The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

TK

Eileen Battersby:

Always worth heeding is Chinese satirist Yan Lianke, who is banned in his homeland and is also a potential Nobel laureate. Shortlisted last year for The Four Books, here he is again with The Explosion Chronicles (translated by Carlos Rojas). Set in a village community initially established by survivors of a natural disaster, Yan loves juxtaposing the natural with the evil of men.

He is very funny and fearless, as seen in The Four Books and the excellent Dream of Ding Village (2009; 2011), in which he castigated the Chinese government over an Aids epidemic caused when injections of plasma are used to prevent anaemia.

I have just started this work since it is one of the few available on Kindle in the US. I am never sure whether to read introductions in a new work (as they can be boring or include spoilers) but decided to go with the one by translator Carlos Rojas and I must say it is excellent.

Rojas refers to the history of Chinese literature as a way to "vent frustration" with an interesting discussion starting with a writer in 99 BCE who underwent unbelievable torture to be able to finish his work (rather than committing suicide as most in his position would choose).

Rojas also gets into some of the "knitty-gritty" of translation that I always wonder about in explaining why he chose to translate some of the units of time,weight and length into the English equivalent and leave some in the Chinese version.

He discusses the fantastical elements (which I sometimes have trouble accepting) and how they interplay with reality in fiction, and lastly he explained the structure of the novel, which involves a "meta-textual" preface and postface by a fictional author.

Reading this introduction has made me much more enthusiastic to start this long and unfamiliar novel and the translator has already gained points from this reader!

Sent from my iPad

Sounds great. I wasn't so interested in this novel but try and read the Kindle samples of all of the longlist - looking forward to this introduction now and its material on Chinese literature.

After reading (and writing about) the translator's introduction to this book yesterday I started to read it. What a pleasant surprise it was and I am already halfway through. After getting the Chinese names straight (had to make a cheat sheet) I felt like I was able to "gallop along" with the reading of it. Yes, I did catch the satirical and symbolic elements (mainly natural objects changing instantaneously to match the mood of the events) but it is mostly an event-driven story that seems to move with the pace and tone of a roadrunner cartoon. There is even a gross but hilarious execution scene in the first 50 pages.

The many satirical elements about the Chinese fixation on money can be summed up in one of the main character's advice to his followers: "As long as you can earn money, then apart from murder and arson there is nothing you shouldn't be willing to do". The length to which the characters take this advice is what the story is built on. Money as a physical object is even revered as evidenced by a wardrobe sewn from the paper variety!

No, I don't think this book will or should be on the longlist, but it makes a great warmup read to the more serious reading I am sure to encounter with the other contenders, 2 of which are waiting at the library (the Israeli ones), and the others of which are winging their way from the UK.

Thanks for your thoughts, Peg!

Trevor wrote: "Thanks for your thoughts, Peg!"

Why thanks, that seems like high praise indeed coming from you and the other moderator! This is the second year I have attempted to read the long lists from both the MBI and BTBA and I realized I would gain more from the experience if I wrote about it.

I must say that after just a couple years of reading translated fiction, the all-English prize lists seem a bit Blah, so I find more and more of my reading is from international sources. I have followed your and the shadow panel's blogs and find that a great source for suggestions. I am looking forward to having a place to discuss my thoughts on this interesting lists of books. Now back to the village, town, CITY of EXPLOSION in mainland China!

Pretty much with Anya and Peg on this one. I wasn't that impressed with The Four Books (which I'd read prior to the 2016 MBI) but I appreciated more what he was doing with this one and I though the "mythorealism" was more suited to the topic, even if I am not convinced that Yan has invented a new literary form to rank alongside the innovations of Kafka and Garcia Marquez.

A solid longlistee and on the fringes of the shortlist for me.

Slow-going but definitely worth the read!

As with most satirical books, I found that the character's lacked any real depth - or at least they did for me. They were interesting enough to read about but I don't think they can stand out on their own without their world -- which I guess is the point but I didn't particularly like that aspect.

I also agree with Anya's point - it did drag on at points for me as well.

It certainly interested me enough though to check out Yan Lianke's book from last year's Booker International shortlist!

I've just finished and I have to admit it's just not my type of book. In my review, I commented that the story felt a bit forced to me - pushed through some hoops so that the allegories would fit. I guess that's being a bit harsh, but it was my reaction to reading it.

I think it would be an entirely different book if I were at all knowledgeable about Chinese history, so I should be careful what I say as I am probably revealing my ignorance more than making a sound criticism of the book!

Very dull, a waste of a longlist space. I've been very careful not to discuss the prize here too much, but I think I can safely say that this will not be on my shortlist ;)