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Summary: A cultural revolution, in miniature
Review: "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress" does exactly what this type of book should do. It offers us a brief window into a part of the world, and a style of life, of which we will never be able to encounter first hand. It allows to walk a few steps in the shoes of a different kind of citizen of life, and thus empathize with their experience. It also provides a moving allegory for the power of fiction, and lets us appreciate something that is so readily available to us, yet so rare for others. The escape of fiction allows for dreams, and is a powerful force.Being almost ignorant of the Chinese cultural re-education system, this book was educational historically as well. I had known of it in theory, but not details such as the banning of all books other than those written by Mao, or the process behind re-education. I do want to learn more about this chapter in history, of which the world is still feeling the repercussions. The book itself is gentle, with moving imagery and a quiet sense of humor. The characters in it do not rage against the political machine, but instead make do with what life has forced upon them. There is love, of course, because humans will love in the most desperate of circumstances. To highlight the playfulness of the book, my favorite scene is when the tailor, influenced by the hearing of Count of Monte Cristo, begins to dress the village in fanciful pirate clothes and nautical emblems. Charming all the way through, and small enough to be a quick read.
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Summary: INTERESTING, FUN, QUICK READ
Review: A fascinating look into rural China during the Cultural Revolution. Good history but also good fiction.
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Summary: LOVE OF A WOMAN, LOVE OF LITERATURE
Review: I HAVE THREE LETTERS TO EXPLAIN THIS BOOK.... WOW. THE LOVE OF LITERATURE THIS BOOK REPRESENTED TO ME. IT IS THE STORY OF CHILDREN GROWING UP AND FINDING THEMSELVES AND WHERE THEY BELONG IN THIS WORLD. I LOVED IT - AMAZING, JUST AMAZING.... THIS BOOK IS PERFECTLY WRITTEN IN DELIGHTFUL PROSE... I WAS WARY AT FIRST BECAUSE I SAW THAT IT WAS TRANSLATED FROM FRENCH AND WAS AFRAID THAT THE STORY WOULD BE LOST IN THE TRANSLATION. NO WAY.... I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS TO THE CHILD SEEKING LOVE IN ALL OF US... THE CHILD WHO WANTS TO LEARN....THE CHILD WHO WANTS TO GROW UP.
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Summary: GREAT QUICK READ
Review: I really enjoyed this little book. It was full of enjoyable, well developed characters and really gave a fantastic look at a small slice of the Cultural Revolution. Even though the book was short, it was full of great imagery. I was surprised by the author's lack of anger in writing about such a traumatic (I assume) part of his own past. The whole book has a bright, hopeful tone and leaves the reader feeling optimistic -- even in the face of a truly bittersweet ending.
Rating: 
Summary: Short and sweet
Review: Sijie Dai has offered us a glimpse into chinese reeducation program under Communism with his first novel, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, which was inspired by his own experiences in the early 1970's. His story follows the mini-adventures of two sons of the bourgoisie who are sent into the farm country of the peasants to learn what it truly means to be Chinese. What we as readers are shown is how the effects of the story, any story, in bringing out the humanity in all of us. This is a book about narration, books, the love of literature, and the power of the written word to entice and liberate.
While I enjoyed this novel for its fable-like quality, the charm of its characters, and even the slow jealousy that boils between the two protaganists, my favorite aspect of it is probably the book's design. Rarely have I wanted to look at a book more than read it. Its typesetting, cover, and paper are superb. This is a book to read, but also one to keep in a paperback library.
Rating:
Summary: A quick easy read
Review: This is another interesting tail of growing up and living in China during the revolutionary chaos of Chairman Mao. If you enjoyed reading books like the autobiography of Henry Pu Yi, "Life and Death in Shanghai" or even "the White Boned Demon", this is a good novel to add to you collection.
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Summary: Not What I Expected!
