Reviews

• Legalzão

  Qualidade física do livro tipica dos Americanos, baixa. Conteúdo muito bom, principalmente começo(parte 1 e 2) e finalzinho. Partes 3 e 4 se perde um pouco eu acho, mas no geral história bem legal.

• Red Sorghum by Mo Yan

  Ich führe gerade einenlängeren Forschungsaufenthalt in China durch. Als die Nachricht über den Literaturnobelpreis (2012) meine chinesischen Gastgeber erreichte, brach hier großer Jubel aus. Ich muß zugeben, ich hatte von Mo Yan bisher weder etwas gehört, noch gelesen. Als Naturwissenschaftler interessiert man sich i.a. mehr für eine andere Art Literatur. Ich habe mich mit meinen chinesischen Gastgebern beraten und mir daraufhin die Englische Ausgabe in der Übersetzung von Howard Goldblatt auf meinen Kindle geladen. Es ist eine sehr gelungene Übersetzung, die wahrscheinlich (ich bin des Chinesischen nicht mächtig) die Stimmung sehr gut widerspiegelt. Ich habe den Roman mit großer Begeisterung gelesen und habe jetzt das Gefühl Land und Leute besser zu verstehen. Es wird nicht der letzte Roman von Mo Yan sein den ich gelesen habe. Dieter HH Hoffmann

• Fascinating brilliantly written historical novel about China when invaded by Japan

  I am trying to read at least one book of the Nobel Prize winners of at least the last 50 years, and this is considered the most popular book of this winner Yo Man. I found it very interesting as an historical novel, and very well written indeed but a bit plodding and hard to read as I approached the first 200 pages of the roughly 350. It is set in a remarkably feudal China given this is the late 1930s, when it faced the Second Sino-Japanese War in which Japan invaded Manchuria, which lasted until the end of W.W.II, and shortly before the Communists brought China into the modern era with its unique brand of Maoist state capitalism. The family the story centers around owns a distillery business, a family artisanal enterprise of the type that often predated the rise of the capitalist market around the world. Because the story is set during this invasion, many of the pages detail true horrors, so expect a great deal of cruelty and bloodshed as the local Chinese, not even in the army, fight locally to protect their township. This violence is on almost every page. So this is a fascinating historical novel, one I found a bit difficult to read as time went on because the story tended to remain somewhat fixed on the family's defense of its town. The title of the book refers to the plant that offered the locality a major source of sustenance, equivalent to fields of rice or wheat; sorghum is mentioned many times on every page, and so may be viewed in fact as a major passive character, one that meant so much to its inhabitants, and one that was also drastically affected by the violent ravaging of man by man among its glorious stalks. Still, this is a novel written by a novelist considered one of the best in modern times, and so well worth tasting. You may in fact find the entire book impossible to put down, and react to it differently than I did. So yes, highly recommended.

• Red Sorgun: A Novel of China

  The book was read in our Book club. It was ineteresting to learn abou events in China dirint the war with Japan, though centered at a narrow area and few persons. The lanuage and imaginery is very powerful, contrasting the human cruelty with the beauty of nature. There is a very subtle humour and criticism of the regime, expressed allegorically. I did not like the detailed and gory descriptions of battles, death, torture - it was too much...

• Title-Another classic by Mo Yan, Nobel Prize winner

  Red Sorghum This is a beautiful, researched book about the peasants' fight in rural northeast Gaomi Township and its neighbourhood during the Japanese invasion of China. I got goosebumps while reading the detailed account of the Japanese soldiers' plundering, looting, torturing, murdering, and rapes. Though it was a thick book, the prose was lyrical and raced like the wind, and I could finish it in seven days. I firmly believe the author and publisher should hire a professional agency to market Mo Yan’s books for a more global reach among the commoners in the streets. Visibility sells. Dr Brij Mohan Author -Second Innings.

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