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The Day the Sun Died
The reality of life in China today contrasts with the sunny optimism of the 'Chinese dream' in this gripping, gruesome dystopia from 'one of the masters of modern Chinese literature' (Jung Chang)
One dusk in early June, in a town deep in the Balou mountains, fourteen-year-old Li Niannian notices that something strange is going on. As the residents would usually be settling down for the night, instead they start appearing in the streets and fields. There are people everywhere.
Li Niannian watches, mystified. But then he realises the people are dreamwalking, carrying on with their daily business as if the sun hadn’t already gone down. And before too long, as more and more people succumb, in the black of night all hell breaks loose.
Set over the course of one night, The Day the Sun Died pits chaos and darkness against the sunny optimism of the ‘Chinese dream’ promoted by President Xi Jinping. We are thrown into the middle of an increasingly strange and troubling waking nightmare as Li Niannian and his father struggle to save the town, and persuade the beneficent sun to rise again.
Praise for Yan Lianke's books
‘Nothing short of a masterpiece’ Guardian
‘A hyper-real tour de force, a blistering condemnation of political corruption and excess’ Financial Times
‘Mordant satire from a brave fabulist’ Daily Mail
‘Exuberant and imaginative’ Sunday Times
‘I can think of few better novelists than Yan, with his superlative gifts for storytelling and penetrating eye for truth’ New York Times Book Review
One dusk in early June, in a town deep in the Balou mountains, fourteen-year-old Li Niannian notices that something strange is going on. As the residents would usually be settling down for the night, instead they start appearing in the streets and fields. There are people everywhere.
Li Niannian watches, mystified. But then he realises the people are dreamwalking, carrying on with their daily business as if the sun hadn’t already gone down. And before too long, as more and more people succumb, in the black of night all hell breaks loose.
Set over the course of one night, The Day the Sun Died pits chaos and darkness against the sunny optimism of the ‘Chinese dream’ promoted by President Xi Jinping. We are thrown into the middle of an increasingly strange and troubling waking nightmare as Li Niannian and his father struggle to save the town, and persuade the beneficent sun to rise again.
Praise for Yan Lianke's books
‘Nothing short of a masterpiece’ Guardian
‘A hyper-real tour de force, a blistering condemnation of political corruption and excess’ Financial Times
‘Mordant satire from a brave fabulist’ Daily Mail
‘Exuberant and imaginative’ Sunday Times
‘I can think of few better novelists than Yan, with his superlative gifts for storytelling and penetrating eye for truth’ New York Times Book Review
352 pages, Paperback
First published December 24, 2015
About the author
Yan Lianke
68 books456 followersYan Lianke (simplified Chinese: 阎连科; traditional Chinese: 閻連科; pinyin: Yán Liánkē; Wade–Giles: Yen Lien-k'e, born 1958) is a Chinese writer of novels and short stories based in Beijing. His work is highly satirical, which has resulted in some of his most renowned works being banned.
He started writing in 1978 and his works include: Xia Riluo (夏日落), Serve the People (为人民服务), Enjoyment (受活), and Dream of Ding Village (丁庄梦). He has also published more than ten volumes of short stories. Enjoyment, which was published in 2004, received wide acclaim in China. His literature has been published in various nations, and some of his works have been banned in China.
(Wikipedia)
He started writing in 1978 and his works include: Xia Riluo (夏日落), Serve the People (为人民服务), Enjoyment (受活), and Dream of Ding Village (丁庄梦). He has also published more than ten volumes of short stories. Enjoyment, which was published in 2004, received wide acclaim in China. His literature has been published in various nations, and some of his works have been banned in China.
(Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 181 reviews
April 20, 2020
In 2012, President Xi Jinping first talked about "the Chinese Dream", a concept that aims to translate the American Dream into Chinese cultural concepts and, by that, is meant to capture a specifically Chinese version of the strife for success, prosperity and happiness. Author Yan Lianke knows that the line between a dream and a nightmare can be a thin one, and that dreams might give free reign to our subconscious urges and fears. "The Day the Sun Died" is his novel about the Chinese dream, and, as many of Yan Lianke's satirical and critical works, the book has not been published in Mainland China.
Our protagonist is 14-year-old Li Niannian who lives in Gaotian Village (which actually exists) and whose parents own a shop that sells items for funeral rituals. His uncle has become rich as the owner of the local crematorium - the party has forbidden to bury the dead in order to save space, so all bodies must be cremated, and there is money to be earned by reporting those who try to bury their dead anyway. In the story, the cremations produce "corpse oil", which sells for high prices and can be used to keep machines running or to make fertilizer - I guess we don't have to discuss Yan Lianke's attitude towards China's authoritarian regime.
The incident told in the book takes place during one single night during which all inhabitants of the village suddenly start sleepwalking, or "dreamwalking", the word used in the text which better reflects the Chinese expression for the phenomenon. As a consequence, the village drowns in chaos and violence, all kinds of secrets are revealed, and elements of Chinese history are played out in the context of this uprising. The nation's past haunts the villagers, and their individual pasts and urges are exposed while even in the morning, the sun refuses to rise, until Li Niannian's father crafts a shocking plan to bring back the light.
What does the Chinese people really dream of, what nightmares haunt this nation? Often, characters in the book are unsure whether they are awake or dreamwalking - they do not know what is happening anymore, and the horror is often rooted in the injustice they have experienced (like having the graves of their loved ones blown up with dynamite), their own wrongful deeds (like ratting out their neighbours) and the circumstances they are living in (the oppression of the system).
First, I read this tale as purely metaphorical, until I found out that in 1956, Mao announced a “proposal for cremation after death” (he himself was of course not cremated), and that there are really regions in China in which burials are illegal (https://www.theguardian.com/world/201...). Still, the book operates with satire and critcism on many levels, and while it obviously talks about modern China, it also has a lot to say about human nature in general and contemplates how we treat each other under which circumstances. Interestingly, the book also features a character named "Yan Lianke" who is an author (his book titles are puns on the books written by the real Yan Lianke) and who, just like everybody els, is sometimes awake, and sometimes dreamwalking.
