{"id":18075,"date":"2012-10-02T10:34:51","date_gmt":"2012-10-02T14:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/?p=18075"},"modified":"2019-01-16T20:33:43","modified_gmt":"2019-01-17T01:33:43","slug":"lenins-kisses-by-yan-lianke-translated-by-carlos-rojas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/lenins-kisses-by-yan-lianke-translated-by-carlos-rojas\/","title":{"rendered":"Lenin&#8217;s Kisses by Yan Lianke, translated by Carlos Rojas [in Library Journal]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/10\/Lenins-Kisses.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-27111 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/10\/Lenins-Kisses-545x800.jpeg\" alt=\"Lenin's Kisses\" width=\"545\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/10\/Lenins-Kisses-545x800.jpeg 545w, https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/10\/Lenins-Kisses-800x1174.jpeg 800w, https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2012\/10\/Lenins-Kisses.jpeg 817w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 545px) 100vw, 545px\" \/><\/a>Yan Lianke\u2019s latest (<a href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/dream-of-ding-village-by-yan-lianke-translated-by-cindy-carter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dream of Ding Village<\/a>, <em>Serve the People!<\/em>) arrives superbly translated by Duke professor <a href=\"http:\/\/asianmideast.duke.edu\/people?subpage=profile&amp;Gurl=\/aas\/AMES&amp;Uil=cr113\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Carlos Rojas<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0auspiciously stamped with China\u2019s Lao She Literary Award.<\/p>\n<p>Welcome to Liven, a mountainous haven populated by the disabled who enjoy bountiful lives, so remote as to have avoided governmental controls since its legendary Ming dynasty founding. Liven \u2013 from a local word meaning &#8220;enjoyment, happiness, and passion&#8221; \u2013 joins the &#8220;new society&#8221; after an injured Mao Zhi, the Red Army\u2019s youngest female soldier, settles there and becomes the de facto village leader. Half a century later, Liven\u2019s citizens play a pivotal role in a county official\u2019s ludicrous scheme to buy Lenin\u2019s embalmed remains from Russia, and re-entomb them in a tourist-destination mausoleum of magnificent proportions.<\/p>\n<p>Reading this work requires physical participation of turning sections back and forth (e-reader not recommended) as Yan presents his nonlinear, multi-layered narrative in books, chapters, and essential endnotes \u2013 using only odd numbers. Notes Rojas: &#8220;[T]he work\u2019s discontinuous numbering expresses the tragic sentiment of the novel as a whole (since in China odd numbers are considered inauspicious).&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Verdict<\/strong>: Sprawling, comical, and calamitous, <em>Kisses<\/em> is not for the faint-hearted (humanity rarely fares well in Yan\u2019s fiction) or the impatient. Diligent readers will be richly rewarded.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Review<\/strong>: <a href=\"http:\/\/reviews.libraryjournal.com\/2012\/10\/books\/fiction\/fiction-reviews-october-1-2012\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">&#8220;Fiction,&#8221; <em>Library Journal<\/em>, October 1, 2012<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n<p><strong>Published<\/strong>: 2012 (United States)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yan Lianke\u2019s latest (Dream of Ding Village, Serve the People!) arrives superbly translated by Duke professor Carlos Rojas\u00a0and\u00a0auspiciously stamped with China\u2019s Lao She Literary Award. Welcome to Liven, a mountainous haven populated by the disabled who enjoy bountiful lives, so remote as to have avoided&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,67,6,6535,66],"tags":[6608,1573,22,128,10,68,123,1574,70,28,1575],"class_list":["post-18075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-chinese","category-fiction","category-repost","category-translation","tag-bookdragon","tag-carlos-rojas","tag-civil-rights","tag-cultural-revolution-in-china","tag-family","tag-haves-vs-have-nots","tag-illness","tag-lenins-kisses","tag-library-journal","tag-politics","tag-yan-lianke"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Lenin&#039;s Kisses by Yan Lianke, translated by Carlos Rojas [in Library Journal] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/lenins-kisses-by-yan-lianke-translated-by-carlos-rojas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lenin&#039;s Kisses by Yan Lianke, translated by Carlos Rojas [in Library Journal] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yan Lianke\u2019s latest (Dream of Ding Village, Serve the People!) arrives superbly translated by Duke professor Carlos Rojas\u00a0and\u00a0auspiciously stamped with China\u2019s Lao She Literary Award. 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