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Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress: A Novel, by Dai Sijie
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Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is an enchanting tale that captures the magic of reading and the wonder of romantic awakening. An immediate international bestseller, it tells the story of two hapless city boys exiled to a remote mountain village for re-education during China’s infamous Cultural Revolution. There the two friends meet the daughter of the local tailor and discover a hidden stash of Western classics in Chinese translation. As they flirt with the seamstress and secretly devour these banned works, the two friends find transit from their grim surroundings to worlds they never imagined.
- Sales Rank: #8016 in Books
- Brand: Anchor
- Published on: 2002-10-29
- Released on: 2002-10-29
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.00" h x .60" w x 5.20" l, .44 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 184 pages
- Great product!
From Publishers Weekly
The Cultural Revolution of Chairman Mao Zedong altered Chinese history in the 1960s and '70s, forcibly sending hundreds of thousands of Chinese intellectuals to peasant villages for "re-education." This moving, often wrenching short novel by a writer who was himself re-educated in the '70s tells how two young men weather years of banishment, emphasizing the power of literature to free the mind. Sijie's unnamed 17-year-old protagonist and his best friend, Luo, are bourgeois doctors' sons, and so condemned to serve four years in a remote mountain village, carrying pails of excrement daily up a hill. Only their ingenuity helps them to survive. The two friends are good at storytelling, and the village headman commands them to put on "oral cinema shows" for the villagers, reciting the plots and dialogue of movies. When another city boy leaves the mountains, the friends steal a suitcase full of forbidden books he has been hiding, knowing he will be afraid to call the authorities. Enchanted by the prose of a host of European writers, they dare to tell the story of The Count of Monte Cristo to the village tailor and to read Balzac to his shy and beautiful young daughter. Luo, who adores the Little Seamstress, dreams of transforming her from a simple country girl into a sophisticated lover with his foreign tales. He succeeds beyond his expectations, but the result is not what he might have hoped for, and leads to an unexpected, droll and poignant conclusion. The warmth and humor of Sijie's prose and the clarity of Rilke's translation distinguish this slim first novel, a wonderfully human tale. (Sept. 17)Forecast: Sijie's debut was a best-seller and prize winner in France in 2000, and rights have been sold in 19 countries; it is also scheduled to be made into a film. Its charm translates admirably strong sales can be expected on this side of the Atlantic.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-This beautifully presented novella tracks the lives of two teens, childhood friends who have been sent to a small Chinese village for "re-education" during Mao's Cultural Revolution. Sons of doctors and dentists, their days are now spent muscling buckets of excrement up the mountainside and mining coal. But the boys-Luo and the unnamed narrator-receive a bit of a reprieve when the villagers discover their talents as storytellers; they are sent on monthly treks to town, tasked with watching a movie and relating it in detail on their return. It is here that they encounter the little seamstress of the title, whom Luo falls for instantly. When, through a series of comic and clever tricks and favors, the boys acquire a suitcase full of forbidden Western literature, Luo decides to "re-educate" the ignorant girl whom he hopes will become his intellectual match. That a bit of Balzac can have an aphrodisiac effect is a happy bonus. Ultimately, the book is a simple, lovely telling of a classic boy-meets-girl scenario with a folktale's smart, surprising bite at the finish. The story movingly captures Maoism's attempts to imprison one's mind and heart (with the threat of the same for one's body), the shock of the sudden cultural shift for "bourgeois" Chinese, and the sheer delight that books can offer a downtrodden spirit. Though these moments are fewer after the love story is introduced, teens will enjoy them at least as much as the comic and romantic strands.
Emily Lloyd, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This deceptively small novel has the power to bring down governments. In Mao's China, the Cultural Revolution rages, and two friends caught in the flames find themselves shuttled off to the remote countryside for reeducation. The stolid narrator occasionally comforts himself by playing the violin, and both he and more outgoing friend Luo find that they have a talent for entertaining others with their re-creations of films they have seen. A little light comes their way when they meet the stunning daughter of the tailor in the town nearby, with whom Luo launches an affair. But the real coup is discovering a cache of forbidden Western literature including, of course, Balzac that forces open their world like a thousand flowers blooming. The literature proves their undoing, however, finally losing them the one thing that has sustained them. Dai Sijie, who was himself reeducated in early 1970s China before fleeing to France, wonderfully communicates the awesome power of literature of which his novel is proof. Highly recommended. Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Most helpful customer reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Unintended Consequences
By John Petralia
Unintended consequences. It's what frequently happens when you try something for the first time. You know, like Dr. Frankenstein's experiment with creating life. Christopher Columbus looking for a new route to India. Alexander Graham Bell calling for Watson. Banning Books. Thalidomide. Nuclear Power. Slavery. Smoking. Deforestation. The Automobile. Almost anything you can think of comes along with unintended consequences. Some good. Some not so good. Some, terrible.
In this novel, the author demonstrates the law of unintended consequences by telling the story of two privileged young men in China during the Cultural Revolution. They are being "reeducated" in a poor village far from their homes. There, they meet a beautiful seamstress who has not been exposed to books, western music or the ways of the world. The boys set out to reeducate her, and, in so doing, woo her. One plays Mozart for her on his violin and skillfully acts out scenes from popular movies. The other reads to her from a forbidden cache of western books by Cervantes, Hugo, Tolstoy, Dumas, Flaubert, Bronte, Balzac and other luminaries.
Because the story is related in simple language, often with slapstick humor, what should be an oppressive nightmare reads like a fairytale complete with a Cinderella, two Prince Charmings and more than one wicked villain. In the end, irony prevails over passion, demagoguery, and the best intentions of the various "reeducators".
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
I found it a dull read, but I may be missing something
By Amazonian
I am not a fan of this book, but I read it for a book group. Everyone else thought it was touching, suspenseful and deep. I was the lone dissenter. They read much more into the characters than I did. I found it a dull read, but I may be missing something.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Unputdownable !
By Koonu
Read it in one sitting within 24 hours of buying. Author has a remarkable flair for storytelling just like other recent English writers of Chinese origin Ha Jin (In the pond, Waiting) and Adeline Yen Mah (Falling Leaves, Chinese Cinderalla). Having myself grown up during adolescence in a remote part of India on a staple diet of western classics including Russian authors like Tolstoy and Chekov, I could empathise with the characters savouring Balzac in translation notwithstanding the cultural disconnect. I also felt guilty that unlike the characters of this book, two boys denounced during Mao's cultural revolution, just for having the wrong parents; I was privileged to be growing up in a free, albeit third world country with access to a decent public library in my own cozy home town. As the Econimist has rightly said in the blurb, this book is "A paean to the magic of literature" and "A true book lover's book" (pun intended). The little Seamstress had the last word in this 21st Century French novel written by a Chinese author, ..she had learnt one thing from Balzac: that a woman's beauty is a treasure beyond price !! This tells us that Dumas,Mozart,Balzac or Beethoven transcend man made national boundaries while pollinating intellectuual curiosity of adolescents of the global village.
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