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A review by jasonfurman
Years of Red Dust: Stories of Shanghai by Qiu Xiaolong
4.0
This short story cycle is set in what I believe is a fictional street, Red Dust Lane, in Shanghai. The stories are each labeled with a year -- starting in 1949 and ending in 2005. They all begin with prefatory material "This is the last issue of The Red Dust Lane Blackboard Newsletter for the year XXXX" which serves as a frame for the story that follows, generally a simple story of the local residents, often with their daily lives shaped by the massive events around them.
By themselves, none of the individual stories are outstanding. But the whole is greater the sum of the parts and collectively they form an enchanting social history of modern urban China. They have a certain rhythm and repetition that grows on you, with a few repeated characters and, in at least two cases, a follow-up story set several decades after the original.
By themselves, none of the individual stories are outstanding. But the whole is greater the sum of the parts and collectively they form an enchanting social history of modern urban China. They have a certain rhythm and repetition that grows on you, with a few repeated characters and, in at least two cases, a follow-up story set several decades after the original.