Balzac and the Little Chinese
Seamstress (2000) by Dai
Sijie
I
had heard about this novel for years, but never grabbed it until
recently, when I saw it in audiobook form at the library. And as you
may already know, I keep finding myself reading fiction and histories
about China's Cultural Revolution, and I find the stories of this
period fascinating. Well, Balzac
takes place while the Revolution is unfolding, and offers a unique
perspective on what life was like for those young people exiled to
the countryside for "re-education."
Sijie tells the story of Luo and his friend, the unnamed narrator,
who as teenagers are sent to Phoenix Mountain because their parents
have been branded "enemies of the state" for their
bourgeois lifetyles. Living in a hut in the peasants' village,
working in the fields, and carrying animal waste haven't erased their
memories of culture and education, and when they discover that a
friend in another village has a secret suitcase full of books, they
become obsessed with stealing it.
