Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress in MHSHS Reading Group

Apr 20, 2010 Monica Hernandez rated it it was amazing

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book was truly amazing. Signing it out in English class due to the fact we were assigned to read it, I looked at it thinking, “Ugh, this is going to be super boring.” Determined to read this though, I went on goodreads, and looked up reviews. I quickly decided to give this book a chance, and now I’m proud to say that Balzac & the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie is one of the best books I’ve read in a while. I quickly devoured this book, consuming it word by word and learning so much This book was truly amazing. Signing it out in English class due to the fact we were assigned to read it, I looked at it thinking, “Ugh, this is going to be super boring.” Determined to read this though, I went on goodreads, and looked up reviews. I quickly decided to give this book a chance, and now I’m proud to say that Balzac & the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie is one of the best books I’ve read in a while. I quickly devoured this book, consuming it word by word and learning so much about the Chinese culture through the 60’s and 70’s. This book was all about the freedom two “city youths” found through the banned books in their friend, Four-Eye’s, secret suitcase. During this time period, Chairman Mao the dictator of China started “re-educating” those seemed as intellectuals. Luo and his best friend, the narrator, had come from the city. Lou’s dad was a famous dentist who was thought to be a threat to society so he was banned from his profession while the narrator, who stayed nameless all throughout the novel, his father was a doctor. I inferred that due to this, these boys where sent to re-education. Re-education for these boys was done on a mountain called, “The Phoenix of the Sky” and there they had to be educated on peasant life by working amongst them with no pay. They had to work paddy fields, handle wastes (human and animal) and whatever else the peasants did. I found this to be making China more barbaric due to the fact that the Chinese would not advance through education. Everything “western” is banned such as books, movies and even ideas. If you went against this you would be sentence to such things as death or imprisonment. One day while they visited their friend Four-Eyes who lived on the lower side of the mountain they encountered his secret suitcase, they inferred inside were books and they guessed right. They get a hold of the French novel, Balzac and reading this book changed everything for these young boys and the Little Chinese Seamstress. The Chinese Seamstress was the most beautiful girl on the mountain and through Luo’s encounter with malaria they get closer. Luo and she fell in love and all throughout the novel they copulated. The narrator which I viewed as the sidekick, envied this attraction between the two and wanted her badly, although their love never flourished. The Chinese Seamstress was not educated and new how to read and write because of her fathers teachings. Luo and the narrator devised a plan to steal the suitcase. Though they only had a three in one thousand chance of leaving of leaving re-education, their friend Four-Eyes was a great writer and was allowed to leave, on his last day they stole his suitcase. I found this to be very mischievous and Four-Eye’s could not do anything because then he could be killed. Through these banned books Luo educated his beloved Seamstress and the narrator discovered love and the sweet taste of freedom. Luo’s educating of the Little Chinese seamstress has an ironic ending in which she leaves for the city because she was tired of peasant life. Her last words were “She said she had learnt one thing from Balzac: that a women’s beauty is a treasure beyond price” (184). This I interpreted as several things. This could have been that she misinterpreted Balzac’s saying and thought that she was going to get through life with her beauty and that her beauty was wasted here. I also thought that through the narrator reading her Balzac and trying to spice it up she got a different meaning from the novel and therefore it was his fault she left. I found it to be ironic that in the end they burned all the books. This was ironic because I came to the conclusion that the freedom they acquired from reading these books had changed their life in a foreign way and now they don’t want that freedom. ...more

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Apr 20, 2010 Christian rated it did not like it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 10, 2008 Daha0wils0n rated it did not like it

i dont like this book, because i dont like the situation during that time... it reminds me of too much history in China. and mao is the man!!! one of the characters said that (mao is ignorance for fashion) BECAUSE IT DOESNT MATTER... as long as he didnt say that infront of mao =)

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