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3.0 out of 5 stars
Almost an epic, April 3, 2002
There's a fine line between an epic and a very long story, and The Year of the Rat has one foot firmly planted on each side. At 440 pages, I almost gave up before I started, but the book is engaging enough that I read all the way to the 440th page.Why did Lucille Bellucci write such a long novel? Two reasons. First, she spread the story over a long period, well before the Communist invasion of Shanghai, just before, during the take-over, and after the Communist victory was complete. The effect is like a boat that cruises gently on the lake at some points, then speeds up and bounces on the water at others. There are large gaps that span several months, particularly in the final third of the book, which gives it that epic feel. The second reason the novel is so long is because of the minute detail Bellucci describes, both about her characters and about Shanghai of 1948-49. If her research into the lifestyle and implements are accurate (and I know some are) she has done a fabulous job of bringing that era to life. She describes in equal detail the tribulations of her many tragic characters, who also come to life on the pages. Typical of Bellucci's decriptions is this passage about the West Lake Crab: "The West Lake crab, the doo zah har, is so famous throughout the land that rich men as far away as Hong Kong will contrive to have quantities shipped to them. Its consumption always engenders merriment and messiness, for one has to roll up sleeves and wear aprons, and there is much teasing about who ate the most and who took more than his share of the females." What I liked best about the novel is how Bellucci treats a touchy political issue through the disinterested eyes of a foreign national in Shanghai. Mary Conti, her semi-autobiographical principle character, is part Chinese, part Italian, tied by fate to the proverbial railroad tracks as an unstoppable train slowly rolls her way. The train is not good, nor is it bad, it is just getting ominously closer as each character faces her personal fears. What doesn't work well are the few passages that recount history on the larger plane. The Year of The Rat is a very intimate story of the day-to-day lives of a small enclave of resident foreigners in Shanghai. To be suddenly transported to the world stage elsewhere in China feels very much out of place, breaking up the story the way a commercial breaks up a movie on television. Overall, the book is well-written, but it is long, and in places seems out of place. If China or Chinese history fascinates you and you enjoy epic tragedy, this is the book for you. The reviewer is David Leonhardt, author of Climb your Stairway to Heaven: the 9 habits of maximum happiness
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