I finished The Garlic Ballads a few months ago as part of my Nobel literature project, but it’s been hard for me to write about it because it was so draining. The book is dark, full of random violence, and bleak. If The Good Earth says that it was hard being a Chinese peasant in the early 20th century, The Garlic Ballads says it was hard being a Chinese peasant in the late 20th century. It was written in 1988, very soon after the real government-created garlic glut that is the catalyst for the peasant uprising the story centers on. We moves back and forth in time and between a few main story lines, leaving me feeling a little off-balance for a lot of the book. The graphic violence was hard for me to read, and although I recognize the masterful way Mo Yan describes the hopelessness of poverty, prison, and state-sanctioned injustice, I had trouble appreciating or connecting with the characters. I am squeamish and sheltered, and it was too hard for me to look directly at their pain. The book can definitely be read as a protest against government corruption, but it is not a morality play where all government officials are wrong and peasants are right. Cruelty and greed are not confined to bureaucrats. Family members make life miserable for each other, prisoners hurt other prisoners, and there is little to be hopeful about. I know Mo Yan is an Important Author, but I don’t know if I have the constitution to read more of his books.
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