Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie. This is a lovely, poetic short novel, that despite being set during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, is amazingly positive and uplifting. The story concerns 2 boys from educated families sent to the country for "re-education" in a rural village. They discover a hidden suitcase of banned western novels translated into Chinese and sneak off to read them, savoring the descriptions of love and emotion. They are both smitten with a beautiful young seamstress, who is illiterate and unworldly, but full of life and curiousity. They are committed to reading to the seamstress with an eye towards educating her and making her more sophisticated and worldly. The ending, where the seamstress achieves her own independence was an interesting surprise. The sense of the ability of art and literature to touch a deeper humanity even in a bleak and hopeless set of circumstances was inspiring. - Linda