Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
2 journalers for this copy...
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Please journal this book, describing where you found it, and then what you thought of it. You can remain anonymous if you want to, though if you create a screen name you will recieve notification each time someone else journals this book.
When you have finished please release the book and let it continue its journey. Following this books travels can be very fun.
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Dai Sijie, and published in 2000 in French and in English in 2001. Its original French title is Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise.
book description from www.readinggroupguides.com
"In 1971, as Mao's Cultural Revolution swept over China, shutting down universities and banishing "reactionary intellectuals" to the countryside, two teenage boys are sent to live on the remote and unforgiving mountain known as Phoenix in the Sky. Even though the knowledge the narrator and his best friend Luo had acquired in middle school was "precisely nil," they are nevertheless considered dangerous intellectuals and forced to spend their days carrying buckets of excrement up and down the mountain to fertilize the fields. But when they bargain their way into obtaining a forbidden Balzac novel from their friend Four Eyes, a new and dizzyingly vast world opens up to them. Through Balzac, the narrator discovers "awakening desire, passion, impulsive action, love, all the subjects that had, until then, been hidden". And when Luo falls in love with the beautiful Little Seamstress, life and literature come together in a passionate romance. Luo and the narrator plot to steal Four Eyes' suitcase full of books both for their own pleasure and to transform the seamstress from a simple peasant into a sophisticated woman. Their success in doing so, and the unexpected consequences that follow, drive the novel to its stunning, heart-wrenching conclusion.
Part historical novel, part fable, part love story, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a moving testament to the transformative power of literature".
Dai Sijie was born in China in 1954. Because he came from an educated middle-class family, the Maoist government sent him to a reeducation camp in rural Sichuan from 1971 to 1974, during the Cultural Revolution. After his return, he was able to complete high school and university, where he studied art history. In 1984, he left China for France on a scholarship. There, he acquired a passion for movies and became a director. Before turning to writing, he made three critically-acclaimed feature-length films: China, My Sorrow (1989) (original title: Chine, ma douleur), Le mangeur de lune and Tang, le onzième. He also wrote and directed an adaptation of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, released in 2002. He lives in Paris and writes in French.
book description from www.readinggroupguides.com
"In 1971, as Mao's Cultural Revolution swept over China, shutting down universities and banishing "reactionary intellectuals" to the countryside, two teenage boys are sent to live on the remote and unforgiving mountain known as Phoenix in the Sky. Even though the knowledge the narrator and his best friend Luo had acquired in middle school was "precisely nil," they are nevertheless considered dangerous intellectuals and forced to spend their days carrying buckets of excrement up and down the mountain to fertilize the fields. But when they bargain their way into obtaining a forbidden Balzac novel from their friend Four Eyes, a new and dizzyingly vast world opens up to them. Through Balzac, the narrator discovers "awakening desire, passion, impulsive action, love, all the subjects that had, until then, been hidden". And when Luo falls in love with the beautiful Little Seamstress, life and literature come together in a passionate romance. Luo and the narrator plot to steal Four Eyes' suitcase full of books both for their own pleasure and to transform the seamstress from a simple peasant into a sophisticated woman. Their success in doing so, and the unexpected consequences that follow, drive the novel to its stunning, heart-wrenching conclusion.
Part historical novel, part fable, part love story, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a moving testament to the transformative power of literature".
Dai Sijie was born in China in 1954. Because he came from an educated middle-class family, the Maoist government sent him to a reeducation camp in rural Sichuan from 1971 to 1974, during the Cultural Revolution. After his return, he was able to complete high school and university, where he studied art history. In 1984, he left China for France on a scholarship. There, he acquired a passion for movies and became a director. Before turning to writing, he made three critically-acclaimed feature-length films: China, My Sorrow (1989) (original title: Chine, ma douleur), Le mangeur de lune and Tang, le onzième. He also wrote and directed an adaptation of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, released in 2002. He lives in Paris and writes in French.
Quote from text: “Picture, if you will, a boy of nineteen, still slumbering in the limbo of adolescence, having heard nothing but revolutionary blather about patriotism, communism, idealology and propaganda all his life, falling headlong into a story of awakening desire, passion, impulsive action, love, of all subjects that had, until then, been hidden from me.”
I would hate to live in a world where I could not just pick up and read any book that I wanted to and so reading this made me think about just how lucky I am. Books can open up a whole new world and enable you to see there is more to life that what you presently have – as the little seamstress discovered.
I enjoyed this little book and finished it one afternoon in almost one sitting.
I would hate to live in a world where I could not just pick up and read any book that I wanted to and so reading this made me think about just how lucky I am. Books can open up a whole new world and enable you to see there is more to life that what you presently have – as the little seamstress discovered.
I enjoyed this little book and finished it one afternoon in almost one sitting.
Book details: paperback, 172 pages, 13cm x 20cm x 1.4cm, 166g.
This book has been released to raise awareness of LUCIA, a small charity which supports women and orphans in Ethiopia. BookCrossers around the world are taking part in a challenge in September 2010, where we will be releasing hundreds of books with a word relating to women's roles, or women's names in the title. If you would like to donate to this worthwhile charity, please click here. Thank you for your interest in this book and LUCIA!
This book has been released to raise awareness of LUCIA, a small charity which supports women and orphans in Ethiopia. BookCrossers around the world are taking part in a challenge in September 2010, where we will be releasing hundreds of books with a word relating to women's roles, or women's names in the title. If you would like to donate to this worthwhile charity, please click here. Thank you for your interest in this book and LUCIA!
Posted to mafarrimond. I did not send the book before as I was sending lots your way and did not want you to feel inundated. The only other person interested was Esme-Weatherwax, who did not want it for several months anyway.
Take your time, then pass on to Esme-Weatherwax who can then release it in any way she wishes.
Take your time, then pass on to Esme-Weatherwax who can then release it in any way she wishes.
Received today. Thanks, I am really looking forward to reading this one.
Strange to think I was a similar age to the Little Seamstress in the time the book was set! The difference in life style couldn't be greater.
I loved the book.
I loved the book.
