Balzac & the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

This book first caught my eye because the title seemed so offbeat, even though at the time I didn't know that Balzac was a famous French author, which makes it even more so. Once I read a bit about the synopsis though, I was even more interested: Balzac & the Little Chinese Seamstress takes place during the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the 1970s, and I'm not only unfamiliar with that time period, I'm unfamiliar with (but interested in) Chinese culture in general. It seemed like a good chance to learn.

Overview
The main character (who remains unnamed in the English translation) and his best friend Luo-Luo are sent from their home to a remote mountain village as part of the Down to the Country Movement, a program that attempted to 're-educate' privilaged urban youths by sending them to work with peasant farmers for an unspecified amount of time. It's quite a culture shock--possibly comparable to sending a city youth of today back in time to a pioneer farm of the early 1800s--and because the boys' parents are seen as political dissidents, they have very little chance of returning home. (no-one actually says 'political hostages', but that's the basic idea)

Enter the Little Chinese Seamstress--daughter of the tailor in a nearby town, beautiful and literate--a rare flower amid the muck that comprises the rest of the boys' experience on the mountain. (She doesn't actually have a name either, Luo-Luo is the only character with a real name.) Predictably, both boys fall head over heels for her, even though Luo claims that she's 'not sophisticated enough'.

Next, enter Balzac. The boys manage to get their hands on a cache of translated Western novels, all of which are strictly banned, and whole new worlds open before them. Balzac, Hugo, Flaubert, Dumas, and even Dickens introduce them to adventure, intrigue and romance. And Luo decides that these are the perfect tool for improving the Little Seamstress' "sophistication".

Recommended for: Pretty much anyone :-p

Parental Worries: The two boys are about 17, and when you throw in a bunch of French literature and a pretty young girl, things are bound to get . . . adult. Not too much detail though, I'd give it a high R rating.

Audiobook Comments: Read by B. D. Wong, a fact which by itself raises the book's awesomeness twofold. That's because I'm only just recovering from a massive Law and Order addiction, and B.D. Wong plays a psychiatrist in the Special Victims Unit incarnation of the show. Fangirlishness aside though, he really does a very good job.

Ramblings:(Spoiler Threat: Low)
Although I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book, the ending caught me completely off guard, and I was left thinking "what's that supposed to mean?" It was a very contradictory, ironic and almost tragic ending; I couldn't figure out what take-home-message or statement the book was trying to make with it. Then I remembered that I've been reading nothing but fantasy, adventure, and kick-to-the-face moral stories for awhile, so I needed to fine-tune my analysis. For one thing, the story is semi-autobiographical, so one of the main purposes is to illustrate a piece of history, to open a window into a time period that is not particularly well-known. It does a very good job of that--surprisingly good, considering that it takes place in an isolated backwater village. It's also a coming of age story, so there's quite a bit about human nature and lots of colorful characters.

And of course, there's the literature ^_^ The impact of The Count of Monte Cristo or Madam Bovary on a mind accustomed to tepid Communist propaganda is profound, beautifully written and fully explored. My one complaint is that the main character's favorite books, with the exception of Monte Cristo, were virtually unknown to me, so I couldn't wholeheartedly mirror his joy as I could have if he'd been discovering some of my old favorites.

Overall, a very good book and a refreshing break from my fare of late.