Customer Reviews

Chaos and All That (Fiction from Modern China)

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The entire novel is only 126 pages long, and there's numerous short poems and snippets of songs interspersed throughout. The story itself is filled with that brutal rawness that defines modern literature. No fainting flowers or blushing virgins on these pages. The story follows two women: one a college student and the other a character in a novel the college student is writing. Both characters describe their lives in China during the cultural revolution, and the college student adds in thoughts about her life at a university in Europe. Even though politics and the surrounding culture(s) are integral to this story, at it's core are women. Women dealing with each other, relationships, children, sex, family expectations, pets, school, government, and life in a mad and (sometimes) dangerous world.

What's particularly interesting about Chaos And All That is how Sola Liu takes a wickedly humorous approach to describe growing up during China's Cultural Revolution, which is unlike anything I've ever read about that period.

This is an excellent little book. Not for the squeamish. It's half in-your-face reality and half poetic silliness. I liked it. Not unlike Catcher in the Rye.