The novel has a very specific tone and works with variations of sentence structures, repetition and the juxtaposition of darkness and light as well as heat and cold, which gives the text an unusual feel (but maybe this is only the opinion of a European who doesn't know much about Chinese literature and poetic concepts). A fascinating, impressive read, highly recommended.
Our protagonist is 14-year-old Li Niannian who lives in Gaotian Village (which actually exists) and whose parents own a shop that sells items for funeral rituals. His uncle has become rich as the owner of the local crematorium - the party has forbidden to bury the dead in order to save space, so all bodies must be cremated, and there is money to be earned by reporting those who try to bury their dead anyway. In the story, the cremations produce "corpse oil", which sells for high prices and can be used to keep machines running or to make fertilizer - I guess we don't have to discuss Yan Lianke's attitude towards China's authoritarian regime.
The incident told in the book takes place during one single night during which all inhabitants of the village suddenly start sleepwalking, or "dreamwalking", the word used in the text which better reflects the Chinese expression for the phenomenon. As a consequence, the village drowns in chaos and violence, all kinds of secrets are revealed, and elements of Chinese history are played out in the context of this uprising. The nation's past haunts the villagers, and their individual pasts and urges are exposed while even in the morning, the sun refuses to rise, until Li Niannian's father crafts a shocking plan to bring back the light.
What does the Chinese people really dream of, what nightmares haunt this nation? Often, characters in the book are unsure whether they are awake or dreamwalking - they do not know what is happening anymore, and the horror is often rooted in the injustice they have experienced (like having the graves of their loved ones blown up with dynamite), their own wrongful deeds (like ratting out their neighbours) and the circumstances they are living in (the oppression of the system).
First, I read this tale as purely metaphorical, until I found out that in 1956, Mao announced a “proposal for cremation after death” (he himself was of course not cremated), and that there are really regions in China in which burials are illegal (https://www.theguardian.com/world/201...). Still, the book operates with satire and critcism on many levels, and while it obviously talks about modern China, it also has a lot to say about human nature in general and contemplates how we treat each other under which circumstances. Interestingly, the book also features a character named "Yan Lianke" who is an author (his book titles are puns on the books written by the real Yan Lianke) and who, just like everybody els, is sometimes awake, and sometimes dreamwalking.
The novel has a very specific tone and works with variations of sentence structures, repetition and the juxtaposition of darkness and light as well as heat and cold, which gives the text an unusual feel (but maybe this is only the opinion of a European who doesn't know much about Chinese literature and poetic concepts). A fascinating, impressive read, highly recommended.
January 28, 2019
Reading this novel is exactly like listening to someone tell you their dream, where it takes them about four hours to tell you the whole thing, and it is a well known fact that listening to someone tell you about their dream is never quite as interesting dreaming it yourself.
December 24, 2018
Yan’s latest novel to be translated into English is a poetic nightmare called “The Day the Sun Died.” It’s the creepiest book I’ve read in years: a social comedy that bleeds like a zombie apocalypse.
The story takes place during a deadly summer night in a small village in central China. Our narrator is a 14-year-old boy named Li Niannian, whose parents own the New World funerary shop that “sold everything dead people might need.” Li confesses that almost everyone refers to him as an idiot, but that’s not fair. He may be naive and guileless, but he’s no idiot. In fact, he’s telling this story himself only because his neighbor, the novelist Yan Lianke, is worn-out and hopeless. (Li tells us he’s read all of Yan’s books, but the experience is like “asking my eyes to eat rotten fruit” — the first of many self-deprecating jokes.) Until Yan can recover his inspiration, Li will have to fill in. “I have no choice,” he tells us, “but to recount everything in a halting, scattered way.”
Hardly.
What follows is an artfully organized, minute-by-minute description of “the great somnambulism,” a horrific night of sleepwalking that “blotted out the sky and blanketed the earth, leaving everything in a state of chaos.” As soon as dusk fades into darkness, the half-conscious inhabitants of Li’s village rise again and lumber back to their regular work. “Everyone appeared to be very busy,” Li says. “Very, very busy.” With her eyes closed, Li’s mother madly cuts paper wreaths for the dead. Li’s uncle frantically threshes wheat in his sleep while chanting: “A man can’t let his wife and children go hungry. A man can’t let his wife and children go hungry.”
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
The story takes place during a deadly summer night in a small village in central China. Our narrator is a 14-year-old boy named Li Niannian, whose parents own the New World funerary shop that “sold everything dead people might need.” Li confesses that almost everyone refers to him as an idiot, but that’s not fair. He may be naive and guileless, but he’s no idiot. In fact, he’s telling this story himself only because his neighbor, the novelist Yan Lianke, is worn-out and hopeless. (Li tells us he’s read all of Yan’s books, but the experience is like “asking my eyes to eat rotten fruit” — the first of many self-deprecating jokes.) Until Yan can recover his inspiration, Li will have to fill in. “I have no choice,” he tells us, “but to recount everything in a halting, scattered way.”
Hardly.
What follows is an artfully organized, minute-by-minute description of “the great somnambulism,” a horrific night of sleepwalking that “blotted out the sky and blanketed the earth, leaving everything in a state of chaos.” As soon as dusk fades into darkness, the half-conscious inhabitants of Li’s village rise again and lumber back to their regular work. “Everyone appeared to be very busy,” Li says. “Very, very busy.” With her eyes closed, Li’s mother madly cuts paper wreaths for the dead. Li’s uncle frantically threshes wheat in his sleep while chanting: “A man can’t let his wife and children go hungry. A man can’t let his wife and children go hungry.”
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
December 11, 2020
Es una lectura que me ha atrapado desde el primer momento, me ha resultado ligera y muy entretenida a pesar de su crudeza y sobre todo llena de reflexiones sobre el mundo en el que vivimos, sobre lo absurdo y cruel de la naturaleza humana.
Qué pasaría si algunos habitantes de un pueblo cayeran presa de un sonambulismo que les empujara a cometer todos los actos y deseos que reprimen despiertos. Y que pasaria si la gente que no está sonámbula se dedicara a robar, saquear y asesinar. Y qué pasaría si el día no llega debido a un fenómeno metereologico que hace que el sol no salga, por lo que el día se asemeja a la noche cerrada y no se pueden despertar y hay una mayor duración y propagación de episodios de sonambulismo.
