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desirosie's review against another edition
This book was brutal and difficult. I am actually not going to rate it because the choices don’t seem appropriate.
I studied modern Chinese history as a “minor concentration” in graduate school, which unfortunately amounted to mostly dabbling in its political history, an independent study about Shanghai, and a research paper about Russian emigres in Harbin. All of which is to say that I know enough about China to realize what it means to say I don’t know anything, and what I do know is deeply unsettling.
There is a bit of what might be called magical realism in the book, but really, it is about the horrors of Meili’s reality as a peasant woman (girl) who married too young, knows little to nothing of the world, and is coming to terms with the reality of China’s population control policies and what that means for her body and the bodies of all Chinese women.
There are scenes and places and episodes in the book where you think, at least this is fiction and hopefully dystopian fiction; surely this can’t be real. Unfortunately I suspect that everything in the book *could be* real.
I studied modern Chinese history as a “minor concentration” in graduate school, which unfortunately amounted to mostly dabbling in its political history, an independent study about Shanghai, and a research paper about Russian emigres in Harbin. All of which is to say that I know enough about China to realize what it means to say I don’t know anything, and what I do know is deeply unsettling.
There is a bit of what might be called magical realism in the book, but really, it is about the horrors of Meili’s reality as a peasant woman (girl) who married too young, knows little to nothing of the world, and is coming to terms with the reality of China’s population control policies and what that means for her body and the bodies of all Chinese women.
There are scenes and places and episodes in the book where you think, at least this is fiction and hopefully dystopian fiction; surely this can’t be real. Unfortunately I suspect that everything in the book *could be* real.
jannie_mtl's review
5.0
This novel is a disturbing tale of life under the Family Planning regime in China. Kongzi longs for a son to carry on his family's dynastic name, and he and his wife Meili are forced to flee their village when she becomes pregnant a second time. This work also looks at the issues around electronic waste and the terrifying impact of the significant recycling industry on people and the environment as well as the fate of families without residency permits, struggling to eke out an existence when they are not acknowledged by the state. This is a difficult book to read, but also difficult to put down.
khveronika's review against another edition
3.0
Ma Jian’s story definitely gives an absolutely different perspective on China’s “one child policy” than what you would expect. The narrative proceeds in a way that feels a bit like a roller-coaster ride, which can be perceived from both a positive & a negative side. It doesn't manage to captivate your attention completely but nevertheless there are still moments that are absolutely gripping, during which you wouldn't put the book down under any circumstances. The style in general feels quite raw nevertheless, with the impression that it lacked to be a bit more polished in order to flow fluently.
If I had to name the biggest flaw of the storyline, it would be the characters which feel like they lack depth and genuine emotions, that make it difficult for the reader to relate to what's happening. It's not really understandable how both the mother & the father that are the main characters of the story don’t really have a relationship with feelings towards their daughter or it might also be the fact that it simply doesn't come across with the style it's written in.
All in all it was an interesting read though. Child-limiting policies might sound like a good idea in our society with a shockingly explosive birth rate from a distant perspective, but here you actually get to find out the real stories of how people are affected by such governmental implications.
To sum it up, it’s dark, it brings forward important issues, it's touching at times but throughout the entire time I just wished that it would have been written in a more captivating way.
If I had to name the biggest flaw of the storyline, it would be the characters which feel like they lack depth and genuine emotions, that make it difficult for the reader to relate to what's happening. It's not really understandable how both the mother & the father that are the main characters of the story don’t really have a relationship with feelings towards their daughter or it might also be the fact that it simply doesn't come across with the style it's written in.
All in all it was an interesting read though. Child-limiting policies might sound like a good idea in our society with a shockingly explosive birth rate from a distant perspective, but here you actually get to find out the real stories of how people are affected by such governmental implications.
To sum it up, it’s dark, it brings forward important issues, it's touching at times but throughout the entire time I just wished that it would have been written in a more captivating way.
monasterymonochrome's review
3.0
This is an important book about the struggles of a family to defy China's one child policy, as well as survive in the face of extreme poverty and class discrimination. Kongzi, a descendant of Confucius, is single-mindedly obsessed with having a male heir no matter what it takes. Meili, his uneducated but ambitious wife, yearns to make a comfortable and meaningful life for herself but is thwarted by her husband's desire for a son. Nannan, their daughter, is deeply impacted by their nomadic, fugitive lifestyle and preoccupation with having another child in ways her parents cannot see.
By nature, this is not an easy read - it is dark, graphic, and depressing with very few moments of relief to counterbalance the suffering. In this sense, it's more educational than it is enjoyable. It's a book that I would recommend under the caveat that you're certainly not going to have fun reading it, but you will learn a lot about the ramifications of a policy that, in the Western world at least, are largely unknown.
