A Mulher que Chora

by Su Tong, Fernanda Abreu (Translator)

Os habitantes da aldeia do Pêssego, no sopé da montanha do Norte, são proibidos de chorar. Para manter os olhos sempre secos, a órfã Binu aprende a chorar pelos cabelos, e é isso que ela faz quando seu jovem marido é levado à montanha da Grande Andorinha para trabalhar na construção da Muralha da China.
A saga de Binu, que percorre centenas de quilômetros para entregar um casaco a seu amado, é um mito milenar chinês, transmitido oralmente de geração em geração e recontado aqui por Su Tong, o consagrado autor do romance Lanternas vermelhas, levado ao cinema por Zhang Yimou.
Ao longo da jornada, Binu tem como companheiro um sapo cego, que ela desconfia que seja a reencarnação de uma mãe à procura do filho perdido. Entre inúmeros perigos e maravilhas, ela se depara com um mercado de gente, é aprisionada por meninos-cervos e acorrentada a um caixão de defunto. Acusada de louca e de feiticeira, vê a morte de perto mais de uma vez.
Por trás da exuberante fantasia da fábula, Su Tong desvela a maneira como a cultura e a sociedade chinesas têm sido percebidas ao longo dos séculos. Fala também de sentimentos universais, como o amor e a persistência contra as injustiças e adversidades.

"Tão rico quanto uma peça de brocado, o livro mescla violência e perdão, severidade e ternura. Uma reconstrução magistral de um antigo conto de fadas." - The Observer

Genres: China, Fiction, Mythology, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Asia, Literary Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2006

About the author

Su Tong (simplified Chinese: 苏童; traditional Chinese: 蘇童; pinyin: Sū Tóng; born January 23, 1963) is the pen name of Chinese writer Tong Zhonggui (童忠贵 Tóng Zhōngguì). He was born in Suzhou and lives in Nanjing.

He entered the Department of Chinese at Beijing Normal University in 1980, and started to publish novels in 1983. He is now vice president of the Jiangsu Writers Association. Known for his controversial writing style, Su is one of the most acclaimed novelists in China.

(from Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Su_Tong

Reviews

[Henk · Rating 1 out of 5]

So much crying for something without any convincing emotional pay-off - 1 star
A fairytale retelling of a classical Chinese myth about a woman who brought down the Chinese wall through her love for her husband sounds pretty exciting as a concept but unfortunately this book has quite some flaws on the storytelling front.
Maybe this is partly due to the translation but the text doesn’t feel smooth or well rounded, sometimes I had the feeling I missed words in sentences.

But the largest problem for me was the way Binu as main character seems only to be capable to cry and resign herself to her fate. Maybe that is supposed to be a reflection of Taoism but as a reader I thought many times: “What the hell is she (not) doing and why for heavens sake?”.
I did like the magical elements, for instance the blind frog, the musing about reincarnation and in general the way everything in the world of Binu seems to be imbedded with a soul and a kind of magic. But this was in the end offset by so much crying that even the tragic conclusion didn’t do anything to me on an emotional level.

[Kavita · Rating 1 out of 5]

Binu and the Great Wall is a retelling of the legend of Meng Jiangnu and is based during the Qin dynasty of China. The original story dealt with the suffering of the common people, a lot of whom were kidnapped and forced to build the Great Wall of China, a structure that still stands strong today. The concept is interesting and must have been a very strong critique of the ruling dynasty at the time.

However, this retelling leaves a lot to be desired. The story has Binu living in a village where no one ever cried with their eyes. So Binu ends up crying from all over her body, which gets to be a little tiresome after the first time. From start to finish, you only see Binu crying from her hands, her breasts, her legs, her nose, and pretty much every part of the body. I didn't really find it appealing.

Instead of showing this as an adventure story with a strong criticism of the king and slavery, the book had a strong flavour of the 'sacrificing woman who would do anything for her husband', which was a turn off. Surely, women can have adventures without having to cry their way through it or being all righteous and self-sacrificing about their destination! Everything Binu does is presented through the lens of her devotion to her husband, and it is overdone. For a story that was originally about a strong woman setting out to find her husband, this is a major regression.

