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Red Sorghum A Novel of China Mo Yan Howard Goldblatt 9780140168549 Books

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Red Sorghum A Novel of China Mo Yan Howard Goldblatt 9780140168549 Books

Imagine a character who (spoiler alert) murders his widowed mother's lover who happens to be a monk and later assassinates the man chosen to be the husband of the woman he covets (along with the man's father). Now imagine this is the hero of the story!

Commander Yu Zhan-ao is the grandfather of the narrator, who is not a primary character in the tale. Rather, it is the narrator's father, while still a youth, and Commander Yu, who feature in most of the action. But they are surrounded by a full cast of relatives, fellow villagers, fellow soldiers, local political bosses, bandits. Even dogs, representing man's uneven relationship with nature, feature prominently, as they are eaten, tamed and ultimately fight back.

And there is action aplenty. This is a brutal, bloody tale of rural China during the Japanese invasion of the 1930s. Yet at the same time there are many moments of humor, love, passion. It is a time, place and life very different from that known my most Western readers. You know by now that the author, Mo Yan, won the 2012 Nobel Prize for literature, the first Chinese to be so honored. The endless rows of red sorghum in the story come from the fields of his youth. Mo's genius is telling a compelling tale involving complex, three-dimensional characters in a style which is direct and gritty but also mystical and rich with symbolic imagery. The ever-present sorghum of the title is a metaphor for life and death, safety and menace, and, above all, blood, red blood.

Mo moves the reader back in forth in time. A past event will be mentioned, almost in passing, and you can be sure the narrative will come back to elaborate in great detail. Although this sort of foreshadowing, along with references to the characters' futures and the fact that we know the narrator's father survives to produce the narrator, may create a risk of dampening the drama and the urge to read on, the opposite, in fact, results, and the story is riveting throughout.


Tags : Red Sorghum: A Novel of China [Mo Yan, Howard Goldblatt] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b>The acclaimed novel of love and resistance during late 1930s China by Mo Yan, winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature </b> Spanning three generations,Mo Yan, Howard Goldblatt,Red Sorghum: A Novel of China,Penguin Books,0140168540,Literary,China,CHINESE (LANGUAGE) CONTEMPORARY FICTION,FICTION General,FICTION Literary,FICTION Sagas,FICTION War & Military,Fiction,Fiction - General,GENERAL,Modern fiction,ScholarlyUndergraduate,nobel prize winners in literature;war;literary fiction;military;military fiction;war books;fiction;novels;fiction books;military books;literature;books fiction;realistic fiction books;historical;short stories;vietnam war;classic;historical fiction novels;colonialism;drama;saga;east asia;chinese literature;translation;wwii;genocide;chinese;romance;japanese;family;korean war;historical fiction books;adventure;autobiography;communism;culture;school;journalism;russian;survival;revolution;love;french,wwii; 20th century; war; historical; literary fiction; literary; saga; contemporary fiction; family; asian; adventure; japanese; colonialism; coming of age; cultural revolution; communism; drama; military; fiction; fiction books; military books; literature; military fiction; chinese literature; classic; east asia; translation; short stories; biography; vietnam war; chinese; autobiography; school; historical fiction novels; russian; 19th century; revolution; armenia; culture; genocide; historical books; turkish; korean war

Red Sorghum A Novel of China Mo Yan Howard Goldblatt 9780140168549 Books Reviews

This is a book of 6 novella that were originally published separately. It is narrated by the paternal grandson of the two main characters (and son of the third chief character), who alludes to countless flashbacks (even flashbacks within flashbacks) to tell the story of his grandparents' rural township during the Japanese invasion of China.

I gave this collection 4 stars only because after reading the first four novellas, I got bored with what I felt was an overly prolonged outcome. After a while, I grew weary of all the flashbacks and started to feel that the writer (who is highly regarded in China) should've/could've wrapped up the saga in 3 or 4 novellas, instead.
Beginning in 2010 with Mario Vargas Llosa, continuing with Tomas Transtromer in 2011, and now reviewing this year's Nobel prize winnter, Mo Yan, I have selected one of their more popular works to determine if they are worthy of such an esteemed award. Up to this point, no one had disappointed, but I was a bit suspicious when a firestorm developed after the Nobel committee announced his award.

No one would deny that publicly Mo Yan has not endeared himself to many writers from the west; for example, Salman Rushdie called him a "patsy" of the Chinese Communist government and Herta Muller referred to his nomination as a "catastrophe" since he has been a member of the communist party and has refused to sign a petition to release imprisoned Chinese Nobel peace prize laureate Liu Xiaobo. Not to mention, Mo Yan did himself no favors in the eyes of the west by copying Mao's discussions on the merits of literature. In his acceptance speech, he probably shocked many when he said that some censorship is acceptable if speech maligns a person's good name.

