Day 64 - Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

 In honor of the Year of the Ox: A Review of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

I began the book on Monday and finished on Wednesday – it was that good my friends (disclaimer: I have lots of free time on my hands).  I was hoping the book would be the pick for my February book club but my friends opted for Snowflower and the Secret Fan. Obviously, we were going with a Chinese theme but the two books couldn’t have been more dissimilar.  Even if you care very little for Chinese culture or literature, I believe the story appeals more as a coming of age story than a culture investigation per se whereas Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is very rooted in Chinese culture. 

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress tells the story of two teenaged friends all but marooned in a remote mountain village in China for the communist government’s reeducation in the mid-seventies.  In the process, the two main characters become the darlings of the village – city boys who in many ways do their own reeducating of the reformed opium farmers and their kinfolks vis-a-vi their alarm clock, violin and uncanny story telling ability.  They meet the title’s little Chinese seamstress – whom they both fall in love with in their own way reminiscent to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s respective love for teacher lady Etta Place.  Along the way, they also acquire a suitcase full of western literature which serves as a sort of currency in their struggle to become the intellectual and sophisticated sorts their parents are.  

Certainly, unemployment lends itself to lots of reading.  In addition to Balzac, I have read the following books during unemployment:  The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb,  What is the What by Dave Eggers, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See and The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chboski.  And today, i started reading Rain of Gold by Victor Villasenor.