Old Stove

by Jia Ping Wa

A recent novel by well-known Chinese author Jia Pingwa, set in the Chinese countryside during the chaos of the cultural revolution.

Genres: China, Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Graeme]

A tighter editorial hand might have reduced some of the occasionally excruciating - not to say scatological - detail of Shaanxi village life in the 1960s. But any failings are more than made up for by the sympathetic and convincing depiction of how the cultural revolution played out at village level. To say this is not a common theme of contemporary Chinese fiction would be putting it mildly (I rather suspect a lesser known writer than Jia would have had great difficulty getting this published). Well worth a read, for those with a certain degree of patience.

[Tony Wang]

很有特点的一部小说，我也不知道算不算好。不过读进去还是很吸引人的。故事很缓慢，很零散，把古炉的风貌和变革中的动荡一点点表现出来了。把古炉人的愚昧、小聪明、质朴、自私和善恶都展现得很丰满。写得如此之长，我觉得会把很多读者在中途刷掉。