Can Xue is not a writer I know a whole lot about, and her work is only slowly making its way into English. I wouldn’t be surprised if she were to win the Nobel Prize this year or in the coming years because of the ways in which her writing is making its way over into different languages. I think this translation works, but I’ve always heard that Chinese/English translation of literature is a particularly fraught project.
This novel is dark and sardonic throughout as we deal with the life and loves (and those circulating around) of Wei Bo, intransigent husband and lover (of many) who spends his time in brothels and prisons, who doesn’t seem to know who he is, what he wants, what effects he has on others, and the fallout and implications of his choices. He’s a familiar enough character, and like all characters like him, his attraction and appeal is a completely mystery to those who don’t “get it”.
The novel of someone who is an emotional terrorist has the strange question of tone and narration. How to effectively characterize the language used to describe this person. So we’re treated here to narration that feels entirely at arms’ length, and I think that works. I don’t think this is a particularly pleasant novel, and I am not entirely sure how I feel about it. It’s a bit difficult to stay with because of both the detachment, but also the amount of detail (there’s lots) and the various threads and interactions of the characters.
In a lot of ways, this novel feels like an updated and translated The Unbearable Lightness of Being in this way, including the ramifications of authoritarian regime. Also, for a book whose very title tells us the time setting, this book feels completely out of time (as in not really connected much any particular setting).
(Photo: https://www.amazon.com/Millennium-Margellos-World-Republic-Letters/dp/0300224311/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1YN1WURXJ72Z8&keywords=love+in+the+new+millennium+can+xue&qid=1565005716&s=gateway&sprefix=love+in+the+new+%2Caps%2C138&sr=8-1)
