Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

Last year I read Dai Sijie's BALZAC AND THE LITTLE CHINESE SEAMSTRESS, and I procrastinated on writing this review because I did not feel I could do the book justice. What fascinated me about the story was the idea of Mao's Cultural Revolution, which supposedly placed highly educated people in rural areas of China, so that they would be "re-educated". The plot of BALZAC centers on two young Chinese men, sons of highly educated parents (doctors and dentists), who are sent to the countryside to work among the peasants, and through living the hard life of laborers are to be taught a lesson.

As the two worked the countryside and were put into situations where they were treated as low-educated laborers, they had to deny their educational heritage. Acknowledging the existence of classical music, for example, could mean punishment. No books were allowed by any means. They lived in constant fear, worried that the breath they took would be their last.

Then, their life turns for the better. They discover someone who has a hidden stash of western books, translated into Chinese. They soon become obsessed with the books, and in particular one book written by Balzac. If they thought their "re-education" was a turning point, their discovery of these forbidden books is yet another turning point in their lives.

The reason for the delay of this review is that although I enjoyed reading the book, I don't feel I truly understood what Dai Sijie was trying to convey to the reader. To reveal the ending will ruin the book for many, but it is the ending that I fail to understand the impact the author tried to make. Many readers have enjoyed this book that is destined to become a modern classic. But others like me fail to totally appreciate the meaning of the story of two men who tried to reclaim a life they had thought they truly lost. I am recommending this book only because I feel this is a modern classic and is probably going to become recommended reading in literature classes in the near future. I think reading this book should be required. Not only does the author have a gift of words, but also the content of this story is part of modern world history, and the knowledge of this should not be denied.

This book takes the history of a very complicated and dark time in China and personalizes it with clever, witty and beautiful writing.

The narrator and his best friend Luo are sent off to the rural mountains of China to become re-educated by the peasants because they've been found guilty of having middle school educations and coming from middle class families. The narrator is your eye into this world, a world where the China of 1971 is sent hurtling back into the world of the early 19th century.

The book speaks to you through a series of hilarious anecdotes. From the opening story of how the narrator manages to keep his violin to the every day objects such as alarm clocks and books that become fodder for the teaching moments throughout the book, these funny moments serve to also give clear examples of just how damaging the Cultural Revolution was.

The intense yearning of these two young men, to be free to go back to their old lives and familes in the cities, free from the intense scrutiny and hard physical labor of the mountains, is the personification of what the tens of thousands of young people in their situations must have felt at the time.

I read this book in two sittings, it's quick and funny and insightful and the english translation is done in a way that keeps the cadence of the Chinese storytelling.

This book takes place on a remote island in china were two boys, Luo and the un-named narrator, are sent to their "re-education" in the cultural revolution. The village headman discovers their talent for story telling and they are sent to the city to watch a film and present an oral presentation to the village and make it as long as the film. They succeed in doing this and they are sent once a month to see a movie in the city afterward. In the city the boys meet the tailor's daughter the beautiful seamstress as people called her. Luo falls in love with the seamstress instantly and they visit her often. Later Luo steals some forbidden western books from a neighbor in the village and they are wrapped up in the stories of the city and love. Luo tries to educate the seamstress with books by Balzac to make her his perfect match. This is a great book I recommend it to 5th graders and up. The book has a great ending and can be read in a day but you will think about it much longer!