I love how this book is set during the dark days of the Cultural Revolution in China. Many people suffered through this time especially the educated and wealthy ones. Despite the dark setting, the author managed to inject his own dark humour into this. I was amused and tickled by his satire and it helps cut through the heaviness of what was being discussed.

This story follows Wang Er and the people he has known and how the Cultural Revolution had affected them in ways they could not imagine. Although this was written in the literary fiction style, it consists of many short stories of individuals who are interconnected in one way or another. There is also the love story between Wang Er and Chen Qin Yang as they explore love and sex in a bold way that was forbidden during that period.

Although some of the content was quite absurd, I can’t help but sympathize with the main character’s suffering and also feel dampened by what people were going through during that time. I love how raw and honest his writing is. It can come off as crude but that’s what made this an enjoyable read for me.

Thank you Netgalley and Astra Publishing House for this arc.

A fun, circular, satirical look at the Cultural Revolution and its aftershocks. If you're interested in China's cultural revolution, this for it's time quite candid and sexually liberated novel is the place to go.

Sex as Both Collaboration and Resistance.........

Consider Heller's "Catch 22", or J.P. Donleavy's "The Ginger Man", or any of your other favorite absurdist anti-establishment novels. Sex, alcohol, irony, and deadpan wit illuminate and undermine political, social, authoritarian, bureaucratic, and military repression.

I had my doubts about whether a novel published in 1992 by an obscure, (at the time), Chinese writer was going to be able to make much of a dent in the madness of China's Cultural Revolution. Well rest assured that this bold novel, (really more of a story collection), that mixes sex, defiance, farce, and low humor into an absurd love story, manages to work both as an entertainment and as a fascinating metaphor for China during the last half of the Twentieth Century.

In style, in substance, in its meandering charm, and in its subtle and sneaky impact, this book is a remarkable find and a valuable contribution to the literature of what can only be called "bemused resistance".

(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)