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corvidquest's review
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.0
NOTE: This is apparently the only complete edition of the novel in English (by Joint Publishing in Hong Kong; I managed to find it on ABE Books for $8). The University of Indiana volume, which is paired with Xiao Hong's first novel, The Field of Life and Death, omits the final two chapters of Tales of Hulan River!
Tales of Hulan River is an evocative depiction of life in a northern Chinese village in the early 20th Century. The first two chapters are essentially a collective portrait of the village as a whole, and Xiao Hong never loses sight of this collective perspective throughout; when focussing on an individual, the perspectives of the various villagers are always accounted for.
The tone of the writing is quite alluring, full of wry humor, with a gimlet eye on misogyny and a sympathetic one on poverty. It is heartbreaking at times but never maudlin. Her writing is so lyrical and precise that one really comes away with the remarkable impression of having been there and experienced it oneself.
Tales of Hulan River is an evocative depiction of life in a northern Chinese village in the early 20th Century. The first two chapters are essentially a collective portrait of the village as a whole, and Xiao Hong never loses sight of this collective perspective throughout; when focussing on an individual, the perspectives of the various villagers are always accounted for.
The tone of the writing is quite alluring, full of wry humor, with a gimlet eye on misogyny and a sympathetic one on poverty. It is heartbreaking at times but never maudlin. Her writing is so lyrical and precise that one really comes away with the remarkable impression of having been there and experienced it oneself.
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