I can proceed with the next #tbntbookchallenge! Not forgetting I do have a few e-ARC's to read and review in queue!
Each chapter holds a different short story though it's inter-related to each other, especially to the 2 main protagonists i.e. The Professional Writer (TPW) and The Professional Blood Donor (TPBD). As these different short stories were TPW's stories in which he hoped he could write, he can only tell it to TPBD as he's afraid of The Party. Most of these short stories ended with gruesome deaths, if not with bad endings. It sure wasn't as attractive to me since I never liked gory stuffs!
Translation wise, it seemed to be fluidly done as I didn't get lost in translation. I was able to understand the gist of it and was hoping for a much engaging story line. I guessed such satirical stories are not my cup of tea. As it is, I kept cringing at the gory parts LOL! The plots were different, as if being told of actual China in a novella way. Having said that, I did enjoy the last few stories which were quite enthralling.
Apologies for the out of focus pics, I was too sleepy to redo it LOL! Anyway, I did liked how the author has named it's content, straightforward and relatable to the relevant stories, a good introduction if you asked me.
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