The Garlic Ballads

by Mo Yan

Book Overview

d Goldblatt (translator) 3.69 ? Rating Details ? 1,442 Ratings ? 211 Reviews Now back in print, this epic novel of beauty and brutality, set in a landscape at once strange and alluring, paints a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1611457076
• ISBN13: 9781611457070
• Release Date: November 2012
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.6" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

The Smell and the Fury -- For Strong Stomachs Only

The scent of garlic permeates this book, to such an extent that it becomes quite visceral and at times -- amazing for such a bulbhead as myself -- even nauseating. Both time and space are fragmented by the writer as he weaves back and forth among his stories of garlic farmers pitted against local corruption and their own at times cruel family traditions. The central event in the book is an invasion and trashing by an angry mob of the local governmental offices. We do not see this event occur until the end of the book, yet it colors every moment in the lives of the Fang and Gao families of Paradise County. It is understandable that the Beijing government would suppress a novel that shows most of its local officials to be bloated satraps and its policement to be little better than thugs, applying cattle prods to their prisoners and beating them mercilessly. Equally villainous, however, are the Fang family, who force their daughter to marry an old man in a three-in-one arranged marriage that guarantees that their crippled eldest son also gets a bride. In a grisly scene, the marriage deal finally goes through after both the daughter and her fiance commit suicide: Their bodies are dug up, their remains are mixed together, and they are re-interred in a single coffin. This is not a pleasant book to read: It takes a strong stomach, especially in the prison episodes. At the same time, it is, I feel, an important book that is beautifully written.

Amazingly Depressing

This is one of those book that makes you both depressed and inspired at the same time. Set in rural China, the Garlic Ballads explores the misfortune of ordinary Chinese farmers during the post revolutionary period. Having read this book for a Political Science class on China, it was interesting to see how the policies implemented in Beijing could harm the common people so severly. Because the government told these people to grow Garlic, a non-staple food, instead of rice for instance, when they couldn't sell it they were left with nothing. you cannot survive on Garlic. This poor regional planning by the PRC leads to the ruin of many lives. The book, while not overtly political, must have rubbed someone in Beijing the wrong way because it was banned in China. Great Book, Great Author!

captivating

It's difficult to let go of the book. If you consider Arundhati Roy's A God of small Things graphic and captivating, this book is ten times more. You can smell Gao Ma's sweat, feel Fourth aunt's anguish, almost to the point of having a lump in your throat.... you want to warn Jinju...... I must say it is one of the best books I have read.... it depicts simple people living in hard times, in very helpless circumstances. Basically there was no way out, and people could only console themselves that their lives were `fated'. To have a better understanding, it would really help if you read Wild Swan: three daughters of China by Jung Chang. It literally gives you heartache.

A Beautiful Love Story in a Tragic Setting

This book relates the dramatic impact of a minor upsurge against the corrupt state institutions on the lives of a number of Chinese peasant families. The main story details the tragic love story of Gao Ma and Fang Jinju. This story is told in parallel with the life of Gao Yang and some other stories. All are inter-related. The background is a Chinese village in the mid 1980s. The details make it frightfully real. A book everybody with an interest in China should read