The Noodle Maker (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780312424794)

From Mi Jian, the highly acclaimed Chinese dissident, comes a satirical novel about the absurdities of life in a post-Tiananmen China.

Two men meet for dinner each week. Over the course of one of these drunken evenings, the writer recounts the stories he would write, had he the courage: a young man buys an old kiln and opens a private crematorium, delighting in his ability to harass the corpses of police officers and Party secretaries, while swooning to banned Western music; a heartbroken actress performs a public suicide by stepping into the jaws of a wild tiger, watched nonchalantly by her ex-lover. Extraordinary characters inspire him, their lives pulled and pummeled by fate and politics, as if they are balls of dough in the hands of an all-powerful noodle maker.

Ma Jian's satirical masterpiece allows us a humorous, yet profound, glimpse of those struggling to survive under a system that dictates their every move.

Author: Jian Ma
ISBN-10: 0312424795
ISBN-13: 9780312424794
Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
Language: English
Published: 04/04/2006
Pages: 192
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.55lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.60d

Review Citation(s):
New York Times 05/28/2006 pg. 20