Starred review from October 20, 2008
Li's magnificent and jaw-droppingly grim novel centers on the 1979 execution of a Chinese counterrevolutionary in the provincial town of Muddy River and spirals outward into a scathing indictment of Communist China. Former Red Guard leader Shan Gu is scheduled to be executed after a denunciation ceremony presided over by Kai, the city's radio announcer. At the ceremony, Shan doesn't speak (her vocal chords have been severed), and before she's shot, her kidneys are extracted—by Kai's favor-currying husband—for transplant to a high regional official. After Shan's execution, Kwen, a local sadist, and Bashi, a 19-year-old with pedophile leanings, bury Shan, but not before further mutilating the body. While Shan's parents are bereft, others celebrate, including the family of 12-year-old Nini, born deformed after militant Shan kicked Nini's mother in her pregnant belly. Nini dreams of falling in love and—in the novel's intricate overlapping of fates—hooks up with Bashi, providing the one relatively positive moment in this panorama of cruelty and betrayal. Li records these events dispassionately and with such a magisterial sense of direction that the reader can't help being drawn into the novel, like a sleeper trapped in an anxiety dream.
October 15, 2008
A harrowing portrait of a woman 's execution by an oppressive Chinese regime, and how her death affects an entire provincial town.
The debut novel by Li (stories: A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, 2005) takes place across a brief stretch of days in Muddy River, a poor town hundreds of miles from Beijing. But the modest setting and short time span belie this rich, expansive novel, which captures the anxieties and brutality of life during the last days of Maoism. In the spring of 1979, a young woman named Gu Shan is scheduled to be executed for protesting the Cultural Revolution. Her parents, Teacher Gu and Mrs. Gu, are understandably heartbroken, and Shan 's death has an impact well beyond one household. On the day the townspeople gather in a nearby stadium for the mandated "denunciation ceremony, " we meet a cross-section of residents: Tong, a boy whose self-awareness grows beyond the indoctrination at his elementary school and the abuses of his alcoholic father; Kai, a former classmate of Shan 's who sympathizes with her politics even while married to a doctor eager to flatter party leaders; Nini, a crippled adolescent who 's practically enslaved by her parents; and Bashi, the town know-it-all who courts Nini even while mourning his grandmother 's death. As the story moves along it becomes clear how straitjacketed everybody 's lives are. Moreover, the reader gets graphic glimpses of Shan 's wrecked psyche before her execution and her ruined body after. Yet Li 's story has an empathetic, uncannily graceful tone. It helps that her characters aren 't strictly mournful: Tong has a boyish curiosity, Bashi is appealingly pranksterish, and Teacher Gu is admirably even-tempered, even as he slowly discovers how he was used as a political pawn for much of his life.
A complex, downbeat, ultimately admirable tale of a cloaked portion of Chinese history.
(COPYRIGHT (2008) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
October 15, 2008
Following her short story collection "Thousand Years of Good Prayers" ("LJ" 9/1/05), Li's debut novel interestingly details life in the town of Muddy River, China, in 1979. Assorted characters are gradually introduced as stories unfold and revolve around the denunciation ceremony, execution, and attempted retribution for Shan, the daughter of retired Teacher Gu and his wife. Here, Li's central character, 19-year-old Bashi, intermingles with Old Kwen, a 56-year-old bachelor, as well as that of a young boy named Tong and an outcast 12-year-old girl named Nini. One of six sisters, Nini is plagued with severe birth deformities, but she and Bashi soon develop a friendship and tender bond that eventually leads Bashi to ask Nini to become his child bride. Added to this story are darker moments, like the sexual mutilation of Shan's body by Old Kwen, which Bashi tries to expose. Limited passages detailing particular scenes are not for the squeamish but are likely no worse than those found in gritty crime novels. Like other works set during this period in China, the novel is realistically filled with elements of inequality and despair. Content aside, Li's writing can be likened to that of Ha Jin, as she is a talented storyteller who is able to juggle multiple story lines and lead the reader through numerous highs and lows in this character-driven work. Well written and recommended for larger fiction collections, particularly public and academic libraries strong in Asian literature.Shirley N. Quan, Orange Cty. P.L., Santa Ana, CA
Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from January 1, 2009
In the wake of her first book, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2005), Li, who grew up in Beijing, received numerous awards, including the PEN/HemingwayandWhiting awards. In her staggering first novel, she extends her inquiry into Chinas particular brand of soul-killing tyranny. Its 1979, and the citizens of the industrial city of Muddy River are feeling festive as they prepare for the public denunciation ceremonies preceding an execution. The condemned is 28-year-old Shan. Once a zealous Red Guard infamous for beating a pregnant woman, who gave birth to a deformed daughter, Nini, Shan began questioning Maoist practices. She is now tortured and killed, her body desecrated. This barbarity ignites a string of crimes and catastrophes. Touched by the conflagration are disabled and much-abused Nini, now 12; two strikingly independent young boys, one scheming, one sweet; Old Hua and his wife, who rescued and raised seven infant girls who had been left outside to die; and Kai, a news announcer who risks all to protest Shans wrongful death. Unflinching and mesmerizing, Li traces the contagion of evil with stunning precision and compassion in this tragic and beautiful novel of conscience.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)
October 15, 2008
A harrowing portrait of a woman's execution by an oppressive Chinese regime, and how her death affects an entire provincial town.
The debut novel by Li (stories: A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, 2005) takes place across a brief stretch of days in Muddy River, a poor town hundreds of miles from Beijing. But the modest setting and short time span belie this rich, expansive novel, which captures the anxieties and brutality of life during the last days of Maoism. In the spring of 1979, a young woman named Gu Shan is scheduled to be executed for protesting the Cultural Revolution. Her parents, Teacher Gu and Mrs. Gu, are understandably heartbroken, and Shan's death has an impact well beyond one household. On the day the townspeople gather in a nearby stadium for the mandated "denunciation ceremony, " we meet a cross-section of residents: Tong, a boy whose self-awareness grows beyond the indoctrination at his elementary school and the abuses of his alcoholic father; Kai, a former classmate of Shan's who sympathizes with her politics even while married to a doctor eager to flatter party leaders; Nini, a crippled adolescent who's practically enslaved by her parents; and Bashi, the town know-it-all who courts Nini even while mourning his grandmother's death. As the story moves along it becomes clear how straitjacketed everybody's lives are. Moreover, the reader gets graphic glimpses of Shan's wrecked psyche before her execution and her ruined body after. Yet Li's story has an empathetic, uncannily graceful tone. It helps that her characters aren't strictly mournful: Tong has a boyish curiosity, Bashi is appealingly pranksterish, and Teacher Gu is admirably even-tempered, even as he slowly discovers how he was used as a political pawn for much of his life.
A complex, downbeat, ultimately admirable tale of a cloaked portion of Chinese history.
(COPYRIGHT (2008) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)