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A review by katykelly
The Four Books by Yan Lianke
4.0
I've read Wild Swans. And loved it. But there isn't a lot of material out there that shows us what happened inside China's Cultural Revolution, about those sent for 're-education'. This book helps with that.
It felt insane enough to be compared to books such as Catch-22, the absurdity of it all. It felt brutal and demeaning and somehow hilarious at the same time.
Inside a huge labour camp set up to house and re-educate 'criminals' (i.e. intellectuals such as teachers and writers), one group becomes our focus, those of the 99th district. Forced away from jobs and families to slave away for the state, the Musician, Theologian, Scholar and Author are each part of the unnamed group watched by a faceless Child, their gaoler, who has the power to bestow red flowers and stars that can send them home. The Child sets them to work, growing (or declaring) increasingly ridiculous quotas of crops, or smelting steel. Informing on each other brings reward, spying on each other brings rewards. The criminals themselves write about each other (and their own true feelings) to make up the four books of this story. Eventually famine arrives and we see just how a state does or doesn't take care of its people.
So ridiculous you hardly believe it could ever have happened, and all the more shocking when you realise that it did. The ideology is terrifying, the 99th's experiences incredibly moving and appalling. It's an eye-opening read.
The Child is a sinister creation, who wouldn't be the same as a character if he was an adult - mature yet childlike in his delight at punishing and rewarding, his story did confuse me somewhat, the arc it took.
I wasn't always sure which of the four books I was reading, and who was narrating, but the story flowed seamlessly despite this, and I really wanted to see what would happen to the group. It's not a beach read.
If you are interested in (Chinese) social history, this may interest you. It's not comfortable reading but there is no extreme violence. It's horrific only because it is based on life.
Darkly funny but bleak, I'm glad I read this. A good choice for book groups with plenty to discuss.
Review of a NetGalley advance copy.
It felt insane enough to be compared to books such as Catch-22, the absurdity of it all. It felt brutal and demeaning and somehow hilarious at the same time.
Inside a huge labour camp set up to house and re-educate 'criminals' (i.e. intellectuals such as teachers and writers), one group becomes our focus, those of the 99th district. Forced away from jobs and families to slave away for the state, the Musician, Theologian, Scholar and Author are each part of the unnamed group watched by a faceless Child, their gaoler, who has the power to bestow red flowers and stars that can send them home. The Child sets them to work, growing (or declaring) increasingly ridiculous quotas of crops, or smelting steel. Informing on each other brings reward, spying on each other brings rewards. The criminals themselves write about each other (and their own true feelings) to make up the four books of this story. Eventually famine arrives and we see just how a state does or doesn't take care of its people.
So ridiculous you hardly believe it could ever have happened, and all the more shocking when you realise that it did. The ideology is terrifying, the 99th's experiences incredibly moving and appalling. It's an eye-opening read.
The Child is a sinister creation, who wouldn't be the same as a character if he was an adult - mature yet childlike in his delight at punishing and rewarding, his story did confuse me somewhat, the arc it took.
I wasn't always sure which of the four books I was reading, and who was narrating, but the story flowed seamlessly despite this, and I really wanted to see what would happen to the group. It's not a beach read.
If you are interested in (Chinese) social history, this may interest you. It's not comfortable reading but there is no extreme violence. It's horrific only because it is based on life.
Darkly funny but bleak, I'm glad I read this. A good choice for book groups with plenty to discuss.
Review of a NetGalley advance copy.