قبلات لينين

by Yan Lianke, محمد آيت حنا (Translator)

كان الخريف مشرفاً على نهايته، وقمرٌ ضئيلٌ شحيحٌ قد ارتفع عند حواشي الحقول المحصودة التي ينبعث منها أريجٌ يجتاح العالمَ، خليطٌ من عطر الحبوب الدّافئ، ورائحة التّراب النّفّاذة. هناك مكث جالساً مبهوتاً، حتّى وقت متأخّر من اللّيل. وفي النّهاية، كأنّما حرص على أن يعتذر اعتذارات عميقةً كبئر، قرصَ فخذه ولطمها بوحشيّةٍ عدّة مرّات، قبل أن يجثو على ركبتيه، ويركعَ ثلاث ركعات شطر ما يُفترض أنّه اتّجاهُ روسيا، مسقط رأس الرّجل العظيم، مردّداً في قرارة نفسه شدّةَ أسفه: "سامحني، غداً تصدر "مذكّرة في شأن الجهود التي ينبغي بذلها في إقليم شوانهواي لجمع الموارد اللازمة للحصول على رفات لينين" ومن ثَمّ تُعمّم على كلّ لجنة، وكلّ مكتب وكلّ مقاطعة."

Genres: China, Fiction, Chinese Literature, Literature, Asia, Historical Fiction, Novels

646 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Yan Lianke (simplified Chinese: 阎连科; traditional Chinese: 閻連科; pinyin: Yán Liánkē; Wade–Giles: Yen Lien-k'e, born 1958) is a Chinese writer of novels and short stories based in Beijing. His work is highly satirical, which has resulted in some of his most renowned works being banned.

He started writing in 1978 and his works include: Xia Riluo (夏日落), Serve the People (为人民服务), Enjoyment (受活), and Dream of Ding Village (丁庄梦). He has also published more than ten volumes of short stories. Enjoyment, which was published in 2004, received wide acclaim in China. His literature has been published in various nations, and some of his works have been banned in China.

(Wikipedia)

Reviews

[بثينة العيسى · Rating 4 out of 5]

قبلات لينين هي رواية قائمة على المفارقات؛ رفاتُ «لينين» الشيوعي يتحوّل إلى سلعة رأسمالية، وما سمّته الرواية «التعاونيات» التي يفترض بها أن تكون تطبيقًا عمليًا لمبادئ الاشتراكية تحوّلت إلى مصّاص دماء لكل مقدّراتك. المعاقون في الرواية، أيضًا، لم يكن بالإمكان ضمهم في النسيج الاجتماعي إلا كأعضاء في فرقة ترفيهية.
المفارقة الأخرى، أن القرية التي يعيش فيها الشلُّ والعمي والبُكم هي، المسماة «طيّبة»، هي - قبل تدخّل الدولة - تجسيد نموذجيّ لليوتوبيا الماركسية؛ «من كل حسب قدرته إلى كل حسب حاجته»، فكلّ نقصٍ عند زيدٍ يتكفّل به عمرو، وكل إعاقة هنا تعوّضها مقدرة هناك. وحيث لا ملّاك ولا فلاحون، مجرد بشر يتشاركون كل شيء؛ المال والعمل والحياة في بساطتها.
توضع هذه الرواية على الرّف نفسه مع أورويل، فهي رواية تحولات كبرى عن زمن «ما بعد الثورة»، عن انقلاب الحلم إلى كابوس، وتحوّل «الأيام الفردوسية» إلى «شقاءٍ أحمر». في المشهد الذي تحوّلت فيه العجوز ماو تشي «الثورية سابقًا» إلى عدوة للثورة، صوريًا واستجابة لحاجة الثورة إلى العقاب كنتُ أستحضر دقيقتيّ الكراهية في 1984، وأمام تحذيرات العجوز سمعت الخفوت الآيس للحمار بنجامين في «مزرعة الحيوان»، هناك أيضًا وشائج مع «في انتظار البرابرة» لكويتزي، فالعدو إن لم يوجد وجب علينا اختراعه. الأوضح طبعًا كانت التناصّات مع «عمى» ساراماغو، عندما حجز «الناس-تامّون» المعاقين وقاموا بتجويعهم مقابل تخليهم عن كل ما يملكونه، وما تلا ذلك من تفاصيل أفضل عدم فضحها.
الرواية في المجمل غزيرة، وإن كان يان ليانكه يصنّف نفسه بأنه «كاتب بربري لا يخضع أدبه للقواعد» فهذا لأنه لم يكتب على النموذج الغربيّ، وليس اعتماده على الهوامشِ والتعليقات ما أعنيه هنا، بل إمعانِه في التكرار، في كتابةِ ما يعرفهُ المتلقي وما يستطيع تخيّله، تكريسه للمكرّس وإمعانًا في التأكيد على ما صار معرفة قديمة.
في صفحات بعينها كان يتحوّل من روائي إلى حكواتيّ على طريقة شهرزاد عندما تصفُ حفلة أنس بغدادية في أربع صفحات واصفة كل طبق. لكن ينبغي القول؛ كانت شهرزاد أكثر براعةً بكثير.

