so the book contains three stories. each story has multiple POVs and many characters witch sometimes could be confusing, AND makes it hard to write a review! I found the stories uplifting and inspiring. specially the second one, where two young kids follow a criminal into a lake and then encounter a giant fishman. just set my imagination running.
the book is well written and the translation was really good and acceptable for me. I do recommend reading the translator's note at the beginning of the book, it does help to understand the atmosphere much better.
overall I will recommend this book to all my friends for sure.

thanks to NetGalley and the publisher (Henry Holt & Co) for providing me a copy of this impressing book.

4 stars

Three masterfully written, interconnected novellas map the stories of a few Chinese families across generations, from the cultural revolution to the 1990’s. I really enjoyed this book!

[What I liked:]

•The characters are sympathetic with unique voices & motivations. I enjoyed getting to know them from various angles & perspectives.

•The narrative structure isn’t linear (switching between character POV’s, 1st & 3rd person, & with some jumps in chronology). However, this didn’t make the stories hard for me to follow. Rather, this structure allows crucial details to be revealed at key moments, changing the shape of past events in retrospect. It’s skillfully done!

•The stories are touching, at turns tragic & triumphant. There is inexplicable loss, revenge, redemption, childhood innocence, regret, hope for the future, & loyalty against great odds & pressures. The tragedies are understated, or rather, plainly stated, avoiding sentimentalism. The portrayals of human experience & feeling across time & through various characters’s eyes ring true.

[What I didn’t like as much:]

•In the third story, I got a bit lost on who was related to who & how. That’s mainly my fault, since I was listening to an audiobook & probably could have kept them straight if I saw them on paper. However, part of it was due to similar storylines in the interconnected novellas (mothers abandoning children, fathers losing jobs, etc.)

CW: physical assault, domestic violence, child abuse, murder, suicide

[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]

A strange but mesmerizing collection of short stories. While I can’t say that any of these stories blew me away, at the same time, I was not utterly let down by any of them.

This was an interesting book, and good audio. It was three novellas and each was quite different. The Chinese author, Shuang Xuetao is outside of my normal reading but was a very creative and well written book. Even though it was translated I felt like it was well versed.

I got to the second story and figured out that I’m not a fan of short stories. It can be because I’m a huge lover of well developed characters. Not many short stories develop characters well enough to feel connected to. The writing style didn’t help either. I felt like I was trudging through these stories.

Three quite clever, eventful, evocative, plot-driven novellas set in a snowy and grey city of Northern China.

I only had the audiobook and have to say it was challenging to follow the storylines when not seeing the Chinese names written out. The narrator is not bad, but the writing style is rather factual so that in the space of two sentences several important developments can take place. I found myself going back 30 seconds all the time. A physical copy would have come in handy. My dramatic knowledge of the Cultural Revolution didn't help either.

Still, it was a worthwhile reading experience, I am happy to finally have read something by a modern Chinese author and would definitely recommend (a physical copy) it to people with in an interest in China.

A very interesting and well-written collection of stories, although I had trouble recognizing when a story finished and another started. Now that a couple of days have passed, I also realize it was quite forgattable.

This is a unique short story collection. I had trouble knowing when the new story started and when the other ended. I wish there was a different narrator or some kind of obvious break that the story ended. The last story was the most interesting out of all the three stories.

Rouge Street presents its readers with three novellas by Shuang Xuetao which have been translated by Jeremy Tiang who once again has done a stellar job. The prose of these novellas is smooth and engaging, contrasting with the sometimes stark realities experienced by the characters populating these stories. The backdrop to most of these stories is Shenyang, which the author renders in gritty realism. The characters struggle to find stable employment and fulfilment as they attempt to navigate a perilous social and economic landscape. Many experiences or are close to people affected by poverty, addiction, and domestic violence. Some find themselves embroiled in murky businesses, while others attempt to make their dreams come true even when the cards are stacked against them. An element of magical realism reminiscent of the work Murakami comes into play in some of these narratives, lending an air of surreality to many of the events and scenes being described. The humor present in many of the character interactions also made me think of Murakami’s books, as Xuetao effectively incorporates humorous asides or funny lines into his otherwise bleak narratives. These moments of levity also add to the surreal, occasionally dreamy, atmosphere of these stories. The author's insights into contemporary Chinese society also are characterised by an almost rueful tone, one that lends itself to his novellas' subject matter(s). The family dynamics were lively and I appreciated how the author establishes generational gaps without resorting to the usual clichès.

What I struggled with was the shift in perspectives. I have never been a fan of shifts between 1st and 3rd povs, and here I sometimes had difficulties telling who was speaking and their connection to the other pov. To be fair, this issue I had may have something to do with the fact that I listened to the audiobook version of this collection. I think I would have been able to follow the storylines better if I’d read it for myself. I will probably revisit Rouge Street as I would like to gain a more in-depth understanding of its novellas.
15 likes

DNFing - the writing and audio was beautiful, but I just couldn't get into it. I'll edit this review if I decide to go back and reread it.

Two good novellas and “Moses on The Plain” which is transcendent. A very straightforward, matter of fact writing style that reminds of Steinbeck talking about the down and out citizens of a changing country. Just transport those stories of people being left behind by society from early 20th century America to late 20th century China arising from communism to a freer market.