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Su Tong
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Book
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Publisher | Black Swan | ||
ISBN | 978-055277454 | ||
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Reviewer
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Ann
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Synopsis
Disgraced Secretary Ku has been banished from the Party - it has been officially proved he does not have a fish-shaped birthmark on his bottom and is therefore not the son of a revolutionary martyr, but the issue of a river pirate and a prostitute. Mocked by the citizens of Milltown, Secretary Ku leaves the shore for a new life among the boat people on a fleet of industrial barges. Refusing to renounce his high status, he maintains a distance - with Dongliang, his teenage son - from the gossipy lowlifes who surround him. One day a feral little girl, Huixian, arrives looking for her mother, who has jumped to her death in the river. The boat people, and especially Dongliang, take her to their hearts. But Huixian sows conflict wherever she goes, and soon Dongliang is in the grip of an obsession for her. He takes on Life, Fate and the Party in the only way he knows . . .
Review
Translated from the Chinese by Howard Goldblatt, this is a story of the river, the party and a dysfunctional family.
Having only read historical Chinese novels previously, I found this tale of ordinary working folk on and around the river culturally very strange. There is an obsession with genitalia and urinals, insults and proverbs - is this current, normal Chinese fiction ?
Perhaps rather like reading a fantasy novel one has to accept the parameters given and read on, but I couldn't, and gave up half way through. I accept that this is more likely to be my fault than that of the author but the plot and characters did not engage me at all.
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