09 Apr / Someone to Talk to by Liu Zhenyun, translated by Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Li-chun Lin [in Library Journal]
Knowing each other’s stories – even the most private details – doesn’t equate with the true intimacy of having “someone to talk to.” The two distinct sections of Liu’s (Remembering 1942) latest Anglophone-friendly novel present two such lonely men whose seemingly unrelated lives share a similar longing for sustained connection and empathic understanding.
The first half introduces teenager Yang Baishun, a tofu peddler’s son who repeatedly reinvents himself as unconvincing Christian convert Moses Yang, henpecked husband Moses Wu, and desperate fugitive Luo Changli. The second half fast-forwards six decades to 35-year-old Niu Aiguo, whose aging mother begins to share the “favorite stories from her 60 years of life” that will inevitably connect Niu back to Yang’s lost past.
Originally published in 2009 and seamlessly translated by award-winning, prodigious translators Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Li-chun Lin, Liu’s prestigious Mao Dun Literary Prize winner is the inaugural title in Duke’s “Sinotheory” series, which will “include theoretically informed analyses of Chinese cultural phenomena” and fiction. Dense with dozens of interwoven narratives of living through pre- and post-Mao China, Liu’s scathing and illuminating tome is highly recommended for internationally savvy fans of Mo Yan, Yu Hua, and Yan Lianke.
Review: “Fiction,” Library Journal, April 1, 2018
Readers: Adult
Published: 2009 (China), 2018 (United States)