emilietje's review
4.0
DNF, about one third through. Had to read this for an exam and honestly quite liked it. It was nicely written/translated, the morbid descriptions made you feel the way they were supposed to and it gave you a clear image of what the author wanted to show. But the wonder of how much I liked it wore off and reading became tiring because it was so messed up and sad. Maybe one day I'll pick this up again and finish it.
luxxybee97's review
dark
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
3 stars
tl;dr – where were the noodles?
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The back of the edition of The Noodle Maker which I read includes a blurb referring to Ma Jian as the Chinese Milan Kundera, so I was rather excited to give this collection of short stories a bash. It’s a pretty bold claim to live up to, though, and honestly, I don’t feel like this book ever hit the heights necessary to hold on to such acclaim. Ma’s writing certainly has positive traits – it’s laced with acerbic humour, and showcases the personalities of his characters well – but I don’t know if I found the short story format to work that well. For many of the characters, although I got to know them, I don’t feel like I knew them as well as I wanted to by the end of each story, that there was something missing there. Some layers were peeled back, but others remained impenetrable, often so verging into the surreal that the point of each story finds itself hiding in a nebulous cloud. Not bad but not great either.
ssoup's review
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
pavanayi's review
4.0
This was the second time I tried to read the book. I got the book in 2007 and I can't believe that 14 years back, I didn't find this book interesting at all. 14 years back, this book had felt old since it was set right after the Tiananmen Square incident, a past of which I had heard happened, few years after I was born.
This piece of satire, with stories such as that of the talking dog or the owner of the crematorium which played music appropriate for the dead person reminded me of a country that I am familiar with, where the 'West' is allowed commercially and denied culturally with a government that has a chokehold on the very essence of a democracy, an individual's liberty.
Ma Jian's work will resonate with those who live in democracies that are young yet immature, bold yet fragile.
This piece of satire, with stories such as that of the talking dog or the owner of the crematorium which played music appropriate for the dead person reminded me of a country that I am familiar with, where the 'West' is allowed commercially and denied culturally with a government that has a chokehold on the very essence of a democracy, an individual's liberty.
Ma Jian's work will resonate with those who live in democracies that are young yet immature, bold yet fragile.
fedes_library's review
4.0
Through a collection of portraits of different caricatures from 1980s China, Majian delivers a subtle criticism of the CCP's corrupted governance. I really enjoyed reading this book, as all the short stories were well connected to each other and they were well focused on the development of a specific character. Each story presents how Deng's opening policies affect the main character's life. The characters are conceived as the creation of an idealist writer/narrator - Majian himself? - whose only way to escape reality under an authoritarian state is to write. Throughout the novel he dialogues with a blood-merchant, who exemplifies the opposite approach to Chinese everyday life: he thinks that "man needs to delve into life as it is, accepting as normal what he disgusts for the sake of profit, and to satisfy his needs"
Some interesting portraits: A father who desperately wants a son, is 'forced' by the One-Child policy to abandon his retarded daughter; an actress kills herself in public presenting the action as a "new performance from Japan"; an editor whose wife is obsessed with the new liberal reforms is influenced into leaving novel-writing, becoming a trader in the black market; a girl who loses her mind because the size of her breast arouses suspicions of plastic surgery among her colleagues, a dog who starts learning about human culture, eventually killing itself after reading "the reactionary thoughts of Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Freud and Hegel [...] which led him to lose his capacity of judgement".
My favourite story is the one describing a patriotic cremator, who, after hearing that China needs to reduce its population in order to keep its GDP growth rate, decides to promote his crematory as a patriotic industry that is "putting effort into doubling national output by the XXI century". This unhealthy obsession with country's directives leads him to convince his own mum to sacrifice herself in the name of population reduction, eventually cremating with "the internationale" in the background. I found this metaphor very witty, as it criticizes the absurdity of social-engineering projects such as the One-Child policy, and the way people blindly follow the Party's orders.
Some interesting portraits: A father who desperately wants a son, is 'forced' by the One-Child policy to abandon his retarded daughter; an actress kills herself in public presenting the action as a "new performance from Japan"; an editor whose wife is obsessed with the new liberal reforms is influenced into leaving novel-writing, becoming a trader in the black market; a girl who loses her mind because the size of her breast arouses suspicions of plastic surgery among her colleagues, a dog who starts learning about human culture, eventually killing itself after reading "the reactionary thoughts of Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Freud and Hegel [...] which led him to lose his capacity of judgement".
My favourite story is the one describing a patriotic cremator, who, after hearing that China needs to reduce its population in order to keep its GDP growth rate, decides to promote his crematory as a patriotic industry that is "putting effort into doubling national output by the XXI century". This unhealthy obsession with country's directives leads him to convince his own mum to sacrifice herself in the name of population reduction, eventually cremating with "the internationale" in the background. I found this metaphor very witty, as it criticizes the absurdity of social-engineering projects such as the One-Child policy, and the way people blindly follow the Party's orders.
bbpphd's review
2.0
I found this really interesting, but I only made it 2/3 through before I had to stop. The sexism and use of rape just made this something I didn’t want to get through. I’m not saying the author was presenting these things favorably, but I still couldn’t handle it.
phthadani's review
4.0
I really enjoyed this book. It consists of a bunch of surreal and bizarre short story. The author writes about communist china with anger. I wish to read more books about the communist china and maybe read one with a different perspective.
alessiareadsbooks's review
3.0
Lettura difficile. Non adatto a chi é facilmente impressionabile (io non lo sono, però quando si parla di stupri e gente sbranata da una tigre magari mi viene difficile continuare a tratti)
cam_m's review
1.0
Such a disappointment, I expected so much from such a well-known writer. The book is obviously well written but I found it nearly impossible to get through because of the horrible way women are written. Every female character is either a powerless victim or evil, and always subject of unnecessary violence.
Just like the actress says about Kundera "He really must hate women".
Just like the actress says about Kundera "He really must hate women".
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