Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

By: Dai Sijie, Ina Rilke - translator

Narrated by: B.D. Wong

Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

At the height of Mao's infamous Cultural Revolution, two boys are among hundreds of thousands exiled to the countryside for "re-education." The narrator and his best friend, Luo, guilty of being the sons of doctors, find themselves in a remote village where, among the peasants of the Phoenix mountains, they are made to cart buckets of excrement up and down the precipitous winding paths. Their meager distractions include a violin - and, before long, the beautiful daughter of the local tailor.

But it is when the two discover a hidden stash of Western classics in Chinese translation that their re-education takes its most surprising turn. While ingeniously concealing their forbidden treasure, the boys find transit to worlds they had thought lost forever. And after listening to their dangerously seductive retellings of Balzac, even the Little Seamstress will be forever transformed.

From within the hopelessness and terror of one of the darkest passages in human history, Dai Sijie has fashioned a beguiling and unexpected story about the resilience of the human spirit, the wonder of romantic awakening, and the magical power of storytelling.

©2001 Dai Sijie (P)2002 Random House Inc., Random House Audio, a Division of Random House Inc.

Critic reviews

• Book Sense Book of the Year Award Finalist, Paperback, 2003

"An unexpected miracle - a delicate, and often hilarious, tale." (Los Angeles Times Book Review)
"A funny, touching, sly and altogether delightful novel...about the power of art to enlarge our imaginations." (Washington Post Book World)
"Poetic and affecting...riveting." (New York Times Book Review)

A fare away never land where Mao meets Balzac

An eloquent evocative delightful story telling,wove a spell around this listener transporting to the world where Mao meets Balzac.

amazing novel, you don't want to finish it

If you could sum up Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress in three words, what would they be?

some words weren't clear for me

What did you like best about this story?

it seems to be a simple story but the way the author describes the emotions and the background circunstancies are very rich.

If you could take any character from Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress out to dinner, who would it be and why?

the seamstress

Any additional comments?

no

Wonderful all around

What made the experience of listening to Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress the most enjoyable?

The wonderful narration as well as the flow of the story made the book the most enjoyable audio book i own.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I woud have to say the narrator, as he was realistic, down to earth, and in touch with the situation without being -in- it. It made the book realistic, as well as pleasurable. It avoided the dreaded "me me me" aspect that so many fiction books have today.

Which character – as performed by B.D. Wong – was your favorite?

Luo, as the satirical tone carried through very well.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Yes, I cried.

Loved it!

Short, sweet, thoughtful, witty, funny, and ultimately moving...truly a gem! And perfectly narrated taboot!

A good read

I’ve read this book years ago and remember it a bit differently than the audible version.

Read like a teenage boy's journal

Character development wasn't very good (or maybe I just didn't care for them). Descriptions of sexual coming of age were written at a jr. high school level - a teen boy's world, without an adult's complexity of language and story-telling, simplistic... boring. At the beginning of the book, I lost interest book when a description of a man's muscular arms were described as like "Sylvester Stallone". I thought this was the Cultural Revolution. Alternatively, I recommend -Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by See- where the characters are developed, you learn and can almost taste a period of history. Although highly raved about, Balzac and the Little Seamstress falls very short to my taste. BD Wong was a good, acceptable reader.

BD Wong is awful

A perfectly fine story absolutely ruined by terrible, overly dramatic, aspirated narration from BD Wong. Wong reads every sentence as if it is THE most important sentence in the entire book, as if it is dripping with meaning and insight, when most of the sentences in this book are actually very simple, even-childlike. Not an enjoyable read by any stretch of the imagination.

This was too depressing for me

What disappointed you about Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress?

It seemed everyone worked and finally it was all for naught.

Would you ever listen to anything by Dai Sijie again?

yes if it seemed to interest me. This was one of my first purchases and I did not review it very well.

Any additional comments?

Sorry it was just not my kind of book but was well done for what it was.