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A review by pharmadelica
Shifu, You'll Do Anything for a Laugh by Mo Yan
3.0
This book wasn't as tedious for me as it seems to have been for other people, but there were definitely stickier parts.
The first story is great. Yan's thematic through-lines are all present, and the plotting is great. Everything moves efficiently between beats but never in a way that feels like it's sacrificing any detail. Loved everyone getting laid off from the factory and becoming "entrepreneurs" after, very familiar these days.
The rest of the stories are fine. My biggest gripe is that, in trying to portray the desperation I think Yan is trying to portray, he often makes all of his characters seems like bad people. Maybe poverty makes "bad people" out of everyone in a game of survival, but it just felt like a lot sometimes. His plotting also becomes very strange. Shifu ends with a sort of "bang" or "twist" one liner, which is fine given that it feels substantial in other portions. All the middle stories do this as well, though, without being very interesting in their own right. In a way, this kind of makes things get old? I don't know.
On the whole, though, this book shines where it shines. If you are interested in (albeit, pretty biased) 20th century Chinese history, black comedy, magical realism, and a bit of a cynical look at group psychology, it's worth a look.
The first story is great. Yan's thematic through-lines are all present, and the plotting is great. Everything moves efficiently between beats but never in a way that feels like it's sacrificing any detail. Loved everyone getting laid off from the factory and becoming "entrepreneurs" after, very familiar these days.
The rest of the stories are fine. My biggest gripe is that, in trying to portray the desperation I think Yan is trying to portray, he often makes all of his characters seems like bad people. Maybe poverty makes "bad people" out of everyone in a game of survival, but it just felt like a lot sometimes. His plotting also becomes very strange. Shifu ends with a sort of "bang" or "twist" one liner, which is fine given that it feels substantial in other portions. All the middle stories do this as well, though, without being very interesting in their own right. In a way, this kind of makes things get old? I don't know.
On the whole, though, this book shines where it shines. If you are interested in (albeit, pretty biased) 20th century Chinese history, black comedy, magical realism, and a bit of a cynical look at group psychology, it's worth a look.