Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Dai Sijie Vintage, 172pp, £6.99
ISBN 0099286432
An overnight sensation in France, this slim, charming book has quietly become an international bestseller. Set at the height of Mao's cultural revolution, Dai Sijie's award-winning first novel is very different from the typically grim sagas recalling China's darkest era. But it is no less moving for its simplicity or playfulness.
Two boys, the sons of doctors branded "enemies of the people", have been banished to the mystically named mountain "Phoenix of the Sky" for re-education. But their regime is distinctly prosaic, long days spent doing back-breaking fieldwork, carrying buckets of shit up steep paths. Their real education begins only when they discover a suitcase full of western novels (Flaubert, Gogol, Melville and, most importantly, Balzac) and the lovely daughter of the local tailor. Thus the forbidden mysteries of women, love and sex are revealed to them. Endless rainy nights in their bare hut on stilts are passed enjoying the illicit pleasures of reliving the distant but symbolically apt adventures of the Count of Monte Cristo. They store up their dangerous new knowledge with the misguided intention of refining the pretty mountain girl.
Like his young heroes, Sijie is a captivating, amusing storyteller, his writing as seductive and unaffected as the little seamstress herself. Alongside this tender, impossible love story is a sad parable of friendship, lost innocence and the power of literature.
Post this article to
We want to encourage people to comment on our content and to exchange views with other readers and hope this will be done on a courteous basis. However, if you encounter posts which are offensive please let us know by emailing comments@newstatesman.co.uk and we will take swift action where necessary.