Pues este caos es el que nos cuenta magistralmente, cómo el sueño se convierte en pesadilla y cómo el infierno puede desatarse en un día.
Qué pasaría si algunos habitantes de un pueblo cayeran presa de un sonambulismo que les empujara a cometer todos los actos y deseos que reprimen despiertos. Y que pasaria si la gente que no está sonámbula se dedicara a robar, saquear y asesinar. Y qué pasaría si el día no llega debido a un fenómeno metereologico que hace que el sol no salga, por lo que el día se asemeja a la noche cerrada y no se pueden despertar y hay una mayor duración y propagación de episodios de sonambulismo.
Pues este caos es el que nos cuenta magistralmente, cómo el sueño se convierte en pesadilla y cómo el infierno puede desatarse en un día.
November 14, 2018
The thing I love the most about this book is the title. It is exactly as suggestive and thought-provoking as the rest of the book.
This isn't exactly a page-turner. Actually, the descriptive parts read almost like non-fiction or research paper. Yan Lianke really does transport you to an authentic China, one of the best Chinese writers I have read.
I think this book will make many interested into the Asian culture and the story provides amazing entertainment while forcing you to ask questions you probably wouldn't want to address otherwise. I felt like a whole new layer of me was added after finishing this.
Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read this in exchange for my honest review.
This isn't exactly a page-turner. Actually, the descriptive parts read almost like non-fiction or research paper. Yan Lianke really does transport you to an authentic China, one of the best Chinese writers I have read.
I think this book will make many interested into the Asian culture and the story provides amazing entertainment while forcing you to ask questions you probably wouldn't want to address otherwise. I felt like a whole new layer of me was added after finishing this.
Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read this in exchange for my honest review.
November 29, 2022
I wish I could read this book in Chinese, somehow I have the feeling that we do not understand the real spirit of the book and the author. I found it very hard to read and struggled to finish. Just for the love of my book club I did not give up. That’s why I ended up with a 2 star rating.
As far as I know the Chinese language offers a vast room for word plays and allegory which is felt only partly through the translation. This book delivers a very detailed satiric view on today’s Chinese society formed by the rules and regulations of the Chinese government in recent decades. I love the allegory but tough storytelling.
As far as I know the Chinese language offers a vast room for word plays and allegory which is felt only partly through the translation. This book delivers a very detailed satiric view on today’s Chinese society formed by the rules and regulations of the Chinese government in recent decades. I love the allegory but tough storytelling.
Read
June 5, 2024nie umiem stwierdzić na ile zasługuje
ciekawa, niebanalna, angażująca, ale pozostawiająca mieszane uczucia
momentami przeciągnięta?
koncept ciekawy, wykonanie gorsze
ciekawa, niebanalna, angażująca, ale pozostawiająca mieszane uczucia
momentami przeciągnięta?
koncept ciekawy, wykonanie gorsze
September 18, 2018
I really liked the premise of this book, but reading it felt like a chore. Particularly annoying is the writer's tendency to repeat sentences or phrases. For example, "In front of the shop, everyone was nervous as though the air were too thin. Out in the streets, everyone was nervous as though the air were too thin." Or certain dialogue is always said twice, one after the other. If this is supposed to be a literary style, I am just not digging it. Perhaps other people found more merit in this book. Maybe something got lost in tranlation/editing. (I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)
Want to read
February 12, 2024DNF (didnotfinish) 96. sayfada bırakıyorum okumayı, 11.Ekim.2023 tarihinden beri elimde süründü kitap. Bitirmek istiyorum aslında ama kütüphaneye geri götürmem gerekli. Okuduğum yere kadar çok kötü bir metin olduğunu söyleyemem ama yazar geriye dönüşleri, anlatıcıyı, karakterlerin gelişimini güzel kuramamış. Dağınık ve uzatılmış bir hikaye var. Sevdiğim tarafları da yok değil; yazarın bir karakter olarak hikayede yer alması, Çin tarihine ve ülkenin toplumsal yapısına dair göndermeler, içinizi dağlayan bireysel trajediler dikkatimi çekti. Yan Lianke'nin başka kitaplarına bakacağım öncelikle.
November 1, 2022
birbirini tekrarlayan cümleler, kötü bir rüyada yürüyormuscasina aktarilan karanlik atmosfer ve kasabada yasayan siradan insan hikayeleriyle birlesmis gerceküstücülük... temposu zaman zaman yavaslasa da ilginc bir konusu olan basarili bir roman olmus.
kitap özellikle ortalarinda yavasladi ve benim icin okumasi zorlasti ama sonlara dogru toparladi, hem gerilim dozu yükseldi hem de anlatim daha akici hale geldi.
Yabancisi oldugum Cin tarihinden önemli anlari ve kissalari da kitabi okurken arastirma ve ögrenme firsatim oldu. Bu da ayri bir keyif benim icin.
kitap özellikle ortalarinda yavasladi ve benim icin okumasi zorlasti ama sonlara dogru toparladi, hem gerilim dozu yükseldi hem de anlatim daha akici hale geldi.
Yabancisi oldugum Cin tarihinden önemli anlari ve kissalari da kitabi okurken arastirma ve ögrenme firsatim oldu. Bu da ayri bir keyif benim icin.
December 28, 2020
Una lectura estupenda.
October 2, 2023
Not his best novel, in my view. Serving the people and The dream of the Ding village are definitely more ingenious and impressive
July 13, 2024
Se podría calificar lo que cuenta esta novela de costumbrismo onírico, e igual porque las costumbres y el estilo del autor chino no me resultan muy familiares me ha requerido algo de esfuerzo para seguirla. Más allá de que parece que te estén contando un sueño, y que no quede muy claro en cada momento quién está despierto y quién sonámbulo, la metáfora de lo fácil que es dejarse llevar por la masa para comentar cualquier barbaridad es mucho menos inocente de lo que pudiera parecer en un principio.