Review: I loved this book. I couldn't put it down! However, I wanted to give it only four stars because it didn't end the way I expected...at all! (That alone means it deserves five stars!) I was so disappointed, so angry at the ending. I wanted the book to continue for another 200 pages! Alas, that wasn't my decision to make so whether or not the review has four or five stars means nothing because it's still a lovely novel. Sijie's writing is beautifully-descriptive, and he is a wonderful storyteller. His words fill the reader with anticipation of what would become of his character's struggles during their "re-education" in China. All along I couldn't wait to find out what would happen to them. That's why I was so disappointed at the end. I couldn't possibly say what it is. Suffice it to say that it broke my heart. In terms of his style, his descriptions of the narrator's experience with the miller in the mountain (with the lice in particular) were so grotesque, it made me shiver. Again, his descriptions of their labor of carrying dung buckets up the mountain were so real and horrifying. There's a sudden change of narrative to three other characters halfway through the book, which was a nice change of pace. Those three chapters brought the reader directly into another time frame, another setting, as if the reader was in the same room, listening to these characters' stories. The story itself is captivating enough. I found myself dying to know what would happen to the narrator and Luo. Would they finally be able to finish their re-education and leave the fields? What would become of Luo's and the Seamstress' love? Would the Seamstress fall for the narrator? In what other ways would the discovery of Four Eyes' stack of Western classic literature change the course of Luo's and the narrator's lives? One can never guess how this story will end. I look forward to any future work by this author.
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Summary: Intro to the Cultural Revolution 101
Review: This charming book provides an interesting glimpse into China's cultural revolution, told from the perspective of a book-loving child of an intellectual who was shipped off to a remote farming community for "reeducation." It is difficult to imagine a world in which books are contraband and deemed to be detrimental to one's education, but that was how Mao ran the country. This book is short, poignant, and leaves one with a lingering aftertaste.
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Summary: Superficialy Simple, Perhaps It's A Not-So-Hidden Allegory?
Review: Set in the midst of China's Cultural Revolution in 1971, this debut from Sijie (who himself was sent to be reeducated from '71-'74) tells the story of two urban teenage boys who are sent to reeducation camp and the beautiful peasant seamstress they meet and become enamored of. Through a series of semi-adventures the boys end up with a secret cache of translated popular French novels (Balzac, Dumas, et al). As corrupting pieces of bourgeois culture they are dangerous totems to posses. However as tools to engineer mental escape from the mind-numbing rigors of manual labor, they are worth their weight in gold to the boys. One of the boys comes up with the notion that reading these sophisticated and thrilling stories to the seamstress will help improve and transform her beyond her humble roots. And it does, though not in the way that they (or the reader) may expect. On its surface it's a simple tale told in elegant and simple prose. If that were all there were to it, I'd dismiss it as so much fluff, however... there is too much symbolism involved to leave it at that. From the boy's assigned task of hauling pails of excrement up a hill, to the seamstresses encounter with a snake, there are many many indications of another level of meaning. One could make a good case that the one boy symbolizes China's late '90s headlong rush into embracing Western values, and the other boy is his complicit accomplice. Together they use their gift of gab to fill the uneducated peasant girl's head with visions of a world beyond her imagining, via the stories they tell based on the French novels. The one boy plays a game with her of tossing his glittering keychain (symbolic of the riches waiting back in the city) into the water, where she dives for it, scarring her hand in one attempt. But she doesn't learn her lesson, as the boy and temptation lead her to further suffering (she has an abortion). Finally, she is transformed and exhibits the true selfishness necessary to get ahead in the newly urbanizing China. That's just off the top of my head, but I think there's definitely something there, otherwise it's just a cute little story.
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Summary: History with vision and intelligence
Review: This book takes the history of a very complicated and dark time in China and personalizes it with clever, witty and beautiful writing. The narrator and his best friend Luo are sent off to the rural mountains of China to become re-educated by the peasants because they've been found guilty of having middle school educations and coming from middle class families. The narrator is your eye into this world, a world where the China of 1971 is sent hurtling back into the world of the early 19th century. The book speaks to you through a series of hilarious anecdotes. From the opening story of how the narrator manages to keep his violin to the every day objects such as alarm clocks and books that become fodder for the teaching moments throughout the book, these funny moments serve to also give clear examples of just how damaging the Cultural Revolution was. The intense yearning of these two young men, to be free to go back to their old lives and familes in the cities, free from the intense scrutiny and hard physical labor of the mountains, is the personification of what the tens of thousands of young people in their situations must have felt at the time. I read this book in two sittings, it's quick and funny and insightful and the english translation is done in a way that keeps the cadence of the Chinese storytelling.
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