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A review by charlottekook
Frog by Mo Yan
4.0
there's some really interesting things happening with form in this novel - it starts with a dramatis personae as if in a play, and then veers between an epistolary narrative and a standard first person narrative (but these bleed into each other in the second half of the book as the narrator addresses the anonymous "sensei" during the sections which initially appear to just be first person narration. in the letters, tadpole discusses the play he is writing/wants to write about his aunt, the completed play finishes the novel. i think it's this play that is the most intriguing thing about "frog", particularly it's portrayal of gugu. despite tadpole expressing his respect for his aunt, she comes across as bitter and deranged, and also to be in a strange codependent relationship with the two clay doll makers. it's a very strange, symbolistic play that draws on several of the themes broached in the novel (life/death and babies, frogs and fear as well as motherhood and women's bodies).
the plight of many women (and men, too, but mainly chen bi) in the novel is bleak. the blame/centre of this is gugu, though it feels like we are never allowed to truly experience this through her words but only through those of her nephew - either his impressions/reporting of her in his letters/narrative or the words he makes her speak as a character in his play. i got a strong impression of tadpole as very arrogant after reading the play, and the post-modernist discussion of the writing of the play within the finished play. i feel like this endless discussion of the play never allows gugu, who is supposed to be its subject, actual space to be heard or understand. she is in turn treated as a sage and a bitter creature to be pitied.
the plight of many women (and men, too, but mainly chen bi) in the novel is bleak. the blame/centre of this is gugu, though it feels like we are never allowed to truly experience this through her words but only through those of her nephew - either his impressions/reporting of her in his letters/narrative or the words he makes her speak as a character in his play. i got a strong impression of tadpole as very arrogant after reading the play, and the post-modernist discussion of the writing of the play within the finished play. i feel like this endless discussion of the play never allows gugu, who is supposed to be its subject, actual space to be heard or understand. she is in turn treated as a sage and a bitter creature to be pitied.