March 30, 2020
Yan Lianke, Yan Lianke, Yan Lianke. I had never read a book by Yan Lianke before this. I never even knew his name. And yet but all indications, I feel as though Yan Lianke wants you (the reader) to know his name, to think about the author in relationship to what he has written, and rather than provide the kind of story that leads you to read while forgetting that you’re reading, he’s included a prominent character whose an author named Yan Lianke, which forces you to repeatedly reckon with the reality that you’re reading a book by a guy named Yan Lianke. I don’t know what function this is ultimately supposed to serve – I was similarly confused when Martin Amis introduced the character of Martin Amis in Money – but I guess it makes the novel reading experience kind of meta and self-referential and perhaps even somehow post-modern (?).
This is a peculiar book. Over the course of an evening people in the town of Gaotian become afflicted with mass somnambulism, or “dreamwalking.” In the process of dreamwalking, people start behaving erratically, drowning themselves, looting from stores, and generally engaging in behavior that would otherwise be repressed in their waking lives. The story follows a 14 year old boy named Li Niannian, who spends the evening as a witness to the chaos unfolding in Gaotian Township. The most interesting dynamic of the book is undoubtedly the relationship that his family has with his Uncle. Li Niannian’s parents own a funeral shop, selling wreathes and other funeral supplies, while his Uncle owns the town’s crematorium. At some point the government made burials illegal and instead mandated that all people be cremated instead. Li’s Uncle and family have profited from the cremation of the dead, and it seems may have also played a role in informing on people who buried their relatives in secret. The way Li Niannian’s father grapples with his own shame and atones for his complicity in this system is the most coherent and interesting struggle depicted in the book.
Reading The Day the Sun Died was a simultaneously intriguing and baffling experience. Nonetheless, I felt that whatever message or social critique this fable was trying to deliver was ultimately muddled. That might be due to a limitation of my own though, because I wonder if reading this in Chinese would have made things clearer. For instance, I am sure the Chinese characters for “dreamwalking” would evoke the idea of the “Chinese dream” that has been promoted by the CCP in the past decade – I just think the connection would be more obvious and impactful in Chinese. I definitely think this book is more accessible if you have an understanding of Chinese history (the scene where the civil servants imagine themselves as bureaucrats in an ancient dynasty is definitely funnier that way) and reading other books by Yan Lianke would have also provided useful contex.
Since this story is largely about chaos unravelling in a Chinese town, where a mystical and supernatural phenomenon has implied roots in the historical actions of the town’s inhabitants, I can see why this would be the kind of thing the CCP doesn’t want people to read. His status as a “banned author” definitely lends additional credibility to Yan Lianke as a novelist in the eyes of Western readers, but that’s by no means the only reason he’s worth reading. This is a unique and thought provoking book. I'm looking forward to reading more Yan Lianke.
This is a peculiar book. Over the course of an evening people in the town of Gaotian become afflicted with mass somnambulism, or “dreamwalking.” In the process of dreamwalking, people start behaving erratically, drowning themselves, looting from stores, and generally engaging in behavior that would otherwise be repressed in their waking lives. The story follows a 14 year old boy named Li Niannian, who spends the evening as a witness to the chaos unfolding in Gaotian Township. The most interesting dynamic of the book is undoubtedly the relationship that his family has with his Uncle. Li Niannian’s parents own a funeral shop, selling wreathes and other funeral supplies, while his Uncle owns the town’s crematorium. At some point the government made burials illegal and instead mandated that all people be cremated instead. Li’s Uncle and family have profited from the cremation of the dead, and it seems may have also played a role in informing on people who buried their relatives in secret. The way Li Niannian’s father grapples with his own shame and atones for his complicity in this system is the most coherent and interesting struggle depicted in the book.
Reading The Day the Sun Died was a simultaneously intriguing and baffling experience. Nonetheless, I felt that whatever message or social critique this fable was trying to deliver was ultimately muddled. That might be due to a limitation of my own though, because I wonder if reading this in Chinese would have made things clearer. For instance, I am sure the Chinese characters for “dreamwalking” would evoke the idea of the “Chinese dream” that has been promoted by the CCP in the past decade – I just think the connection would be more obvious and impactful in Chinese. I definitely think this book is more accessible if you have an understanding of Chinese history (the scene where the civil servants imagine themselves as bureaucrats in an ancient dynasty is definitely funnier that way) and reading other books by Yan Lianke would have also provided useful contex.
Since this story is largely about chaos unravelling in a Chinese town, where a mystical and supernatural phenomenon has implied roots in the historical actions of the town’s inhabitants, I can see why this would be the kind of thing the CCP doesn’t want people to read. His status as a “banned author” definitely lends additional credibility to Yan Lianke as a novelist in the eyes of Western readers, but that’s by no means the only reason he’s worth reading. This is a unique and thought provoking book. I'm looking forward to reading more Yan Lianke.
July 18, 2018
via my blog: https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
'Astonished, I walked out of his room, and saw him heading toward the lake, like a ghost heading toward the grave.'
I read somewhere this book has political meaning, and it can certainly be seen in the sleepwalking villagers, not much different from their hard-working daily lives. Going about their business, laboring , as if on automatic, is this the Chinese dream? Are they ready to embrace the modern world, should they, do they even want to? Teenager Li Niannian and his parents run the New World funerary shop, his parents creating Chinese paper offerings for the dead, supplying the deceased with everything they might need in the afterlife. Once, his father secretly aided his uncle by giving news when someone in the village died, denying them their secret burials forcing them to cremate their loved ones. This continues to shame him, and comes to light during the somnambulism of one strange night. The sun has set, but the villagers on the mountainside are acting as though the day is still on, working, some behaving in bizarre ways, finally revealing desires they would never have otherwise acted upon. Some confessing things that have troubled their conscience, much like Li Niannian’s father. But it’s turning dangerous, some are seeking the water, risking their lives. Li Niannian and his family know they must save the villagers from themselves or there will be no one left come morning, if the sun hasn’t truly died. How do you convince people they are not really awake? What if things turn violent, murderous?
Uncle Shao Dacheng is very successful but the villagers don’t want to shirk their traditional burials for cremation, then there is the special corpse oil which is another facet of this surreal story. It turns darkly disturbing as madness ensues, who will save the day? When will this darkest of nights end? Will they ever wake up?