That being said, for all its necessity and importance, I did find the book to be deeply flawed. I'm not sure if it was the translation or Ma Jian's actual writing style, but I often found the prose to be detached, clinical, and dry. Big, dramatic moments happen with very little build-up or change in tone, and emotions fall flat because they're described so matter-of-factly. For similar reasons, I found the book to be very slow and sometimes monotonous reading, despite the constant horrors that occurred. There were also these out-of-place post-modernist quirks, like beginning each chapter with a list of key words and randomly switching to the perspective of an omniscient Infant Spirit, that added very little to the book's overall effectiveness. Moreover, the characters behaved bafflingly at times, particularly Meili, who is very sympathetic and likeable but, at the same time, very contradictory and impulsive.
Finally, the book goes off the rails a bit in the final third in a way I'm not sure particularly worked. It turns from gritty realism into a bizarrely surreal parable whenMeili falls pregnant, but the baby refuses to come out and remains inside of her belly for five years . On a symbolic/metaphorical level, I suppose I understood the intent, but it completely took me out of the story when the rest of it had been so unrelentingly realistic. I also disliked how Nannan randomly disappeared to seemingly never be found in the last few pages of the book; to me, this was a pointless development that had no time to be properly resolved. It also felt a bit like the author was piling on one more layer of misery just for the hell of it, which left a bad taste in my mouth and slightly cheapened the impact of everything that had happened until that point.
Overall, I have very mixed feelings about this book. I might have rated it a star lower because all of the flaws I outlined above were very difficult to overlook. But there's no denying that it is still immensely vital and eye-opening. Ma Jian went to extreme lengths to research the subject matter, and it's certainly a subject that deserves more widespread attention and outcry, but I just found myself wishing it had been presented in a more efficient package.
By nature, this is not an easy read - it is dark, graphic, and depressing with very few moments of relief to counterbalance the suffering. In this sense, it's more educational than it is enjoyable. It's a book that I would recommend under the caveat that you're certainly not going to have fun reading it, but you will learn a lot about the ramifications of a policy that, in the Western world at least, are largely unknown.
That being said, for all its necessity and importance, I did find the book to be deeply flawed. I'm not sure if it was the translation or Ma Jian's actual writing style, but I often found the prose to be detached, clinical, and dry. Big, dramatic moments happen with very little build-up or change in tone, and emotions fall flat because they're described so matter-of-factly. For similar reasons, I found the book to be very slow and sometimes monotonous reading, despite the constant horrors that occurred. There were also these out-of-place post-modernist quirks, like beginning each chapter with a list of key words and randomly switching to the perspective of an omniscient Infant Spirit, that added very little to the book's overall effectiveness. Moreover, the characters behaved bafflingly at times, particularly Meili, who is very sympathetic and likeable but, at the same time, very contradictory and impulsive.
Finally, the book goes off the rails a bit in the final third in a way I'm not sure particularly worked. It turns from gritty realism into a bizarrely surreal parable when
Overall, I have very mixed feelings about this book. I might have rated it a star lower because all of the flaws I outlined above were very difficult to overlook. But there's no denying that it is still immensely vital and eye-opening. Ma Jian went to extreme lengths to research the subject matter, and it's certainly a subject that deserves more widespread attention and outcry, but I just found myself wishing it had been presented in a more efficient package.
khveronika's review
3.0
Ma Jian’s story definitely gives an absolutely different perspective on China’s “one child policy” than what you would expect. The narrative proceeds in a way that feels a bit like a roller-coaster ride, which can be perceived from both a positive & a negative side. It doesn't manage to captivate your attention completely but nevertheless there are still moments that are absolutely gripping, during which you wouldn't put the book down under any circumstances. The style in general feels quite raw nevertheless, with the impression that it lacked to be a bit more polished in order to flow fluently.
If I had to name the biggest flaw of the storyline, it would be the characters which feel like they lack depth and genuine emotions, that make it difficult for the reader to relate to what's happening. It's not really understandable how both the mother & the father that are the main characters of the story don’t really have a relationship with feelings towards their daughter or it might also be the fact that it simply doesn't come across with the style it's written in.
All in all it was an interesting read though. Child-limiting policies might sound like a good idea in our society with a shockingly explosive birth rate from a distant perspective, but here you actually get to find out the real stories of how people are affected by such governmental implications.
To sum it up, it’s dark, it brings forward important issues, it's touching at times but throughout the entire time I just wished that it would have been written in a more captivating way.
If I had to name the biggest flaw of the storyline, it would be the characters which feel like they lack depth and genuine emotions, that make it difficult for the reader to relate to what's happening. It's not really understandable how both the mother & the father that are the main characters of the story don’t really have a relationship with feelings towards their daughter or it might also be the fact that it simply doesn't come across with the style it's written in.