وأخيرًا، ممتنة كثيرًا للقدير محمد آيت حنا، الذين قرأوا الرواية يستطيعون تحسس الجهد المبذول في توطين المعنى في تربةٍ عربية.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yan Lianke is the author of Dream of Ding Village, which was longlisted for the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize, and shortlisted for the International Foreign Fiction Prize. (See my review). He lives in China, but is able to skirt censorship to write witty fables exposing corruption and greed – so far, without interference. However, in Lenin’s Kisses, he has adopted a cunning strategy to allude to the constraints under which he works.

As soon as you start reading the novel, you subliminally notice something strange about it. Without being conscious of it, experienced readers somehow absorb all kinds of sub-texts as they read, and in its very first sentence Lenin’s Kisses inverts one of the conventions we all know really well:

Look, in the middle of a sweltering summer, when people couldn’t liven, [1] it suddenly started snowing. This was hot snow. [3]

Can you see it?

It’s the footnotes. It’s not my typo: No 2 is deliberately omitted. There are no even-numbered footnotes throughout the whole book, nor are there any even-numbered chapters. If you’re reading the Text Publishing edition with the introduction by the translator Carlos Rojas, you know this before you start reading. He says that this discontinuous numbering is Yan Lianke’s way of expressing ‘the tragic sentiment of the novel’, but he also says that it can also be interpreted as an allusion to censorship in China, reminding us that there are things unsaid in the novel. And this technique really works. The brain is so used to expecting the normal sequence that each time this expectation is inverted – even though the reader has been told about it beforehand – the brain objects, and you start a quick flick back over the text to look for the missing number or the missing chapter before you remember that no, it’s not you, you haven’t missed it. The footnote isn’t there – and it’s not there for a reason. It’s a very effective technique to highlight the self-censorship that Lianke employs in order to be able to publish. It also heightens the sense of absurdity that underlies this strange tale.


To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2013/01/06/le...

[julieta · Rating 3 out of 5]

La historia suena entretenida, y lo es: Hay un pueblo de discapacitados, llamado Buenavida, perdido en las montañas de China. La historia la va contando junto a la historia de el pueblo, en anotaciones que aparecen en cada capítulo. A un jefe de condado (que está enredado en la historia de este pueblo, por haber dejado embarazada a la hija de la jefa del pueblo), se le ocurre la idea de comprar el cuerpo de Lenin, hacerle un mausoleo, y así atraer turistas, y que todo el condado haga más dinero. En medio de esto, decide armar un grupo de teatro, en donde los actos van de un ciego que truena petardos en los oídos, niñas enanas, un niño que tuvo polio, tiene solo una pierna y brinca sobre vidrios, etc, el espectáculo se vuelve todo un éxito y así empiezan a ganar muchísimo dinero para juntarlo y poder comprar el cuerpo. En medio suceden cosas horribles, y otras graciosas, pero la historia está muy bien armada y te lleva sin parar. Esa parte me gustó.

Ahora, hay una frialdad y falta de pasión en todo lo que cuenta, como si todo tuviera que ser en grande, pero no hay mucha personalidad, o reacciones en los personajes, ni siquiera en los principales. Eso hace que me sienta como alejada de el libro, aunque me pareció entretenido y bien hecho. Me quedo con sentimientos encontrados.

El caso es que el pueblo de donde sale todo son todos discapacitados, y es muy fácil, a la hora de la hora, que los hombres "enteros" se aprovechen de ellos, robándolos, y en una escena horrible, violando a unas de sus chicas. En especial esa escena me pareció escalofriante y no entendí para que la leía, pero igual seguí. Y entiendo esto como una especie de crítica, pero solo es porque los discapacitados al final de cuentas, hagan lo que hagan, son vistos como menos, como alguien de quien se pueden aprovechar los demás. Solo puedo interpretar lo que quiere decir Lianke, aunque cuenta la historia con maestría, pero me deja intentando entender sus razones.