It’s interesting to think of the poverty striken and how politics control their lives, down to how they bury their dead. How little control they seem to have, how true feelings can only arise in a dream state, a repressed people. An original that has more meaning than I can ever hope to explain.
Linake is an award-winning, successful contemporary author in China.
Pulication Date: December 28, 2018
Grove Atlantic
Grove Press
'Astonished, I walked out of his room, and saw him heading toward the lake, like a ghost heading toward the grave.'
I read somewhere this book has political meaning, and it can certainly be seen in the sleepwalking villagers, not much different from their hard-working daily lives. Going about their business, laboring , as if on automatic, is this the Chinese dream? Are they ready to embrace the modern world, should they, do they even want to? Teenager Li Niannian and his parents run the New World funerary shop, his parents creating Chinese paper offerings for the dead, supplying the deceased with everything they might need in the afterlife. Once, his father secretly aided his uncle by giving news when someone in the village died, denying them their secret burials forcing them to cremate their loved ones. This continues to shame him, and comes to light during the somnambulism of one strange night. The sun has set, but the villagers on the mountainside are acting as though the day is still on, working, some behaving in bizarre ways, finally revealing desires they would never have otherwise acted upon. Some confessing things that have troubled their conscience, much like Li Niannian’s father. But it’s turning dangerous, some are seeking the water, risking their lives. Li Niannian and his family know they must save the villagers from themselves or there will be no one left come morning, if the sun hasn’t truly died. How do you convince people they are not really awake? What if things turn violent, murderous?
Uncle Shao Dacheng is very successful but the villagers don’t want to shirk their traditional burials for cremation, then there is the special corpse oil which is another facet of this surreal story. It turns darkly disturbing as madness ensues, who will save the day? When will this darkest of nights end? Will they ever wake up?
It’s interesting to think of the poverty striken and how politics control their lives, down to how they bury their dead. How little control they seem to have, how true feelings can only arise in a dream state, a repressed people. An original that has more meaning than I can ever hope to explain.
Linake is an award-winning, successful contemporary author in China.
Pulication Date: December 28, 2018
Grove Atlantic
Grove Press
January 30, 2024
Sonunda okuyup bitirebildim cok ağır akan bir kurgu; detaylı yorum gireceğim.
June 5, 2018
It's an imaginative satire of modern China. In a rural setting, and over the course of one night, people start dreamwalking - carrying out activities that they were thinking about or doing before they went to sleep. Slowly the night becomes more chaotic and violent. Lin is a 14 year old boy and his parents try to stem the tied and work to making the sun come up again and the night to end.
My main criticism of this interesting interpretation of the dangers of modernisation, the great dream of renewal, is it seemed to meander repetitively for some time before something new was introduced. The cheeky thoughts of Lin and how he viewed his world before dreamwalking was a highlight for me.
My main criticism of this interesting interpretation of the dangers of modernisation, the great dream of renewal, is it seemed to meander repetitively for some time before something new was introduced. The cheeky thoughts of Lin and how he viewed his world before dreamwalking was a highlight for me.
January 16, 2019
I cannot recall another work of fiction that was so difficult to read. Many times I wanted to give up, but did not because I was pretty sure this author was doing something important.
By difficult, I mean the telling is dreamlike and muddled, and very repetitive. A lot of what happens is bizarre and even repellent—especially the business about extracting "corpse-oil" from dead bodies before cremating them, and then storing unimaginably vast quantities of the stuff in barrels ("countless columns of death"), potentially for use as an industrial lubricant.
On the other hand, I understood this to be a commentary on a dark period in China's history, a period in which, for example, vital organs are said to be harvested from political prisoners. The scenario in which burials are deemed illegal, bounties are paid to informants who report them, and the guy in charge of the crematorium grows rich—it sounds more or less authentic to this spouse of an immigrant from China. But in all fairness China is hardly the only land to have experienced prolonged periods of darkness, and that's why it concerns me so. Anything that has happened there could also happen here. The metaphors are pretty obvious, and daring, and I felt I owed it to the author to continue reading. Even so, the middle three-quarters of the book was heavy sledding indeed. (I divide it that way because I made it an eighth of the way in before becoming bogged down by the pervasive weirdness, and in the final eighth there was, at long last, hope of attaining the end.)
The bulk of the story concerns "the night of the great somnambulism," which is a seemingly endless night in which the people of the narrator's town enter a dreamlike state while in many cases continuing to do in their sleep what they normally do when awake. For ordinary people this means working in the fields and for rich people it means playing mah-jongg and feasting.
Sometimes people are not aware they are "dreamwalking," sometimes they are. As a character in his own novel, Yan Lianke asks, "Why can I not write a story about someone who knows she is sleeping while sleeping? About how she is able to interact with and speak to the waking world while still in her dreams?" Yan too is in that state, and for that reason he has inspiration to write a story (this story?)—as long as nobody wakes him up. He says being in that condition is "a gift from the spirits in heaven." It's "like being able to observe the events of this world while in another world" (a great concept, don't you think?).
Other characters believe it's an affliction. It frees people to settle old scores with those they dislike. Or it causes them to stumble into the river and drown. Meanwhile, quite a few others resort to rampant looting until, as one late arrival complains, the town's stores "have already been robbed bare." It was not clear to me whether the thieves are also dreamwalking. I suppose they must be. But the narrator says they're using the general chaos as a pretext.
He tells us the people pray that the sun will come soon, so everything can return to normal. However, at the time one would expect dawn to occur—it doesn't. "The night's catastrophe seemed to have just started." This is when a radio announcer blandly informs listeners that, due to an unusual meteorological condition, the sun will not shine today, and in fact "daytime will be indistinguishable from the middle of the night."
The chaos intensifies, with the arrival of carloads of violent outsiders, their voices "like floodwaters rushing toward the town," and with local folk tying yellow ribbons around their heads and vowing to kill anyone without that identification. And people are indeed being killed, viciously, with hoes and cleavers and anything that comes to hand. At this point it's hard to imagine order ever being restored.