All in all it was an interesting read though. Child-limiting policies might sound like a good idea in our society with a shockingly explosive birth rate from a distant perspective, but here you actually get to find out the real stories of how people are affected by such governmental implications.
To sum it up, it’s dark, it brings forward important issues, it's touching at times but throughout the entire time I just wished that it would have been written in a more captivating way.
avid_d's review
3.0
This is an incredibly bleak, angry and, by the end, a somewhat frustrating read for me. I felt the second, child spirit, voice unhelpful at times, and the anger of the writer too uncontrolled.
pagesofkelsey's review
4.0
I’ve never really read anything that took place in China before, and this was a compelling and sometimes disturbing look into Chinese rural life. In this novel, the main character, Meili, is forced to go on the run with her husband after illegally falling pregnant with her second child. Over the next ten years, she gives birth to three more children, and raises none of them. She is raped. She forgets her daughter places way too often. She puts up with being married to a horrible guy. She works in shit factories or breeds ducks. She is naive to the point of foolishness. She also sets her rapist on fire (literally), becomes an entrepreneur, discovers herself, and becomes a great mother (mostly).
I don’t often get to learn so much about another culture when I read a book, nor do I get to see a character undergo such intensive transformation. I would really recommend reading it.
I don’t often get to learn so much about another culture when I read a book, nor do I get to see a character undergo such intensive transformation. I would really recommend reading it.
marinazala's review
3.0
** Books 93 - 2015 **
This book to accomplish New Author Reading Challenge 2015
I read in English but the review is written in Indonesia Languange
3,4 of 5 stars!
Sangat dark dan membuat bulu kuduk merinding!
Kisah mengenai keluarga pedalaman di negeri China yang berjuang untuk mendapatkan anak kedua. Kongzi, Meili dan putrinya Nannan yang berusaha hidup ditengah2 sungai Yang Tze menghindar dari pengejaran polisi pengontrol kelahiran penduduk china.
Yah.. inilah buku tentang sistem satu keluarga hanya boleh memiliki satu anak di China. Buku tentang pemaksaan kepada wanita yang sudah memiliki anak pertama harus memakai kontrasepsi dan yang sudah memiliki dua anak harus disterilisasi.
perjuangan untuk mendapatkan keturunan sehingga harus lari dari semua kejaran pemerintah..perjuangan untuk meili mengandung lagi setelah anak keduanya yang baru lahir dibunuh hidup2 didepan matanya.. hatinya yang sakit ketika suaminya, Kongzi mengetahui anak ketiga yang dilahirkan adalah anak yang cacat dan menjualnya.. dan lima tahun penantian agar anak keempat yang dikandungnya dapat menghirup dunia ini..
Mengerikan kalau memikirkan penerapan satu keluarga hanya boleh satu anak di negeri china agar pemerintah dapat mengontrol sistem populasi penduduknya hingga sampai seperti itu. Sedangkan laki-laki di china masih memegang prinsip konfusius dimana pria harus memiliki garis keturunan laki-laki agar bisa meneruskan generasinya. >__<
This book to accomplish New Author Reading Challenge 2015
I read in English but the review is written in Indonesia Languange
3,4 of 5 stars!
Sangat dark dan membuat bulu kuduk merinding!
Kisah mengenai keluarga pedalaman di negeri China yang berjuang untuk mendapatkan anak kedua. Kongzi, Meili dan putrinya Nannan yang berusaha hidup ditengah2 sungai Yang Tze menghindar dari pengejaran polisi pengontrol kelahiran penduduk china.
Yah.. inilah buku tentang sistem satu keluarga hanya boleh memiliki satu anak di China. Buku tentang pemaksaan kepada wanita yang sudah memiliki anak pertama harus memakai kontrasepsi dan yang sudah memiliki dua anak harus disterilisasi.
perjuangan untuk mendapatkan keturunan sehingga harus lari dari semua kejaran pemerintah..perjuangan untuk meili mengandung lagi setelah anak keduanya yang baru lahir dibunuh hidup2 didepan matanya.. hatinya yang sakit ketika suaminya, Kongzi mengetahui anak ketiga yang dilahirkan adalah anak yang cacat dan menjualnya.. dan lima tahun penantian agar anak keempat yang dikandungnya dapat menghirup dunia ini..
Mengerikan kalau memikirkan penerapan satu keluarga hanya boleh satu anak di negeri china agar pemerintah dapat mengontrol sistem populasi penduduknya hingga sampai seperti itu. Sedangkan laki-laki di china masih memegang prinsip konfusius dimana pria harus memiliki garis keturunan laki-laki agar bisa meneruskan generasinya. >__<
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