Clearly, his views on activism and apparent public inaction bristle the more virtuous appetites of many western writers. However, in his acceptance speech, Mo Yan made an important point "For a writer, the best way to speak is by writing. You will find everything I need to say in my works." And so I decided to take him at his word by ordering a copy of Red Sorghum, a fictional memoir that captures three generations of Chinese struggling to survive the onslaught of the Japanese invasion right before and during World War II.

There is an incredible amount of detail in the novel, but one thing that it's not is the film. To gain some background knowledge, I decided to watch the 90 minute production but was greatly disappointed with it after I finished reading the novel. The film only covers 1/3 of the book--it ends with the nameless narratr's father chanting an anti-Japanese slogan as he stands in front of his dying mother. If people are determining the literary merit of Mo Yan's craft based on this film, then they will be sorely disappointed. The best way to understand the author's views, at least in Mr. Yan's case, is to read his literature.

And indeed, once I did that, not only were my eyes opened to a writing style similar to that of William Faulkner's minus a confusing stream of consciousness, I recognized that this author takes the "silent approach" when speaking truth to power. I do not think this is the appropriate venue to rehash every last example, but there is enough anti-communist fervor in this novel that should have had the author locked up long ago in his homeland. There are countless allegories that reference the brutish behavior of both the Nationalist and Communist parties, but there are literal examples that should make a reader's eyeballs pop out!

There is the example where the author flash forwards to the tail end of the catastrophic Cultural Revolution in 1973, where literally everyone under the communal system is starving to death. What is even more shocking is that this scene juxtaposes the Chinese during the occupation who, while fighting for their lives, are still self-sufficient enough to provide for themselves. Message Communism leads to starvation and dependence. The exclamation mark, of course, is the most obvious The narrator's grandmother and grandfather--the heroes of the rebellion--are NOT communist. In fact, as owners of a profitable winery, our heroes could be considered capitalist!

Based on the media backlash, this is not what I expected from Mo Yan, but I now understand why he begged that people read his literature in order to grasp his philosophical outlook. Having done that, I recognize that Mr. Yan's artistry is a silent force in the push for change within Chinese society. Before Mr. Rushdie and Ms. Muller insulted him, had they in fact read any of Mr. Yan's novels? If they had, would they have realized that sometimes change may not need a sword nor a trumpet but rather a pencil?
This is an important book. War cannot destroy all; this family stretches three generations and the bonds are as strong as the sorghum about them, though perhaps racked by storms. Mo Yan gives us a delicate story about war and love and the power of remembrance. His prose is very pretty, sometimes too much and sometimes just perfect. The book switches lawlessly back and forth, the use of third-person always the writing to adjust to different scenes with ease. The only bad part is the end; Mo Yan tries too hard to force a feeling of filial devotion and ancestral respect on the reader. otherwise it is an exciting, intense book with violence, horror, wells, and shooting. An extraordinary achievement
Imagine a character who (spoiler alert) murders his widowed mother's lover who happens to be a monk and later assassinates the man chosen to be the husband of the woman he covets (along with the man's father). Now imagine this is the hero of the story!

Commander Yu Zhan-ao is the grandfather of the narrator, who is not a primary character in the tale. Rather, it is the narrator's father, while still a youth, and Commander Yu, who feature in most of the action. But they are surrounded by a full cast of relatives, fellow villagers, fellow soldiers, local political bosses, bandits. Even dogs, representing man's uneven relationship with nature, feature prominently, as they are eaten, tamed and ultimately fight back.

And there is action aplenty. This is a brutal, bloody tale of rural China during the Japanese invasion of the 1930s. Yet at the same time there are many moments of humor, love, passion. It is a time, place and life very different from that known my most Western readers. You know by now that the author, Mo Yan, won the 2012 Nobel Prize for literature, the first Chinese to be so honored. The endless rows of red sorghum in the story come from the fields of his youth. Mo's genius is telling a compelling tale involving complex, three-dimensional characters in a style which is direct and gritty but also mystical and rich with symbolic imagery. The ever-present sorghum of the title is a metaphor for life and death, safety and menace, and, above all, blood, red blood.

Mo moves the reader back in forth in time. A past event will be mentioned, almost in passing, and you can be sure the narrative will come back to elaborate in great detail. Although this sort of foreshadowing, along with references to the characters' futures and the fact that we know the narrator's father survives to produce the narrator, may create a risk of dampening the drama and the urge to read on, the opposite, in fact, results, and the story is riveting throughout.