Rating: 
Summary: Beautifully Written!!
Review: Bought this book at a whim and did not wish to read it for a long long time, till I picked it up and then could not stop until I had reached the very last page. Sijie's first novel or rather novella (considering it is only something like 184 pages long) begins with the Chinese Revolution headed by General Mao and the concept of "re-education" - as a result of which two teenagers are transported to an ancient village away from civilization. No one being re-educated is permitted to read any books excepting the little book of sayings written by Chairman Mao. It is when, through a series of events, they obtain a book written by Balzac (the reading of which is now a crime) that suddenly the world of literature and of ideas abruptly opens to them. They are so hungry for more that all they can do is dream (and scheme) about getting other such books. They later meet the third primary character in this book, the very beautiful young seamstress, and, by relating to her the words of Balzac, produce in her too the desire for more such words and thoughts. She is as hungry for new stories and ideas as are the two boys. Luo, now in love with the girl, wants to obtain more books for her, not only to please her but also to raise her up from her lack of education to become something other than the peasant girl she is (albeit a beautiful one). In that desire to "re-educate" the girl he loves resides their ultimate future. This is a wonderful story about relationships and love, about the buoyancy of youthful souls thrown into the cold and potentially drowning waters of very trying circumstances, and, lastly, about the need for those things in our lives that stir our imaginations to life and so generate fresh desires and new dreams within us. It is the stirring of human imagination that ultimately changes the world.
Rating: 
Summary: An ironic, personal re-education
Review: The narrator (17 at the time of the story) and his best friend, Luo, (18) have been sent to the country to be re-educated...what they must endure and the creative ways they come up with to get through those challenges, makes for a captivating read. The two teens are spunky, have a sense of humor, and retain their love for free thought, music, books and authors throughout their political "re-education," becoming storytellers themselves to their village and others who visit their village, as well as to the Little Seamstress. While there are indeed funny moments in the book, as a book-lover, what happens to the Little Seamstress, and ultimately, to the two boys and their treasures, tugged at my heart quite a bit...I was quite saddened by the irony of the re-education they put themselves through: the boys, especially Luo, had a certain concept in their minds about books, and about people who are not well-read not being somehow as esteemed as themselves; by trying to change the Little Seamstress into something else, they were re-educated about the idea that "unread" people are somehow less valuable (they're not less valuable), and they lost something they loved along the way to that lesson.
Rating:
Summary: A PERFECT book
Review: Dai Sijie's magnificent novel about the Chinese Cultural Revolution, is perfect. I started out reading this book with no clue what so ever of what the Cultural Revolution was. After the first few chapters I knew enough to get me through the rest of the book. After reading the book a second time, I have truly picked up the magic in it. Dai Sijie tells about two teenage boys, never experiencing great literature, then suddenly finding a suitcase full of western and European books. Reading them they fall in love with the authors and characters, then set about trying to make a mountain girl into a sophisticated city girl. The ending is miraculous, and is in itself just like one of the movies that Luo retells. I reccomend this book to everyone I know.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Read
Review: A read that you will remember for quite a while, this novel was great. I enjoyed reading the intricacies of the boy's chores. At times the details were quite disturbing, but they helped bring the story to life. I would recommend this read highly!
Rating:
Summary: Unputdownable !
Review: Read it in one sitting within 24 hours of buying. Author has a remarkable flair for storytelling just like other recent English writers of Chinese origin Ha Jin (In the pond, Waiting) and Adeline Yen Mah (Falling Leaves, Chinese Cinderalla). Having myself grown up during adolescence in a remote part of India on a staple diet of western classics including Russian authors like Tolstoy and Chekov, I could empathise with the characters savouring Balzac in translation notwithstanding the cultural disconnect. I also felt guilty that unlike the characters of this book, two boys denounced during Mao's cultural revolution, just for having the wrong parents; I was privileged to be growing up in a free, albeit third world country with access to a decent public library in my own cozy home town. As the Econimist has rightly said in the blurb, this book is "A paean to the magic of literature" and "A true book lover's book" (pun intended). The little Seamstress had the last word in this 21st Century French novel written by a Chinese author, ..she had learnt one thing from Balzac: that a woman's beauty is a treasure beyond price !! This tells us that Dumas,Mozart,Balzac or Beethoven transcend man made national boundaries while pollinating intellectuual curiosity of adolescents of the global village.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful story!
Review: This fine book tells the story of two young men, boys really, who are sent to the countryside for "re-education" during the Chinese cultural revolution. Vivid, evocative story-telling at its best, the book is almost impossible to put down. I read it in one sitting -- unable to stop! I was reminded somewhat of Zola's naturalism, what with the descriptions of carrying excrement up the mountain. And what could top the scene where the village headman demands that one of the boys perform a root canal procedure on him, because the boy's father is a dentist? Ouch! The description of the sewing machine/drill, and the slimy, yellow tongue of the headman was just so well done! And the end of the book -- what a surprise, and how perfect it was. I would be amazed if this writer doesn't become one of the greats! This is novel writing at its best!
