25 Feb / The Noodle Maker: A Novel by Ma Jian, translated by Flora Drew [in AsianWeek]
In the wake of the devastation caused by the Cultural Revolution and the government corruptions of the Open Door Policy, the Chinese people can do little more than just survive – and some are unable to do even that. While sharing a weekly dinner, a writer and a professional blood donor begin the evening recounting their lives, and talk deep through the night as the writer tells the very stories he dare not commit to pen and paper. In the sometimes odd, always intriguing, interconnected stories that follow, the writer’s unwritten creations include a young man who builds a prosperous cremation business with a pottery kiln, a frustrated actress who stages her own suicide, a has-been editor who escapes his overbearing wife with would-be women writers, and a professional letter writer who pens the words others cannot.
Review: “New and Notable Books,” AsianWeek, February 25, 2005
Readers: Adult
Published: 2005 (United States)