To the extent that any sense can be made of the chaos, it appears that the town's besieged residents are now trying to preserve what they've always had, whereas the intruders are shaking up the established order of things so they can have it all. The narrator observes sadly, "this great war had erupted over the future and the past. As for the present, it either had been completely forgotten, or had been transformed into a nightmare." For me, that (improbably) brought to mind a line from a Lee Child novel I'd just heard on audiotape while commuting: "The future means nothing if we don't live to see it." It also suggested current events very close to home.
In conclusion, I did not enjoy this reading nearly as much as the other one by Yan Lianke to have come my way. But I'm giving it four stars anyway because of its significance.
By difficult, I mean the telling is dreamlike and muddled, and very repetitive. A lot of what happens is bizarre and even repellent—especially the business about extracting "corpse-oil" from dead bodies before cremating them, and then storing unimaginably vast quantities of the stuff in barrels ("countless columns of death"), potentially for use as an industrial lubricant.
On the other hand, I understood this to be a commentary on a dark period in China's history, a period in which, for example, vital organs are said to be harvested from political prisoners. The scenario in which burials are deemed illegal, bounties are paid to informants who report them, and the guy in charge of the crematorium grows rich—it sounds more or less authentic to this spouse of an immigrant from China. But in all fairness China is hardly the only land to have experienced prolonged periods of darkness, and that's why it concerns me so. Anything that has happened there could also happen here. The metaphors are pretty obvious, and daring, and I felt I owed it to the author to continue reading. Even so, the middle three-quarters of the book was heavy sledding indeed. (I divide it that way because I made it an eighth of the way in before becoming bogged down by the pervasive weirdness, and in the final eighth there was, at long last, hope of attaining the end.)
The bulk of the story concerns "the night of the great somnambulism," which is a seemingly endless night in which the people of the narrator's town enter a dreamlike state while in many cases continuing to do in their sleep what they normally do when awake. For ordinary people this means working in the fields and for rich people it means playing mah-jongg and feasting.
Sometimes people are not aware they are "dreamwalking," sometimes they are. As a character in his own novel, Yan Lianke asks, "Why can I not write a story about someone who knows she is sleeping while sleeping? About how she is able to interact with and speak to the waking world while still in her dreams?" Yan too is in that state, and for that reason he has inspiration to write a story (this story?)—as long as nobody wakes him up. He says being in that condition is "a gift from the spirits in heaven." It's "like being able to observe the events of this world while in another world" (a great concept, don't you think?).
Other characters believe it's an affliction. It frees people to settle old scores with those they dislike. Or it causes them to stumble into the river and drown. Meanwhile, quite a few others resort to rampant looting until, as one late arrival complains, the town's stores "have already been robbed bare." It was not clear to me whether the thieves are also dreamwalking. I suppose they must be. But the narrator says they're using the general chaos as a pretext.
He tells us the people pray that the sun will come soon, so everything can return to normal. However, at the time one would expect dawn to occur—it doesn't. "The night's catastrophe seemed to have just started." This is when a radio announcer blandly informs listeners that, due to an unusual meteorological condition, the sun will not shine today, and in fact "daytime will be indistinguishable from the middle of the night."
The chaos intensifies, with the arrival of carloads of violent outsiders, their voices "like floodwaters rushing toward the town," and with local folk tying yellow ribbons around their heads and vowing to kill anyone without that identification. And people are indeed being killed, viciously, with hoes and cleavers and anything that comes to hand. At this point it's hard to imagine order ever being restored.
To the extent that any sense can be made of the chaos, it appears that the town's besieged residents are now trying to preserve what they've always had, whereas the intruders are shaking up the established order of things so they can have it all. The narrator observes sadly, "this great war had erupted over the future and the past. As for the present, it either had been completely forgotten, or had been transformed into a nightmare." For me, that (improbably) brought to mind a line from a Lee Child novel I'd just heard on audiotape while commuting: "The future means nothing if we don't live to see it." It also suggested current events very close to home.
In conclusion, I did not enjoy this reading nearly as much as the other one by Yan Lianke to have come my way. But I'm giving it four stars anyway because of its significance.
May 10, 2024
I had received this book in the Boxwalla book subscription. I am not well-versed in political ideologies or Chinese politics in particular, so undoubtedly some commentary went over my head. With that said, the purpose of my subscription is to open my mind, expose myself to authors outside my sphere of influence, and overall enjoy the experience and educate myself when reading. This book was 5 stars in regard to self-educating and exploring new ideas. However, rating based on my personal enjoyment and interest in the plot, storytelling, and whether I would return to the book, I would give it 3 stars.
The story is told from the perspective of a young teenage son of funerary shop owners. Out of nowhere, the people in his town start to sleepwalk. In their sleep state, they bustle around harvesting crops and a myriad of other things they obsessively think to do. This combines with extraordinary weather that puts their world in darkness and causes the town to descend into chaos. How do people react to this phenomenon?
Here are scattered and random thoughts I had while reading the book:
1. To me, the sleepwalking is a general observation of the exacerbating effect of modern-day society to the people’s mentality. People are like objects. To the narrator, people’s faces resemble anything but people. His mother creates paper cutouts and often has an expression that resembles paper. Yan Lianke, the author, resembles a book. People also have expressions that resemble tables, flowers, bricks, and blocks of wood.
2. The mother makes a paper garden for the living, Juanzi makes a flower garden for the dead.
3. While the people are harvesting wheat, the narrator is harvesting corpse oil. There’s even a “peak season” for the dead.
4. There’s the pattern of being in between or contradictory. The people walk with alternating heavy and light footsteps (like the narrator’s crippled mother— not sure what to make of it other than perhaps his mother’s accident put her in a quality-of-life state not unlike sleepwalking). A man may comment that it looks like both midnight and early dawn.
5. There’s the reality/paradigm of those who are awake, the reality-like dream world of the sleepers, and the New World —the name of the shop.
5. Being the funerary shop family, the narrator and his parents find themselves serving as a memento mori of sorts. In attempts to wake the town, they are often met with stubborn animosity. To me, this spoke to how the reminder of death makes us uncomfortable and drives us with a need to take action (be “awake”) when we would prefer to stay in our everyday cycles. Second, Yan Lianke the character has a full moment where he consciously chooses sleep.
