Old Floating Cloud: Two Novellas - Hardcover

Can, Xue

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810109743 ISBN 13: 9780810109742

Publisher: Northwestern University Press, 1992

Synopsis

Can Xue draws the reader into a world of the grotesque and the surreal, of uncertain spaces and indeterminate identities, of sexual menace and psychological disorientation. These novellas are about life in post-Mao China, but not the China of social realism or of Western fantasy. At the forefront of China's new literary trends, these two novellas--"Yellow Mud Street" and "Old Floating Cloud"--explore Chinese reality through images of the absurd, sudden and illogical juxtapositions, and the limitless transformations induced by a unique imagination.

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Reviews

The two novellas translated here, "Yellow Mud Street" and "Old Floating Cloud," showcase the surreal style of Can Xue, one of China's experimentors in "exploratory fiction." The first, written in 1983, depicts the nightmarish world on Yellow Mud Street, which abounds in suspicion, filth, and dementia, as a district agent comes to investigate a mysterious entity that may or may not be a man. Likewise, the characters in "Old Floating Cloud," first published in 1986, are beset by insomnia, infestation, paranoia, and decay. Their attraction and love turn into obsession and pain. Both novellas describe hell on earth in a fragmented style matching the disjointed world depicted, an often frightful picture that could be a canvas painted jointly by Bosch and Dali. The symbolism is interwoven with references to Maoist slogans and society, challenging readers to make a cohesive whole of disparate elements.
- B.E. Perushek, Univ. of Tennessee at Knoxville Lib.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Northwestern University Press
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0810109743
• ISBN 13: 9780810109742
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 269