Apart from the story, I am not sure how good the translation is. The writing appears to be stilted in many places. This was definitely a skim and rush book for me. Once you had seen Binu crying through some part of her body, you had pretty much read through the book.

[Sara XuHerondale · Rating 1 out of 5]

This one star is too much for this boring ass book. It's so unnecessarily long, probably unedited, and I did NOT have fun. I skimmed through the second half because I just couldn't bring myself to care. It was too repetitive and stupid, with so many completely useless moments. If this were a short story it would be fine, but 300+ pages of this shit? No thank you. This just might be the first book I will give away to a library, I don't wanna see it on my shelves ever again.

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe it's because I'm an ugly American, but I didn't like this book. I'm giving it two star because of the wonderful writing in the beginning and in other places, so it's more two stars for style.

I knew about this legend before I picked up this book, so I wasn't coming into the story as a total know nothing. I also haven't read anything by Tong before, and, in all fairness, I should point out that I haven't read much in the way of Chinese literature. In truth, part of the problem I had with this book could be due to translation issues.

The first 80 pages of the book are pretty good. Tong does a good job setting up the whole myth. It's true Binu feels more like a type than a person, but sometimes that works in book. I liked the frog.

BUT (and this is a little bit of a spoiler)





Things go wonky. There really is no other word for it. There is this huge (okay, not huge, but it felt huge) section where Binu faints and then gets sexually molested. While I can understand this would undoubtably occur because of (a) the male dominated culture (b) she's traveling alone, Tong's description lingered way too long on some aspects of it, almost as if he thought the reader would get some type of "happy" out of it. Now, this could be a translation issue; I haven't read enough by Tong to know. It, however, put the reader in an uncomfortable position of voygeur. It was strange. The reader wasn't put in the view of the victim, but, almost, in the view of the molestor. It also didn't help that some of those molestors were young boys.

I almost put the book down, but I prefer to force myself to read things that make me a little uncomfortable.

Sadly, the book never seemed to get quite back on track to the end. Binu starts on a journay, yet the trip is described in jumps. Some things just seemed put into the story for no good reason. It also feels like Tong takes a story for women and drags it kicking and screaming into a story for men. (I know, it sounds sexist, but that's what it feels like).

[Rhys · Rating 4 out of 5]

A remarkable novel that is the re-telling of an ancient myth. Su Tong not only re-tells the myth but fleshes it out considerably, and yet his style is so spare and skeletal and offbeat that this fleshing out feels genuinely strange in form, and thus perfectly in tune with the dead men and ghosts that are such a large part of the story, who are also spare and skeletal and offbeat. Even when the ghosts never appear, they are constantly alluded to, the threat of their presence saturates the emotions and actions of the characters as thoroughly as if they are utterly real and imminent.

Binu is a woman who lives in Peach Village. Her husband is abducted by government agents and taken north to work on the Great Wall, a project that will cost the lives of untold thousands of workers. Binu resolves to seek him out, taking warm winter clothing for him with her. She is discouraged from making the attempt. The characters she meets on the journey are mostly obstructive and some have criminal intentions towards her. Everywhere she goes she is exploited and tested to the limits. Even the frog who is her only travelling companions seems to abandon her at one stage.

The harshness of life is one of the main impressions that this novel leaves with the reader, but also the strength of love and how the determination of an individual against the inertia of a mighty system and culture can produce unexpected results, even if not exactly the ending one might be hoping for. This is not to say that the ending is an unhappy ending. It is neither happy nor unhappy but just very unusual, and yet it feels right in the context of all that has gone before.

