Reviews - Red Sorghum | The StoryGraph

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In my old posting, I wrote about how much Cormac McCarthy traumatised me with his writing in the Road and No Country For Old Man. I did not know that there is another as gory as his books, and that is Mo Yan’s Red Sorghum.

Maybe I should not say gory, because the details about the scenery are beautiful. In the 20’s when the Chinese were fighting the Japanese occupation in the mainland China, where he carefully picked one thing that is in all scenes, sorghum. Before this book, I also did not know what sorghum was, nor did I know about the wine fermented from it. I will try it one day.

Focusing in a history of a family of three generations, surviving from the Japanese occupation and what came along with it. Needless to describe how brutal an occupation of a country could be, I will spare you from the images that until now got stuck in my head and speak more on the impression Mr. Yan has left on me from this book.

I think, had he written this book in a chronologic manner – starting from the meeting of the grandparents to the ending where the grandchildren were already grown up, I would not last half of the book and marked it as boring no matter how bloody this book would have been. But the clever Mr. Yan brought me back and forth through one of the grandchildren’s point of view and not tied to any timeline but theirs. That what made reading was exciting.

The careful details about the sweet scent of sorghum in its original habitat and in its form as wine could be carried in words. I could imagine how refreshing the wind blew after a day of killing the enemies in the sorghum field, or how nauseating the smell of human carcass being left in open air where the sorghum plants grew. Before this book, I only knew one writer who could carry the imagination of taste as good and that was John Steinbeck in Travel with Charlie and the Grapes of Wrath – of something simple as egg shell coffee and biscuit, Mr. Steinbeck could take me along in the story and dined with him. It’s a great gift of description that someone could describe anything without making it superfluous.

I could imagine vividly. And that’s the cruel thing of this book. Of the killing of Little Aunt and Uncle Arhat, or how little uncle died in silence in that dry well, a writer could have just written that they were murdered, or maybe the selection of words could have just been butchered or died from dehydration and anybody could pick up from there. But noooo, Mr. Yan felt compelled to describe, in another chapter near the ending that I did not expect it would be there. He caught me off guard.

And for that I admire him. And got traumatised as well.

I don’t know for sure whether or not I want to read another of his books after this.

The reason why I picked this book was because a friend so excited about his winning the nobel prize, he yapped all about it on twitter. For someone so unenthused about anything else, his enthusiasm in sharing enthused me. I would not say I regretted reading this book – the regret would have put this great book in the same stance as Stephanie Meyers’s or Elizabeth Gilbert’s, I should say that if you wanted to read Red Sorghum, when you get to the part where all is sweet and pretty don’t stay there too long.. That was not his intension of writing this book.

I should write a letter to Mr. Yan one day. That one hell of a writer he is. Proost!

sunleung's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The novel traces the fortunes of two generations of a family in China during the Japanese invasion during World War II, centring on the exploits of the narrator’s grandfather who is hailed as a hero. The novel begins abruptly in an ambush on a Japanese unit.

From there, the narrator jumps freely in a non-linear manner to different moments in his grandfather’s life granting unique vantage points - from the highest highs to the lowest lows. Yet, his story is incomplete - we know he survives and that is it. Ultimately, he is a man spurred by shame, anger, and a stubborn desire to survive. Was he a bastard or a hero?

Graphic violence permeates throughout the book - there are graphic descriptions of torture, there are scenes of violence against animals, there is one awful portrayal of a gang rape, there is infanticide. Reading through these scenes, I wondered what was the point of all of this violence - there really wasn’t any reason or rhyme to any of it - the novel ends abruptly with no neat bow to tie it up. War just happens and it ends. There was suffering and that was it.

The book is well written, though I suspect this aspect would shine through even more brightly in its original text. The red sorghum fields are a constant throughout the novel - indifferent to the turmoil that rages around it. Though they too disappear in the end.

I am glad to have read the book - it is very readable. Enjoyable? I don’t know but worth the read. The novel rewards those who follow the story closely due to the non-linear structure and the frequent use of foreshadowing. Those not familiar with Chinese names would do well to keep track of them with pen and paper. I am definitely motivated to read a couple more of the author’s work - the use of language is sublime.

Content Warnings