La historia me interesó, porque últimamente he leído muchas historias relacionadas con Stalin y Lenin, y quería ver un poco de la visión China al respecto. Y esta historia es muy buena en ese sentido, aunque soy un poco emocional, y me hubiera gustado que los personajes reaccionaran un poco más cuando les pasaban cosas geniales, o también horribles. Siempre parecen no reaccionar, y la historia sigue y sigue.
Igual es una novela distinta a las que suelo leer, y eso me gustó.

[Eylül Görmüş · Rating 4 out of 5]

Çin'in en gözde yazarlarından Yan Lianke'den daha önce Günler, Aylar, Yıllar'ı okuyup bayılmıştım; Canlanan romanının da dilimize çevrildiğini görünce hemen başladım okumaya. Epey farklı iki eser olduğunu söylemem lazım.

Yazar, kitabın başındaki önsözde zaten edebiyatının geçirdiği dönüşümden söz ediyor biraz. "Bu dünyayla ve gerçeklikle yüzleşmeye eskisi kadar hevesli değilim artık" diyor, bu da ilk dönem eserlerine göre daha fantastik, daha mitik metinler yazmaya yönelmesini açıklıyor.

Canlanan: Lenin'den Öpücükler de böyle. Körler, sağırlar ve topalların yaşadığı Canlanan köyündeyiz. "Baksana, yazın bu kavurucu sıcağında, insanlar artık canlanmadığında, kar yağmaya başladı. Sıcak kar bu." diye başlıyor roman ve yazar sıradan bir hikaye okumayacağımızı ilk cümleden bize bildirmiş oluyor. Mahsullerini kaybeden köylülerin imdadına kaymakam Liu yetişiyor: Rusya’dan Lenin’in naaşını satın alıp köydeki Ruh Dağı’na yapacakları anıt mezara koymayı ve yaratılacak turizm geliriyle köylüyü kıtlıktan kurtarmayı kafasına koyuyor, Lenin'i satın almak için gereken parayı toplamak için engelli köylülerden müteşekkil gösteri toplulukları oluşturuyor, köylüler turneye çıkıyor, olaylar gelişiyor.

Yaklaşık 600 sayfalık bu hacimli roman, bu turneyi, cesedi satın alma girişimlerini, köylülerin ve kaymakamın başına gelenleri anlatıyor. Kitapta bizzat yazarın koyduğu bol bol dipnot var, bu dipnotlar vasıtasıyla köyün ve bölgenin tarihini de aktarıyor Lianke, kimi zaman onlarca sayfa süren bu dipnotlar "laklakiyat" adıyla bölüm sonlarına eklenmiş, kimi dipnotun da kendi dipnotları var, başta biraz kafa karıştırıcı gelse de sonra alışıyor insan.

Olayların seyrini anlatmayayım ama şahane bir komünizm ve kapitalizm eleştirisi yapıyor yazar. Her iki sistemin de çığrından çıkma potansiyellerini görüp, ikisiyle de ince ince alay ediyor, ortaya masalsı bir hiciv çıkarıyor. "Saramago’nun yapıtlarını andıran bir toplum alegorisi" diyor arka kapak, doğru, andırıyor sahiden ve çok sevdim bu tarafını ama bence Saramago'nun müthiş duygusallığı yok bu eserde, en azından bana onun kitapları kadar nüfuz edemedi, bunu da ekleyeyim. Ama yine de çok severek okudum.

[Pauline Van etc. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lenin’s Kisses by Chinese writer Yan Lianke is an amazing book. First, it is a complex and well written story with lots of viewpoints and footnotes. I found it hard to read at first because of the footnotes that were super long and essential to the understanding of the novel. But very quickly, I got hooked by Lianke’s beautiful writing style, his fantastic storytelling skills and by how he mastered both the ironic parts and the serious one flawlessly.

The story is about the small village of Benaise where people with various handicaps live and try to survive despite their problems. A new communist official convinces them to put on a show in order to make money to buy Lenin’s mummified body from the Russians to ensure a prosperous touristic future to the region. The story is entertaining and I enjoyed the references to important historical events in China’s history like the Communist Revolution, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. This freedom of expression surrounding some of the darkest parts of Chinese history sadly makes Lianke censured in his native country. It is too bad as he is an amazing writer with a rich imagination and a talent to describe his fellow Chinese.

I highly recommend Lenin’s Kisses for readers who like magical realism and also for people interested in understanding Chinese culture.

[مروان عثمان · Rating 5 out of 5]

تنتمي لفئة روايات إعادة كتابة التاريخ مثل رواية (الرجل الذي كان يحب الكلاب) هذة المرة المكان هو قرية منسية كل سكانها من المعاقين في جمهورية الصين الشعبية.
لدى يان ليانكه مخزون كبير من الحكايات، يكتب الهوامش داخل الرواية ليحكي من خلالها أساطير سكان القرية، وفهم عميق لكل الشخصيات لا يجعلك تتمكن من الوقوف على من المخطئ أو المصيب.