[Ruby Jusoh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmm, I did not enjoy it at all and that is strange considering how much I love the author's previous novels. A 2/5 from me.
.
The tale is retelling of the lore of Lady Meng Jiang in China. She wept for her husband who had to labour for the construction of the Great Wall. She walked for thousands of miles to give him winter clothes. On her way there, she encountered all kinds of people - refugees and lords and thieves. He was already dead, of course. She grieved so severely that the Wall started quaking to reveal the husband's bones.
.
I am not sure why I disliked it. I was NOT invested at all. Was it the ancient setting? Or the detached way the story was written? I noticed that I dislike books with folklorish flavour. Is it a matter of taste? If they don't feel realistic, I don't find them relatable? Who knows.
.
But anyways, Su Tong's other books are more contemporary and politically-charged. I love alllll of them. I feel that their stories are more emotive and detailed too. So... I suppose there will always be one or two books by our fav authors we dislike or feel very meh about

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

A wonderful myth, but this retelling of it lacks energy. I don't know if the fault for this lies in oversentimentality on Su Tong's part, or through some less than insightful translation, but this quickly became very skimmable, unlike Su Tong's other books. I would recommend easily Rice or Raise the Red Lantern over this one.

[Martina Kernosh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, I didn’t really understand the plot or what the significance of the different points of the story were. But it was mostly an interesting/engaging time so I’m not too upset about. All in all weird book, maybe it would be better if I return after exploring the myth it’s based on.

[Irene · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

[MarjoK · Rating 3 out of 5]

Myyttinen, kiinalainen. Puoli kirjaa varmaan tuli luettua ennen kuin alkoi enemmän kiinnostua. Mutta kyllä tuosta elokuvan saisi.

[Melaslithos · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was a bit disappointed in this book.

I always found that the legend of Meng Jiangnu (Binu in this version) was a beautiful one, but here, I felt that it lacks the beauty and elegance of the original version (or at least, the image I have in my mind).

Binu doesn't appear at likeable at all, and because of that, we can't really appreciate all the hardships she went through, all the love and devotion she had towards her husband.

[Milan/zzz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Užasno me smara. Potpuno neočekivano. Ovo je prva knjiga "Mitova" sa kojom se davim već mesecima. Pročitaću je svakako ali sad samo želim da je maknem sa "trenutno čitam"-liste.
Za sad ću je oceniti jednom zvezdom a kad je završim ukoliko budem mislio da je to malo (u šta čisto sumnjam) dodaću joj.

[Sissel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read about 50% in earnest before I started to skim the pages. In the beginning I found this book quite enjoyable, but I soon found myself very frustrated with the main character Binu. A lot of terrible things happen to the poor woman, but she was not prepared at all for the journey she was taking on, so I found it very hard to sympathise with her.

[Stepan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't familiar with the myth of Meng Jiangnu upon which Binu is based. As such, the book didn't really resonate with me and I found it, at times, hair pullingly ponderous and slow.

[Sanja_Sanjalica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Predivna priča, zanimljiva mitologija...

[Catherine King · Rating 1 out of 5]

I saw that this book was rated as under three stars, and I was like, "It can't really be that bad, I'll read it and give it some acclaim." The story of Binu, the faithful and loving wife whose prayers brought down the Great Wall, is one that I read when I was in second grade and it's stuck with me for many years. I really love modern retellings of myths, so I was looking forward to this book.

Um. The wisdom of the Goodreads crowd was not wrong.

I admit, I read the first few chapters of this book and then skimmed to the end. The writing failed to grip me. I was bored! Bored bored bored. I appreciate that a writer needs to do some padding to flesh out a fairytale, but come on. And then the ending was as abrupt as could be.

The biggest mistake that Su Tong made, though, is this: Binu and Qiliang's relationship itself is underdeveloped. We spend less than a sentence with Qiliang and Binu as a married couple - they sound to all effect like a marriage of convenience, but he's handsome and honorable. That's all we get before he's marched up North to this mysterious public works project. This is supposed to be the love that drives one woman to take an unimaginable journey, to accomplish a mythical feat, a downright miracle. But I got no sense that any love actually existed between Qiliang and Binu. It was all told, not shown. And that probably more than anything else hamstrung any effect this book could have had on me.

