BALZAC -- THOUGHTS

I keep trying to justify why The Emperor's Children didn't fully resonate with me, and I think I know why now: the characters I really felt invested in didn't receive full voices. I'm sure that this was the authorial intent, but it leaves me feeling unsatisfied. Why do people who are patient and loving such wallflowers in these narrative-based novels? In life?

I've also finished Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress--really short read--and was charmed by it. The writing is powerful: I really did feel the emotions as the protagonist was describing them: incredibly vivid and at times, even frightening. However, I think the biggest flaw was author Sijie himself. I remain confused about what Sijie was trying to articulate about gender and social class differences and how I was supposed to interpret these themes. In Balzac, the protagonists' best friend, Luo, makes a girlfriend in the mountains where they are being "re-educated" during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Luo, whose parents are intellecutals, is determined to "civilize" his girlfriend. In the end (SPOILER!), she runs away, and I feel as if Sijie is vindicated by this surprise, but I still feel that his unnamed protagonist is not: there is no objection to these "civilization" projects or an ironic awareness that the two are being forced the same process by the government. Sijie leaves the remnants of too many plot twists unexplained, so that their effects are lessend. In addition, there are three chapters that for some reason take on the voices of three different characters. Whereas this works in other novels (Beloved), there is no real need for this here. What does it do for the story? What does the gift of storytelling (which is what much of the novel is concerned with) bestow on each person?What would have been the effect had the protagonist continued from his perspective? Some more careful editing and fleshing out of the characters would have made Balzac much more poignant, and important, even through its apparent comedy.

currently listening to:
Bingo
M.I.A.

currently stressing out about:
Shakespeare essay :(

xoxo Tiffany