ماو تشي كالنبي موسى تقود شعبًا من المعاقين، تعرف مصالحهم أكثر منهم لكنها لا تجبرهم على شيء.

ليو يانغك رئيس الإقليم رجل حالم، لا يمانع من بعض الفساد في سبيل الحلم، لا يستغل السكان لكنه يعرف كيف يغويهم، يُلهم بفكرة الاتيان برفات لينين إلى الصين بعد انهيار الاتحاد السوفيتي وإقامة ضريح له في الصين يرى من خلاله أن جميع السكان سيمتلكون بسببه فائضًا من الطعام والمال وستتعب أقدامهم من الراحة، وفي نفس الوقت يراوده حلم قديم أن يرى صورته إلى جانب صور الزعماء ماو تسي تونج، ماركس، إنجلز، كيم إيل سونج..

الترجمة عظيمة ومهمة مرهقة جدا أداها محمد آيت حنا بالإتقان الذي جعله يترجم ��لأوبرا الصينية في الرواية إلى شعر عربي مُقفى.

لم أفهم فقط سبب ترتيب الفصول ب١ ثم ٣ ثم ٥ ف٧ في كل باب.

النهاية من أجمل نهايات الروايات التي قرأتها، تليق بالأسطورة التي صنعها الكاتب طوال صفحات الرواية.

[Sam · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of the single worst books I have ever read. I can mostly put this down to the meaning being lost in the translation, given that its author Yan Lianke is one of China's most celebrated writers.
That being said, this simply doesn't work as a book of English language fiction. There are several stories happening at once and no answers and very few resolutions offered at its ending. Characters are self-centred and obtuse and settings are average at best.
The English translation comes across as childish and mediocre and its 4.11 average rating on Goodreads astounds me.
The blurb hints at this being a black tragicomedy yet I saw no elements of this in its 500 pages. Apart from the pure absurdity of the whole premise.
It is needlessly long and could have been cut down by at least 300 pages and made into a coherent and more interesting story.
I also found one aspect of this book to be annoying virtually from page 1; the book is filled with footnotes and further reading, this is a work of fiction an these are neither wanted or required. This made for stilted reading and pointless additional information. It's as if the author and translator thought the reader stupid.
I was also confused further by the suspicious lack of the number 2. There are no second chapters, instead the book simply skips to chapter 3. There are also no second footnotes, these seemed to be even less structured than the book and storyline.
I am surprised that this bad of a book was produced by one of Australia's most celebrated small publishers, Text.
Whether or not this book was ever actually edited remains a mystery to me, as does any form of praise or positive reaction it might receive.
I am put off Chinese authors for life and would not wish a reading of this book upon my most hated enemies. It was pure torture.

[Libros Raquel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Serían 4 estrellas y media. Me ha parecido un libro con el que he pasado de la risa al llanto, de la indignación a la alegría. Ciertamente Lianke no es un autor que te deje igual en sus lecturas.

En esta ocasión nos explica los éxitos y desgracias de Buenavida, un pueblo perdido de China en el que solamente vive gente discapacitada. Un día, el jefe del condado que les ofrecerá un acuerdo que no se podrán negar...

Una crítica mordaz al sistema comunista.

¡Qué historia! ¡Qué personajes! ¡Y qué final!

Los habitantes de Buenavida estarán para siempre en mi corazón.

De verdad, leedlo. Es una pasada.

[Adrian · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a word, superb! Lenin’s Kisses is an incredibly witty, satirical novel full of communist kitsch, loveably bizarre characters, and a plot device that in itself is worthy of a 5-star rating.
The book can be enjoyed as an entertaining comedy/drama in its own right, however, for the more analytically minded, the novel is a bitingly witty satire of the pardoxical Red Tourism industry within China, that can be found in any places connected with Communist Party history, not least of which would be Mao’s birthplace Shaoshan.
The plot keeps the reader guessing, and the sheer unpredictability of the novel turns it into a surefire page turner. It’s a book that can make you laugh, make you cry, and most importantly, leaves the reader with a sense of total satisfaction upon completing it. Unlike man novels, wherein one asks, “why did that have to happen?” Lenin’s Kisses takes the reader through a darkly comical satire of Communist Nostalgia to a very well-rounded conclusion.
Why this book has not won either the Booker or the Nobel Prize for Literature is beyond me.