6. When people aren’t stuck in their own cycle, they are forming mobs and following leaders who may or may not be sleepwalking themselves. This speaks to me of the general danger of dispassion and carelessness of most people in a cycle when it comes to their place in society and who or what they follow.
7. To expand on above point, there is an overarching pattern of complicity and acceptance or futility. People protest the crematorium at first and then don’t seem to mind at all later. People make deals to help each other achieve selfish gains and in doing so, may or may not throw others in the crossfire or at least temporarily abandon their morals. The narrator shouts warnings to the people and gives up. It’s almost a collection of shrugs or tap outs.
You can tell this story has a lot to interpret and there are many things I haven’t touched on (the theatrics/delusions of grandeur of the town’s leaders come to mind). I will surely be taking a deep dive into other reviews and analyses to get an even better understanding and perhaps wake up as well.
The story is told from the perspective of a young teenage son of funerary shop owners. Out of nowhere, the people in his town start to sleepwalk. In their sleep state, they bustle around harvesting crops and a myriad of other things they obsessively think to do. This combines with extraordinary weather that puts their world in darkness and causes the town to descend into chaos. How do people react to this phenomenon?
Here are scattered and random thoughts I had while reading the book:
1. To me, the sleepwalking is a general observation of the exacerbating effect of modern-day society to the people’s mentality. People are like objects. To the narrator, people’s faces resemble anything but people. His mother creates paper cutouts and often has an expression that resembles paper. Yan Lianke, the author, resembles a book. People also have expressions that resemble tables, flowers, bricks, and blocks of wood.
2. The mother makes a paper garden for the living, Juanzi makes a flower garden for the dead.
3. While the people are harvesting wheat, the narrator is harvesting corpse oil. There’s even a “peak season” for the dead.
4. There’s the pattern of being in between or contradictory. The people walk with alternating heavy and light footsteps (like the narrator’s crippled mother— not sure what to make of it other than perhaps his mother’s accident put her in a quality-of-life state not unlike sleepwalking). A man may comment that it looks like both midnight and early dawn.
5. There’s the reality/paradigm of those who are awake, the reality-like dream world of the sleepers, and the New World —the name of the shop.
5. Being the funerary shop family, the narrator and his parents find themselves serving as a memento mori of sorts. In attempts to wake the town, they are often met with stubborn animosity. To me, this spoke to how the reminder of death makes us uncomfortable and drives us with a need to take action (be “awake”) when we would prefer to stay in our everyday cycles. Second, Yan Lianke the character has a full moment where he consciously chooses sleep.
6. When people aren’t stuck in their own cycle, they are forming mobs and following leaders who may or may not be sleepwalking themselves. This speaks to me of the general danger of dispassion and carelessness of most people in a cycle when it comes to their place in society and who or what they follow.
7. To expand on above point, there is an overarching pattern of complicity and acceptance or futility. People protest the crematorium at first and then don’t seem to mind at all later. People make deals to help each other achieve selfish gains and in doing so, may or may not throw others in the crossfire or at least temporarily abandon their morals. The narrator shouts warnings to the people and gives up. It’s almost a collection of shrugs or tap outs.
You can tell this story has a lot to interpret and there are many things I haven’t touched on (the theatrics/delusions of grandeur of the town’s leaders come to mind). I will surely be taking a deep dive into other reviews and analyses to get an even better understanding and perhaps wake up as well.
June 17, 2021
Wasn't going to leave a review as I didn't think I have much to say about this book, but after reading other people's reviews here, well:
1) this novel isn't lost in translation. I read this in the original Chinese text and it was just as repetitive and tedious. I think the writing was deliberately so, partly because the story was narrated by a simpleton kid, but also considering the dream-state of this narrated world, it's understandable for one to recount things slowly, deliriously. Imagine if you're the only lucid person in a world gone mad. You'd want things to end, you'd give anything for the night to end, for the sun to finally rise. It was so interesting too, for time to stop having any meaning; the village was stuck at 6am for a few chapters, and nasty things continued to happen. What a nightmare.
2) I was inching my way through the tedium of the story, each chapter bringing me closer to daylight hour...only for the inexplicable fog to descend, keeping the village shrouded in blackness still. At this point I think Yan Lianke truly succeeded in making me feel a certain claustrophobic nausea. Is this what it's like to live in an authoritarian state? The constant "Oh god please stop why is it not stopping??" One might be better off "sleepwalking".
3) and of course it takes one morally ambiguous character to finally, literally, save the day. Through means that could not have existed if he had been an honest fellow. Fascinating.
4 stars for what this book made me think and feel, 1 star for the painful process.
1) this novel isn't lost in translation. I read this in the original Chinese text and it was just as repetitive and tedious. I think the writing was deliberately so, partly because the story was narrated by a simpleton kid, but also considering the dream-state of this narrated world, it's understandable for one to recount things slowly, deliriously. Imagine if you're the only lucid person in a world gone mad. You'd want things to end, you'd give anything for the night to end, for the sun to finally rise. It was so interesting too, for time to stop having any meaning; the village was stuck at 6am for a few chapters, and nasty things continued to happen. What a nightmare.
2) I was inching my way through the tedium of the story, each chapter bringing me closer to daylight hour...only for the inexplicable fog to descend, keeping the village shrouded in blackness still. At this point I think Yan Lianke truly succeeded in making me feel a certain claustrophobic nausea. Is this what it's like to live in an authoritarian state? The constant "Oh god please stop why is it not stopping??" One might be better off "sleepwalking".
3) and of course it takes one morally ambiguous character to finally, literally, save the day. Through means that could not have existed if he had been an honest fellow. Fascinating.
4 stars for what this book made me think and feel, 1 star for the painful process.