Rating:
Summary: Short and sweet
Review: A charming tale. After the first chapter, I knew it was going to be a good read, and I was not disappointed. I loved the humorous and touching (but not sappy) storytelling - it definitely took me to a different time and place the couple of hours it took to read the book. Though the author did not go too deeply into the characters' lives outside of the setting of the story (the villages of Phoenix mountain in Mao Zedong's China) he did offer a colorful and vivid look into an exciting and life-changing time in their lives. I highly recommend this enjoyable book if you are looking for a quick paced, lighthearted and entertaining story. This one is a gem!
Rating:
Summary: A sorta fairytale
Review: In the early 1970s, two young men are sent to the remote countryside as part of Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution plan that affects thousands. There the narrator and his best friend Luo will be "re-educated" by the peasants. At first there is little to detract from the monotonous hardships, but soon they meet the beautiful daughter of the local tailor. When the men discover a hidden cache of Western classics in Chinese translation, the stage is set for transformation, as the men reconnect to the outside world and the little seamstress is seduced by Luo and his storytelling. Dai's glorious story enchants the reader with its tale of romance, the power of literature, and the spark of seeing beyond the horizon for the first time. The book is a delight one will wish to experience all over again.
Rating:
Summary: A surprisingly charming coming of age story
Review: "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress" is a sweet, short and whimsical little coming of age story. That it happens to be set during China's Cultural Revolution and revolves around sent-down educated youth is incidental, which is a refreshing change. One of the editorial reviews labels this a "moving, often wrenching novel"; that it is neither is what makes it so appealing. Dai Sijie's lovely novel is a departure from most the "scar literature" about the Cultural Revolution in so many refreshing ways. The genre is saturated by epic-length wallow fests, equal parts suffering, self-importance and appeal-to-Western-readers exotica. "Balzac" is simple, unpretentious, strait-forward and humorous. The tragic overtones of the time are mentioned passingly and straightforwardly, as through the eyes of a youth more concerned with his own affairs than of the nation convulsing around him. Yet its tragedy is so much more moving with such a sparing brush than those that linger morbidly to flesh out all the gory details. The story is told through the eyes of a sent-down youth and his bosom buddy Luo. They are typical teenagers, at once cocky and nervous, at first thrown in over their heads in the small village they are assigned to, but soon figuring things out well enough to manipulate the system, and usually get away with it. Much humor is made through the village headman's infatuation with Luo's alarm clock, the first such thing to ever be seen in the town, and how they use the villages blind trust in its accuracy to steal extra hours of morning sleep. The central characters are not paragons of virtue, and often downright unsympathetic, which makes the plot the more engaging and realistic. With teenage boy duplicity, they both vie to seduce the prettiest girl in the village, the seamstress of the title. Luo's talent for storytelling had won them the task of going to town to see movies and then come back and reenact them for the rest of the village, and first courts the seamstress with his movie tales. After a friend of theirs, another sent-down youth and the child of writers, grudgingly loans them a Balzac book, Luo discovers that French romanticism gets him further with the girl than Korean Communist propaganda. After much plotting, they steal their friend's secret suitcase of banned Western novels, leading to the book's central conflict: Luo's forbidden affair with the seamstress, and the trio's forbidden love affair with literature. In the average Cultural Revolution tale, these love affairs would end disastrously. Perhaps playfully alluding to the cliches of the genre, Dai foreshadows such a romantically tragic ending. What happens instead hilariously cements the book as a solidly realistic and cynical portrait of China and of human nature. It's interesting to note the disparity between the emigrant Chinese writers who went to France and who went to Anglophone countries. While most of the latter, apart from a few notable exceptions, are horrendous writers, those who migrated to France, such as Gao Xingjian and Dai, have honed an elegant literary fusion. This harks back to the 1920s and '30s, when most of the best Chinese writers and artists studied in France. I don't know much about France, but it always does good things to the Chinese. "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress" is also a physical pleasure to read, with its flowing old typeface, small size and the elegant cover that lured me in despite my dislike of its genre. In absolute terms, "Balzac" only deserves four stars, but compared to the other books in its genre, which get so many undeserved raves from naive readers who wouldn't know China from Cochinchina, it is definitely a gem.
Rating: 
Summary: Easy read, but didn't love it
Review: I found the book to be a bit Eurocentric. The foreign books opened up a new world to the two boys, it made the Western world seem so great, yet if they were to have found a box of classical Chinese books, the results could have been same. Of course the tragedy of the culture revolution cannot be overlooked; neither can the beauty and stories of the Chinese history. I also thought the story didn't develop enough, especially at the end. Dai very sloppy did not handle the little seamstress' distress nor did he explain what happened between the two friends as a result of what took place. Towards the end, loose ends were gathered up too hastily and left me unsatisfied.
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