Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress in Read a book from each country

Jan 21, 2009 Jodi rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-about-china

Another book off the free shelf at the library and I am so glad I was there at the right time to get it! This was a quick, satisfying, good read set in China during the Cultural Revolution. It makes me so sad to think how the people were purposely kept ignorant during this time and those who were educated were sent for "re-education." Two teen boys are sent into the country-side for re-education and the one boy falls in love with a Chinese seamstress he meets there. The days are hard, and not mu Another book off the free shelf at the library and I am so glad I was there at the right time to get it! This was a quick, satisfying, good read set in China during the Cultural Revolution. It makes me so sad to think how the people were purposely kept ignorant during this time and those who were educated were sent for "re-education." Two teen boys are sent into the country-side for re-education and the one boy falls in love with a Chinese seamstress he meets there. The days are hard, and not much to do - hard to believe it is the 1970s! Anyway, the Chinese seamstress ends up pregnant and the friend of the couple seeks help for her since this is basically a death sentence for both love birds! During this time in China, young adults could not get married until they were 25 so they find themselves in quite a predicament. The friend manages to arrange to have an abortion arranged for the young woman and then she leaves them all behind! Sigh! So sad! Here all this time the young men were trying to give her a little more "polish" by reading illicit/banned classic Western literature to her and then she leaves them for a better life due to all these ideas they've put in her head. Due to the girl's drastic change - haircut, fancy clothes, pregnancy, and such - I wonder if she has decided to head to the city to be a prostitute. The ending, where she says she learned from Balzac that "a woman's beauty is a treasure beyond price." Is she going to use her beauty to get more beautiful things? What do others out there think?k

I was also shocked by the description of the hospital in Beijing in the 1970s. It sounds so cluttered and dirty. Also, how sad that even the sickest of patients had to cook their own food and take care of themselves. The description of soy sauce bottles and food mixed in with all the hospital items is fairly comical. Since the author himself went through "re-education" it is probably a pretty accurate description too. Such a sad time in the history of this country! ...more

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Jan 02, 2012 Anna rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I've read, but it was wsio rawno for me if I finish the book or not. It wasn't as good as I thought. It showed the clash between two boys from doctors' families and from big city and people from deep country. ...more

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Feb 06, 2008 Anna rated it really liked it

I never expected to enjoy this novel this much. It's a very slim work, but it achieves its point in its brevity. I know this isn't the first novel that I've read that extols the transformative quality of reading and of literature, but the manner the novel goes about it is beautiful. I think I love the ending sentence most of all. ...more

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