August 14, 2022
3.5/4 (i don't think i ever had such hard time with deciding what is the right rating for a book lmao)
the first half of the book was really engaging, i loved the tempo of the narrative. getting to know niannian's family and their secrets was a great start. the other half tho started to really exhaust me which i can understand - the purpose was to show how thin the line between dream and reality is, how much can happen during one night, but it wasn't my favourite way to portray it. what i really liked was a theme of sleepwalking, which i think is quite unique, it overall kind of gave me a purge vibes. i also liked the picture of people facing moral dilemmas, a theme of trying to redeem your past mistakes. the ending scene was an interesting closure.
it wasn't a bad read but unfortunately i expected something better.
the first half of the book was really engaging, i loved the tempo of the narrative. getting to know niannian's family and their secrets was a great start. the other half tho started to really exhaust me which i can understand - the purpose was to show how thin the line between dream and reality is, how much can happen during one night, but it wasn't my favourite way to portray it. what i really liked was a theme of sleepwalking, which i think is quite unique, it overall kind of gave me a purge vibes. i also liked the picture of people facing moral dilemmas, a theme of trying to redeem your past mistakes. the ending scene was an interesting closure.
it wasn't a bad read but unfortunately i expected something better.
June 9, 2021
Rating: 3.75
Moral decay and rampant corruption are explored through a child's voice in a village consumed by darkness and death.
Interesting conception and characters but lagging prose.
It's really hard to figure out whether the translation pulled it down or the original text.
In order to create a muddled-up dreamlike narration, the writer employs refrain a little too much than necessary.
Moral decay and rampant corruption are explored through a child's voice in a village consumed by darkness and death.
Interesting conception and characters but lagging prose.
It's really hard to figure out whether the translation pulled it down or the original text.
In order to create a muddled-up dreamlike narration, the writer employs refrain a little too much than necessary.
Read
August 10, 2018‘A powerful, captivating work of art.’
South China Morning Post
‘This exuberant but sinister fable confirms its author as one of China’s most audacious and enigmatic novelists.’
Economist
South China Morning Post
‘This exuberant but sinister fable confirms its author as one of China’s most audacious and enigmatic novelists.’
Economist
September 23, 2024
Terningkast 3, les hele anmeldelsen her:
https://skrekkbibliotekaren.blog/2024...
https://skrekkbibliotekaren.blog/2024...
November 7, 2024
La verdad es que me esperaba otra cosa por la sinopsis
April 30, 2020
Read for a book club assignment.
Almost every sentence in this book is expressed as a metaphor or simile. Also, the narrator and characters repeat themselves as though the reader won't understand unless without reading something multiple times. It's interesting at first, but soon grows tiring. Perhaps this is a normal way of writing in Chinese, but I found it got in the way of the story.
The story itself is an interesting way to present criticism of the government in a fictitious manner, which I assume helps the author avoid punishment. The concept of people reverting to their base instincts while dream walking is compelling.
The author makes fun of his own books in multiple ways throughout. Firstly, he make cameo appearances as a neighbor and uncle of the 14-year-old narrator. Also, this narrator reads, but doesn't much like, the authors books, saying things like, "When I read his books, it is as though I were asking my eyes to eat rotten fruit..." and, "Even if I felt that Uncle Yan did not write well, I would have no choice... but to read his books, the same way that even if you don't like sweet potatoes, you still have no choice but to eat them if that is all you have." And to top this off, he makes fun of his books by giving them fake names. For example, the book "Lenin's Kisses" is referred to in the story as "Kissing Lenin" among other names.
Again, much nuance might have been lost in the translation. But I felt that overall the story was rather tedious and many of the characters' responses to life and death rather dull and uninspired. Fortunately, it's a much shorter novel than Atlas Shrugged.
Almost every sentence in this book is expressed as a metaphor or simile. Also, the narrator and characters repeat themselves as though the reader won't understand unless without reading something multiple times. It's interesting at first, but soon grows tiring. Perhaps this is a normal way of writing in Chinese, but I found it got in the way of the story.
The story itself is an interesting way to present criticism of the government in a fictitious manner, which I assume helps the author avoid punishment. The concept of people reverting to their base instincts while dream walking is compelling.
The author makes fun of his own books in multiple ways throughout. Firstly, he make cameo appearances as a neighbor and uncle of the 14-year-old narrator. Also, this narrator reads, but doesn't much like, the authors books, saying things like, "When I read his books, it is as though I were asking my eyes to eat rotten fruit..." and, "Even if I felt that Uncle Yan did not write well, I would have no choice... but to read his books, the same way that even if you don't like sweet potatoes, you still have no choice but to eat them if that is all you have." And to top this off, he makes fun of his books by giving them fake names. For example, the book "Lenin's Kisses" is referred to in the story as "Kissing Lenin" among other names.
Again, much nuance might have been lost in the translation. But I felt that overall the story was rather tedious and many of the characters' responses to life and death rather dull and uninspired. Fortunately, it's a much shorter novel than Atlas Shrugged.
August 7, 2022
Fascinating concept, haunting even, but I found it a little tedious?
I kept second guessing myself because the author repeats so many of the sentences and I think that I’m accidentally rereading the same line but I’m not. I don’t really get what it adds to the story? Maybe it’s because this poor boy is tired of having to recount this whole night so in-depth. Idk.
That said I always find judging a translation really hard because most of what I disliked about the book was the language used but who knows had I been able to read it in mandarin then maybe I would have enjoyed it more (note to self learn more languages). The concept for the story was very interesting but as said it really was the language for me.
I kept second guessing myself because the author repeats so many of the sentences and I think that I’m accidentally rereading the same line but I’m not. I don’t really get what it adds to the story? Maybe it’s because this poor boy is tired of having to recount this whole night so in-depth. Idk.
That said I always find judging a translation really hard because most of what I disliked about the book was the language used but who knows had I been able to read it in mandarin then maybe I would have enjoyed it more (note to self learn more languages). The concept for the story was very interesting but as said it really was the language for me.
March 15, 2019
A surreal nightmare disguising social commentary. I believe this novel lost a bit in translation. The translation may have been accurate, but repetitions of phrases and unvaried word choices reduced my enjoyment of the novel.
August 2, 2021
Very slow, quite disappointed aswell.
Was hoping for some serious action but unfortunately it was not that much.
It only began picking in the last three chapters.
As for the style of writing.... It was horrible.
Was hoping for some serious action but unfortunately it was not that much.
It only began picking in the last three chapters.
As for the style of writing.... It was horrible.
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