The Attic: Memoir of a Chinese Landlord's Son

by Guanlong Cao, Nancy Moskin (Translator)

Novelist Guanlong Cao's autobiographical account of growing up in urban Shanghai affords a rare glimpse into daily life during the forty turbulent years following the Communist Revolution. Forced to the bottom of Chinese society as "class enemies," Cao's family eked out a meager existence in a cramped attic. The details of their day-to-day existence—the endless quest for enough food, its preparation, Cao's schooling and friends, the stirrings of sexual desire, his dreams and fantasies—are brought brilliantly to life in spare yet evocative prose. The memoir illuminates a world largely unknown to Westerners, one where human pettiness, cruelty, joy, and tenderness play themselves out against a backdrop of political upheaval and material scarcity.

Reminiscent of the concise style of classical Chinese memoirs, Cao's lean, elegant prose heightens the emotional intensity of his story. Perceptive and humorous, his voice is deeply original. It is a voice that demands to be heard—for the historical moment it captures as well as for the personal revelations it distills.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, China

255 pages, Hardcover

First published March 3, 1996

Reviews

[Hock Tjoa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a quiet, at times lyrical, at times elegiac, collection of memories of a family of six that lived for nearly thirty years in the one-room attic of a three story building in Shanghai. The author was eight years old and one of four children when the family moved there, reprieved from revolutionary trials as a member of the landlord class by a quirk of fate; some official had issued them a travel pass from their village to the big city.

From descriptions of "foraging" for fruit at wholesalers to ingenious tales of building a crystal radio to charming, almost hilarious stories of life at the Shanghai Automotive School (where "bald Mr. Pong taught theoretical mechanics as if it were theatrical mechanics" and Dean Lu faced down a student during the Cultural Revolution), Cao parcels out details of life during times of revolution with concise serenity.

His references to the 43 million (or more) who perished during the Great Leap Forward and the Five Black and Four Red Categories into which people were pigeon-holed during the Cultural Revolution seem almost benign. So do his musings on living too long, the tale of Japanese villagers who carry aged parents "up the mountain" or failed attempts to assist the passing of his father and his great-grandmother. But he records that he cried.

It is a cultural thing, that serenity.

[Susi Frik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro super interesante y fácil de leer sobre la historia real del día a día de un chino. Sus penas y alegrías, la vida misma.

[Gaby_deutsch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mas que recuerdos son trozos de vida de millones de Chinos que les toco la dura transicion al comunismo en China, donde en cada capitulo se va apreciando la madurez del escritor, todo esto contado de un modo crudo sin sentimentalismo

[Matilda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Libro duro y entrañable a la vez. Muy fácil de leer, cada capítulo constituye un recuerdo de infancia o juventud del autor en el que poco a poco vas descubriendo los estragos de la sociedad china durante el comunismo.

[Lesley Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrifying and wonderful all at once. Loved it!

[Sovatha · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good and not very long memoir to read. It's a memoir that was written more like a novel and divided into small short chapters. The author told the stories of his childhood and growing up in Shanghai. We got to have a glimpse into the life of ordinary Chinese in Shanghai prior and after the Cultural Revolution, how the revolution affected families and everyday life. The chapters on his time at the automotive school show some insights on educational institutions in China under the communist rules. His family was separated by the revolution through family displacement policies, brothers sent to work in the ore mine, sister was sent to rubber plantation where there was nothing to eat and life was like in hell. There were a lot of stories about family. Then the last few chapters where he told the stories of his old parents in their last years were really nostalgic. His father's political status was 'landlord' and that was one of the five black categories, which means death without stretcher, no armband, and no ashes. You might cry at this point!

[Jain · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't read many memoirs, but I really enjoyed this one. Cao writes about his life in Shanghai from the early '50s to late '80s and about his family's efforts to lift themselves out of poverty and to adjust to the shifting policies of the government. The writing style is strong and clear, and the incidents Cao writes about unite to form an engaging and engrossing narrative.

[Christa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was okay, but I have read other memoirs of this time period in China that I liked more.