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italo_carlvino's review against another edition
3.0
Frontier is a strange novel that I admit I do not wholly understand. Maybe I will never understand it even if I reread it a dozen times. It really does feel like a dream, loosely connected vignettes where time, space, logic and emotion are malleable, permeable and interchangeable. There is something enticing to the idea of a frontier, a place of mystery and freedom. Can Xue really takes the time to explore that sense of freedom. Perhaps that is why the novel is hard to understand and how it gets away from you. It is one of the freest novels I've read. Many scenes in the book struck me with their sense of wonder and banality at the strangeness of this fictional town. Though, the book did not hit me as much as say Italo Calvino, Borges or Bulgakov did. Nevertheless it is interesting and I want to try to reread it at some point. It is at times beautiful yet ultimately diaphanous.
beckyramone's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
beckyramone's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
charlottesometimes's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
seanwatson's review against another edition
Can Xue's writing isn't difficult in the conventional sense – there are no page length sentences, there's no arcane vocabulary, and I rarely felt like she was alluding to any texts beyond the one in front of me. But in terms of transitions between scenes, perspectives, characters and dialogue, it follows an untraceable logic that is less disorienting than it is slippery. Reading Frontier often feels like you're struggling to retrieve a forgotten word from the back of your mind, because Xue's plainspoken prose is always oscillating between verisimilitude and fantasy, and while she offers the suggestion that there is some "truth" to the text, pinning that truth down is impossible. Scenes of domesticity are suddenly ruptured by torrents of birds tunnelling down the skylight. A mother and father discuss their daughter in the living room while an old man stands in the garden outside, because "he's always in the garden".
Despite all the characters intersecting in a fictional place called Pebble Town, Frontier feels oddly placeless; no identity in this world is fixed. I believe Xue when she says she writes linearly and without editing. You get the feeling that Frontier was written in a kind of fugue state, the author drawing on associations deep within themselves without concern for plot or narrative or internal consistency. Nothing wrong with that. But another reviewer on this site says that reading Frontier is like watching a polaroid develop in your mind very slowly – I kept hoping for a feeling like this, as that feeling rings true for me with writers like Joseph McElroy and Clarice Lispector. But the elusiveness of the book didn't tick my particular boxes and left me frustrated.
Despite all the characters intersecting in a fictional place called Pebble Town, Frontier feels oddly placeless; no identity in this world is fixed. I believe Xue when she says she writes linearly and without editing. You get the feeling that Frontier was written in a kind of fugue state, the author drawing on associations deep within themselves without concern for plot or narrative or internal consistency. Nothing wrong with that. But another reviewer on this site says that reading Frontier is like watching a polaroid develop in your mind very slowly – I kept hoping for a feeling like this, as that feeling rings true for me with writers like Joseph McElroy and Clarice Lispector. But the elusiveness of the book didn't tick my particular boxes and left me frustrated.
littlebookbird's review against another edition
3.0
This book is heavily metaphorical, and not easily understood when casually read. That being said, there are some beautiful descriptions of nature. The text does have some strange moments that seem to be due to translation oddities (and possibly cultural differences beyond my understanding), but overall the book was worth the read.
india6e33e's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Bizarre, dream-like sequence of events and dialogue in a frontier town in northern China; perhaps a reflection on the bewildering, nonsensical experience of living during the Cultural Revolution?
sookieskipper's review against another edition
3.0
Frontier is set in a small town with long roads, freely moving wild animals and people who build a strange symbiotic relationship with the nature and the town itself. Can Xue weaves a surreal story set in a time and space unlike the one we live in. The town sits on a frontier expanding to a dense forest on one side and a snowy mountain on the other. A design institute takes up half the town with houses, gardens, shops dotting around it. The foot traffic in this town is less and gives the appearance of "lost in depths of time" to new residents.
Frontier is narrated through the eyes of half a dozen townsfolk, some new and some old. The layered narration digs deeper into the town's happenstances and bursts through the fabric of realism. The semi-spiritual, mostly fantastical elements that not-so-subtly happen around the townsfolk rarely get a deep dived explanation. The plot maintains a fascinating balance of pragmatism and enigma. As much as this is story about half a dozen people, its also a story about the intricate way animals blends their lives with humanity. Nature is deeply ingrained in lives of these people; they till the lands, garden often, maintain beautiful yards or enjoy long walks in the forest. Nature isn't a metaphor or a mode of escapism in Frontier. It is as much as a character, like a living breathing thing that has the capacity to influence the lives of the townsfolk.
The novel suffers from staggering narration and slow build. Personally, its an enjoyable trait but with surrealistic style and tangential overtures, the book exhibits intertextuality that becomes cumbersome and is often fragmented within the book. Can Xue's writing has been known for her style and the sheer surrealistic approach she takes. Her writing is a force of nature; there is no doubt about that but it does require patience and a need to slow down. Like the way she writes about park of poplar trees with idle geckos and irritable foxes, a reader needs to get away from the distractions of the world and read Frontier as if everything else has ceased to exist.
Frontier is narrated through the eyes of half a dozen townsfolk, some new and some old. The layered narration digs deeper into the town's happenstances and bursts through the fabric of realism. The semi-spiritual, mostly fantastical elements that not-so-subtly happen around the townsfolk rarely get a deep dived explanation. The plot maintains a fascinating balance of pragmatism and enigma. As much as this is story about half a dozen people, its also a story about the intricate way animals blends their lives with humanity. Nature is deeply ingrained in lives of these people; they till the lands, garden often, maintain beautiful yards or enjoy long walks in the forest. Nature isn't a metaphor or a mode of escapism in Frontier. It is as much as a character, like a living breathing thing that has the capacity to influence the lives of the townsfolk.
The novel suffers from staggering narration and slow build. Personally, its an enjoyable trait but with surrealistic style and tangential overtures, the book exhibits intertextuality that becomes cumbersome and is often fragmented within the book. Can Xue's writing has been known for her style and the sheer surrealistic approach she takes. Her writing is a force of nature; there is no doubt about that but it does require patience and a need to slow down. Like the way she writes about park of poplar trees with idle geckos and irritable foxes, a reader needs to get away from the distractions of the world and read Frontier as if everything else has ceased to exist.
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