The best word I have for this book is delightful. This is an older book – 2002 was the English translation from the French – but I had never heard of it. It was recommended by someone in our book discussion group, and we will be discussing this next week.
The story is of two young Chinese men in their late teens who have been sent to the countryside for reeducation in the 1970’s. Both have prominent and educated parents – one (the narrator of the story) has parent s who were both physician specialists; the other, his best friend Luo – a famous dentist father who had once treated Chairman Mao. The humiliation / denunciation of Luo’s father is described early in the book in understated terms. The emotional impact of the situation is hinted at when afterwards, Luo punches his best friend in the face for the first time and for no apparent reason. That’s an example of the delicate writing in this book.
The two young men are sent to toil in an obscure mountainous area, working with a village of farmers who, we are told, have been reluctantly forced to give up the opium trade. The severity of their surroundings is also underplayed, but they are forced to carry heavy loads on treacherous mountain paths and to work at least once a month in a very dangerous mine, in the nude (due to heat) and pulling loads by wearing leather halters.
Amidst this, they show that they are still teenagers. One of their early tricks is to turn the clock in their quarters back an hour, so when the headman comes to rouse them, they show him that he’s an hour early. Sometimes, when it suits them, they move the clock ahead.
Their lives totally change through two occurrences. First, they meet another young man in exile, and discover that he has a suitcase full of contraband books – Balzac, Hugo, Dumas, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Dickens, and others. There follows a comedy of errors, whereby they manage to steal the suitcase for themselves.
Secondly, they meet the title “little Chinese seamstress”, the daughter of the area’s tailor, who is an important man in town. As they have read and memorized some of the stolen books, they are able to recite stories, particularly Balzac, to the young woman. She is feminine and dainty and is sought-after; she falls for Luo, who is the more forceful of our two young men, and they become lovers. The author paints wonderful scenes of the two young people swimming nude in an isolate mountain lake. The seamstress fashions a loin cloth of leaves. The imagery is wonderful.
The novel also paints very funny portraits of the local people: the headman who insists that Luo must treat his toothache, and the two take the opportunity to inflict maximum pain; the old man from who they are trying to solicit folk tales. They want to trade these to the book owner (this is before the plan to steal the books has been put into play). The old man insists they sit on his bed, which is filthy and covered with crawling insects, and he serves them a dish that consists of stone cooked in a salty sauce; one sucks on the stones and then spits them on the floor.
In the end, they lose the girl. I won’t reveal how.
The novel presents a light-hearted approach to a serious and sometimes tragic time, by understating, but not minimizing, the pain.
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