[Lana]

"على هذه الأرض كائناتٌ وُلدت لتصنع المعجزات، كائناتٌ تعيش لتحقّق المعجزات، وكائناتٌ أخرى لم تأتِ إلى العالم إلّا لانتطار المعجزات، كائنات تواصل الانتظارَ حتّى آخر يوم من أيّامِ وجودها البائس."


القصة سيئة والحبكة أسوء، تقسيم الكتاب غريب، فصل رواية وفصلين تعليقات أو هوامش، الترجمة رديئة غير مفهومة وكثير مصطلحات غير فصيحة؛ عربية من اللهجة العامية، أول رواية أقرأها بالأدب الصيني، مُحبطه.

[V · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the Chinese version, which seems quite different from the English translation. I was so impressed by another book (The Four Books, which hasn't been translated into English yet) that I decided to attend the Int'l Man Booker's Reading event in Southbank Centre in London last week. So the only translation of this book I heard was from the reading at the event. I have to say the English translation made the text seem a lot more beautiful. The original language is quite different, very crude and coarse. The book is written in the Hunan dialect. So it was quite difficult to follow, I had to concentrate more. But this didn't diminish the value of this book. I loved it, almost as much as The Four Book.
I found the style very interesting. The author was again stretching the credibility of its stories. Every detail could be reality, but the story as whole was clearly fictional. It was very sad to read...

[Iza Cupial · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kocham Cię Yanie, gałganie ;)

[Fatima Al-Quwaie · Rating 3 out of 5]

خليط بين فنتازيا أطفال منتصف الليل لسلمان رشدي و وخطورة الأنظمة الشمولية في رائعة جورج أورويل 1984 .. غريبة

[Çağlar Sayar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mikhail Bulgakov'un siyasi hiciviyle Marquez'in Güney Amerika kırsalıni içeren büyülü gercekciliginin bir sentezi ve cin toplumunu irdeleyen bir kitap.Genel anlamda begendkm

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

For all its failed promises, which are legion, Marxism (at least in its greatest remaining manifestation, the the People's Republic) has given us great sardonic literature. "Lenin's Kisses", with its premise of rescuing Lenin's corpse from a declining Russia and installing in China as a rural tourist attraction, and it's highly successful troupe of people with disabilities, gives us a Rabelaisian take on a "worker's paradise" that is in fact an inferno. Yan Lianke sees through the rhetoric of a regime that is no longer Maoist but instead corporate-communism (not that Mao fares well in this book; Yan clearly agrees that the Great Leader's economic policies needlessly sacrificed the people he claimed to be helping). In the torments (often literal) inflicted on this very remote community of people with disabilities by those without disabilities is a clear metaphor for a kleptocratic bureaucracy and a disdain for those who do not enjoy the Shanghai glitz. One must be grateful for Lianke's witty and jaundiced take on the hypocrisies of the non-People's non-Republic. One must also grieve for those whose suffering inspired it.

[Mariam Alazmi · Rating 5 out of 5]

من سلالة مينغ الى يوم الحالي
تاريخ الصين مدون في طيبه
عالم جديد وتدوين جديد
جميل جداً
انيق
ومؤلم جداً في اخر ١٥٠ صفحة
استمتعت بقراءته
مكتوب بحبكة وصعب القراءة
مجهود جبار وحريء من مترجم استحدث كلمات عربية فقط لتوصيل معنى الكلمة
ناس-تامين / ايام فردوسية
وعديد من مصطلحات
راح تبقى ببالي لان عالم الصين المجهول تبطل من اوسع ابوابه وبطريقه سرد جديدة
قالب روائي يعتمد على الحواشي والشرح والجمال والسعة

[Jorge Guajardo]

This is an excellent piece of literature and one of the most illustrative works on China. Just as García Márquez helps the reader understand Latin America, anyone wanting to understand China should read this book by Yan Lianke.

[كـ · Rating 5 out of 5]

عمل مدهش كفن وكموضوع وكمتن وحاشية .. انسياب رشيق في السرد، قدرة على جذب القارئ من العنوان والغلاف والافتتاحية وأسماء الفصول وترقيمها وقصصها وحواشيها .. هناك مبارزة بين كل ذلك، فالحاشية والهوامش تأتي متفوقة على متن الموضوع، بالأساطير والشرح والتاريخ والشعر وتبيان حقبة مهمة في تاريخ الصين ..

حسنًا، موضوع الرواية المدهش الذي قام على المتناقضات والتضادات، فالصين الاشتراكية البروليتارية تتجه لشراء رفات لينين من موسكو معقل اللينية عن طريق رئيس إقليمها جنيًا للثورة وتطبيقًا للرأسمالية في مفارقة صادمة ولكن ديستويية ، وذلك عن طريق توظيف لأهل طيّبة العميان، والعرجان والأقزام والمعاقين والمشوهين والبكم والصم بإقامة العروض التي تميز بها كل هؤلاء الناقصين ظاهريًا تطوافًا بأرض الصين ، وتحقيقًا لمعجزات لم تستطع الناس التامة على تحقيقها أو إنجازها وهم بكامل عافيتهم ..