[Molly Lazer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite the mostly poor reviews I read here on Goodreads, I enjoyed this retelling because I acknowledged that it was exactly what it said it was: a fairy tale. The characterization was fairly flat, but that is the nature of the fairy tale. Tong takes the reader on a journey through different parts of China, each with its own quirks that kept me engaged with Binu's plight. I was going to rate this with four stars--until I got to the last two chapters. In these chapters, we are removed from Binu's point of view and thrust into that of the workers and bosses at Great Swallow Mountain. We only see Binu through their eyes, and after over 200 pages of going on this journey with her, not getting to actually be with her when she receives the news about her husband was a disappointment. Additionally, the book stops rather than ending. I did my research on the original story to see that, originally, it ends with Binu's death. I am fine with this book ending before that, but the fact that we didn't actually get to SEE the Great Wall fall down or see (through Binu's eyes) the spirits of the dead workers rise up--or anything after Xiaoman shouted that the wall was coming down and the spirits coming up--was a huge letdown.

[Tugba Oz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goodreads’teki puanının düşüklüğü beni korkutmuştu fakat gayet güzel ve akıcı bir romandı.

Kitap Binu isimli genç kadının, Büyük Sur’a çalışmaya gönderilen kocasına kışlık kaftan götürmek için çıktığı yolculuğu ve başına gelenleri anlatıyor. Hikaye Çin mitolojisinden alınmış ve yazar Su Tong aslında bir Çin efsanesini yazıya aktarmış. Büyülü gerçekçilik de bunun bir parçası olmuş tabi. Yolda geçen hikayeleri severim ve büyülü gerçekçilik ile birleşince masal gibi bir roman olmuş. Ben çok sevdim. Sonunu da gayet beğendim. Sadece başta anlatılan kızların ağlayamadıkları için gözlerini farklı yerlerinden akıtmaları keşke daha çok kullanılsaymış ve yolculuğunun başındaki kurbağa kadından daha çok bahsedilip onun hikayesi de sonuca bağlansaymış dedim. Yine de güzel bir romandı.

[Joshua Gross · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is canongate myths #9: I loved this one. It is much longer than the others so far and I loved reading about China and this myth of Binu and the Great Wall. Almost everyone in this book was terrible, the desperation of the poverty stricken was startling, and it was interesting to read about the great Wall being built. This book has everything that a good myth or story should have and I'm so glad I read it.

[Teodora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Powerful novel based on ancient chinese story about a powerful woman going through different hard situations where even even ghosts pity her. Patriarchal society is portrayed through fact that boys in the village are not allowed to cry or show emotions and so called “rulebook for daughters”. One of the most interesting aspects of the book is the way that people in power are portrayed (scene of horse-man riding during hunt). It reminded me of Gulliver’s Travels.

[Aremae · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn’t like this book at all. I am unable to relate to the main character, Binu who is just stubborn and naive. Despite the many advice from people, she still went ahead to do the things she shouldn’t. Felt really frustrated after she set out on her journey to find her husband.

It’s sad cause I quite like the premise of the book.

[Awaisha Inayat · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the novel sheds light on the harsh and inhumane conditions faced by those who labored on the Great Wall, the narrative sometimes feels overly exaggerated, especially with the repeated and graphic depictions of Binu’s grief including crying from every part of her body. Instead of deepening the emotional impact, it became somewhat tiring to read.

[Tamar Van Der Voet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly don’t have much trouble finishing a book, but I just couldn’t get myself to finish this one… I thought the writing in the beginning of the book was wonderful and interesting, but it became boring to me as the story goes on… Sorry, but defensively wasn’t my favorite!

[Iasmim Vieira · Rating 3 out of 5]

Um livro bem diferente do que eu já li. É uma história muito pesada, triste e carregada de remorso. Mas não gostei do final. Talvez eu esperasse mais, mas a Binu realmente se esforçou muito e sofreu muito até o final.

[L Ot · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you can't write about women anything but how they look, maybe you shouldn't write at all. This was more like lonely incels misogynic sex fantasy more than literature.

[Barbara Kienholz]

didn't finish it. Not the kind of book I can "get into"

[Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Underbar fabulering kring folksaga; tragisk, men okuvlig och bildrik i ett myller av folk och klart vackert språk.

[Laura Pontes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vou dar 3 estrelas porque a decepção foi grande.

[Adan Khan · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was so weird. There were many parts that left me confused. A book that's not for me I guess. I did find the concept interesting.

[Gemma · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5