الرواية تأخذنا في رحلة ممتعة في بلاد الصين وتاريخها السياسي والنضالي والشعبوي والفلكوري عبر قصص شخوصها بين المتن والهوامش لتنسج قصة بارعة ممتعة ومذهلة ومشوقة نرى فيها تجلي وجوه بعض الروائيين مثل جورج أورويل وزامياتين وآين رند ويوسا وماركيز وساراماغو في توليفة لرواية ديستوبية من بلاد العميان والبكم والعرجان وذوي العاهات، وانتهاءًا بنهاية مدهشة أكثر ،متطرقة لكثير من المواضيع ، أهمها الاشتراكية والرأسمالية، حقوق المعاقين، الحب والحياة الزوجية والخيانة ، العنصرية والتطرف والنضال لاهداف الثورة، سفالة الإنسان وشجعه وحيونته، الطمع والرغبة في تحقيق الذات، شكر النعم والإلهام الذي خلقه مجتمع المشوهين وتأثيرهم على بلاد الصين التي طافوا وجالوا بها، قدرة الإنسان في خلق معجزات إن قويت نيته على بدنه وكل ما ينقصه، التسلط وقيادة قطيع من البشر وتجلي القائد الملهم الذي يقود أهل طيّبة إلى أيام فردوسية، اليوتوبيا المدنية التي كانت تعيش فيها أرض الرواية حيث كان العميان ارجل ال��سيحين، والمبصر عين الأعمى والأعور والمتكلم لسان الأصم في حياة هادئة اشتراكية بعيدة عن مسميات الثورة وما نتجت عنه وما آلت إليه بعد الضم إلى ما يسمى التعاونيات والكومونات ، والكثير من المواضيع الماتعة والمشوقة التاريخية والشعبية بما يخص الماركسية اللينية لبلاد الصين وما تبعها من دول كانت في حلفها الاشتراكي اليميني من قادة أمثال ماو وهوشي منه ، كاسترو وانور خوجة وغيرهم في سرد لا يعلى عليه وطريقة كتابة جميلة ومبارزة في الوصف ومبالغة في التكرار وإطناب واسترسال في الحواشي والهوامش ..

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me ha gustado mucho la trama, la estructura de la novela y los personajes. Ha sido un acierto las notas al pie de página, que le dan al libro verosimilitud aunque sea una novela de realismo mágico.

No seré muy objetiva porque peca de repetitivo, pesado y en ocasiones parece que no avanzas, pero tiene personajes geniales como la anciana Mao que hace que te olvides de estas cosas.

[Ha Nguyen · Rating 3 out of 5]

probably a 4* if it was a Vietnamese translation (which wouldn't happen, at least officially in the near future). People reading Chinese lit in English are missing out a lot.

[Fer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A verdade, em geral toda esta literatura sobre "que terrível ou ridícula é a China comunista" resulta-me enormemente aborrecida por repetitiva e por celebrada em Ocidente. N-éssima iteração sobre o tema, porém bem escrita e com humor.

[Pep Bonet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have not fully enjoyed this book. I had read a book by the same author -Dream of Ding Village- and I had found it very interesting. A book with a Chinese rhythm, with a story which is clear, where sins of modern China were exposed. But Lenin's kisses is quite different. Very slow rhythm, footnotes which are short stories in themselves, a narrative line on Lenin which seems to get lost at a certain point and a feeling that this book comes from another world, an unknown world.

I must admit that it almost never happens what you think it will. Per se, this is not bad. But I end up the book and feel lost. HAd it been 300 pages, instead of 500, I might have enjoyed it more.

[Ahmed · Rating 3 out of 5]

عندي مشكلة مع الكتاب الصينين .
لا انسجم مع كتاباتهم و اشعر بقسوة و سوداوية تناولهم للأحداث ، أو يكونوا صادقين بشكل مبالغ فيه لا أدري:D
الرواية تتحدث عن رئيس إقليم من الأقاليم الصغيرة في الصين وكانت لديه فكرة جلب رفات لينين إلى الصين و بناء مشهد ليكون مزار سياحي . لكن ما كل الأماني سهلة التحقيق
و نتعرف على السيدة ماوشي التي كابد شظف العيش و تحاول قيادة عائلتها الانثوية لبر الأمان.

الرواية فيها بعض الملل لكن في الأجزاء الأخيرة تتسارع الأحداث بشكل ممتاز

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book but couldn't even finish it. The translation was hard to follow at times and repeated it self. It had such a good premise but after getting half way through I couldn't persevere anymore

[Pechoren a · Rating 4 out of 5]

تحفة رائعة هذه الرواية!
.
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لأول مرة أحب الحواشي أكثر من العمل بنفسه والسبب هو الكتابة المتقنة للعمل بين متنه وحواشيه وقصة عاطفية درامية دافئة جدًا تتحدث عن الاستقلال في عالم لينين الصيني والعروض الترفيهية الغريبة العجيبة!

[Ingunn Walløe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastisk ferielektyre! Annerledes i fortellerstil og språkform, gir et godt innblikk i utviklingen av det moderne Kina. Samtidig spennende og lettlest.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A freak snowstorm in the middle of summer immediately sets the tone for Lenin's Kisses, a deeply satirical, frequently funny, and often tragic work that operates in the register of near-myth or legend. It's this combination of absurd situations, caricatures, simple cause and effect, and poetic in/justice that really reminded me of folk tales like the ones that are everywhere in Chinese culture. This is a style that requires the reader to suspend their disbelief and just go along with this wild ride through Shuanghai County and the fortunes of Liven's citizens—but because this impossible hot snow opens the scene for 受活, it helped me set my expectations and acclimate me quickly to the story's peculiarities.

Yet even though the story is so absurd it's almost laugh out loud funny at times, it never strays from its foundation in historical events, and thus Yan's portrayals of greed, ambition, guilt, hope, bureaucratic red tape, bureaucratic violence are exaggerations only in form but not in truth. This opportunity to read contemporary Chinese fiction directly reflecting on the rapid transformations of the country starting from the revolution up to reform and opening up—and to see how Chinese people today are grappling with the contradictions—was really interesting for me. I was a bit surprised that this book was not outright banned in China, but that's probably because I have a crude understanding of how censorship in China works and of domestic sentiment towards events like the Great Leap Forward or the Cultural Revolution. In the Chinese diaspora, it's very common to condemn these events as unequivocal proof of the failures and excesses of communism. And while Yan characterizes these moments as black disasters, red difficulties, black crimes, and red crimes, I feel like some of this more nuanced (even if still overall negative) processing is more readily present in China itself among people living directly in the legacy of the Chinese Revolution.

Which is not to say that Yan didn't participate in self-censorship, or a satire of it (and at that point, what's the difference?), in his chapter and footnote numbering pattern. In the first chapter, I actually tried flipping back and forth to read the footnotes as I was going through what I thought to be the "main" body of text, but I quickly realized that the footnotes told whole stories unto themselves. It was a simple but effective technique of simultaneously fleshing out this fictional town's history but also seemingly removing half of it altogether.

Something else that made me reflect on my own values as a diasporic Chinese person compared to the values of Chinese people in China were all the references to communist history and Marxism-Leninism. With Lenin's corpse basically haunting the narrative, there's a lot of attention paid to things like what books he wrote, his birth date, his death date, but also other communist figures like the classic Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao lineup and other relatively minor figures of the pantheon like Tito, Hoxha, and even someone I had to look up (José Carlos Mariátegui). In the West, if you can name Lenin's State and Revolution or Imperialism: The Highest State of Capitalism and recognize all these socialist leaders, it's probably safe to say you are a socialist (or maybe just a well-read CIA agent). I think I take for granted this knowledge of Marxist-Leninist history as the purview of dedicated Marxist-Leninists. But I realized while reading 受活 that, like the soc-school that Chief Liu attended, this is probably part of a general, required curriculum for Chinese citizens, and your ability to repeat the orthodoxy is by no means an indication of your support for it.

Overall, this was a pretty engaging and thought-provoking read for someone who has been thinking a lot about modern China and all of its contradictions in the last century. With its satire and absurdity, Lenin's Kisses strikes at the heart of many of these thorny contradictions inherent to "socialism with Chinese characteristics", and I can see why this book might have resonated with so many people who walk beneath communist slogans on streets lined with endless advertisements and shops, or people who pay a ticket and line up for hours like any other tourist attraction to catch a glimpse of the man who is said to have liberated the peasants and the working class of the Chinese nation.

Final thought: like many translated works, I would love to be able to read this in its original language. Don't get me wrong, the translation is very competent (as far as I can tell), but as my dad says, it's often impossible to convey the unique qualities, rhythms, and connotations of Chinese to a foreign language like English. I felt it was most lacking in the awkward constructions of One-Legged-Monkey or Paraplegic Woman. I know firsthand that these definitely sound better in Chinese. And reading this in English made me unsure sometimes if the footnotes that defined certain phrases almost tautologically were like that on purpose in the original or if it was an artifact of translation.

[Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/4

The book itself is quite the reading and I did enjoy it thoroughly. The premise is what made me decide to read it: a secluded village full of handicapped people is transformed by the new county chief into a travelling freak-show company in order to raise money to buy and display the embalmed body of Lenin, so to increase tourism and money flow in the area.
And I was not disappointed being that the main plot is captivating and quite entertaining throughout the entire book. Obviously being part of China’s most recent history, throughout the book there are a few instances in which the horrors and many problems that came after the rise to power of the CCP are described, but the author makes it so that it doesn’t weigh too much on the narration so not to turn it too bleak.
Furthermore the structure and the way the story is told are both fun and interesting, and the reasons for it even more (as it is explained in the Translation Notes at the beginning).
The only problem I found whilst reading is the way the book has been translated. Translating Mandarin into English and making it read nice is a tough job, I know that and I can acknowledge it. But here it alternates chapters of very easy-to-read, beautifully paced, and fun prose to chapters where it resembles a translation of a first-year Chinese language student trying their best to pass the year. The repetitions, the idioms used, the names, everything is translated in such a literal way that it tires the eye after just a few lines taking away from the story and slowing everything down. In certain “further reading” chapters I felt as if I were reading a bad translation of Confucius’s Analects. Had it been translated less literally I for sure would have enjoyed it way more.
Having said that I do recommend it if you’re interested in Chinese literature, want a surreal and interesting story, and are bored of the same 3 authors suggested in each and every Chinese literature list.

[Annie Yotova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deep into the Balou Mountains of China is hiding the village of Liven (受活/Shouhuo in the original - the same name as the novel's title; the novel plays with its language a lot and the translator Rojas had done a marvelous job with that (or so it seems - I do not read Chinese but the English version works on the language level)). Almost all its residents are disabled in one way or another and for most of its history the world simply forgot that it existed. When the story opens in the 1990s, the residents are trying very hard to get back to that stage of being unknown and forgotten - they really do not like the world they rejoined a few years earlier.

Chief Liu, the county chief, has grand ambitions - which are somewhat curtailed by the fact that he is in charge of an insignificant region where nothing interesting happens. With the collapse of USSR, the Lenin Mausoleum is in danger of collapsing so he decides he will buy the corpse, build a new home for it in the mountains and charge a lot of money for people who come to see it - after all why wouldn't everyone want to come and see it. But all his plans to secure the money end up in disasters until he visits Liven (not for a first time apparently) and decides to create a troupe of its disabled performers - showcasing them around the region. And off they go to conquer the countryside.

The only voice of reason in the village is Grandma Mao Zhi - the informal leader of the community whose only ambition is to make sure that Liven is left alone. So despite all disagreements (and personal animosity), deals are struck and the plan seems to work. Well, for awhile anyway.

As absurd as most of the plot can sound, it is really a very thinly veiled reference to the change China was undergoing in the 90s. And through the notes, we get to see the previous few decades as well, turning the novel into almost a historical novel.

The novel is a challenging read. You do not even know how to read it at first (or ever I suspect) - there are notes which can be just clarification of words or can be long background stories. And some of those notes have notes which have notes and so on. These notes are sometimes placed at the end of a chapter and sometimes they form the next chapter but there is no rhyme or reason in where they appear in a given chapter (I suspect it was done to ensure the number of chapters but who knows). So do you read the novel in the order it is printed or do you go chasing after the notes going deeper and deeper? That is left to the reader to decide - I ended up doing both in different places depending on how much I wanted to stay with the current story. Except that not reading the notes made some of the current stories read in a different way compared to how they read when you had the backstory. And then the book constantly plays with your head - Lianke uses only odd numbers for his books and chapters and notes numbering so it often feels like you missed one somewhere... And you can miss a lot of the things hiding in the titles if you are not paying attention - for example the titles of the Books form a tree (from roots to fruit and branches). How that is supposed to be interpreted is a left to the reader to decide.

At the end it is really a story of the old vs. the new, of the traditional vs. the dreams of the cadres. It is a satire of China in the say way the science fiction tales of the Soviet and Eastern European authors managed to criticize the regime even under the strictest censure a few decades earlier. And just as with these stories, the humans are just human - warts and all. So awful things happen to people who do not deserve them and some almost supernatural occurrences happen occasionally (more in the magical realism space than going into fantasy). But the story could get very repetitive at times (especially when money calculations started - it was a deliberate mocking of the lust for money but...) and the back story was a lot more interesting than the story in the 1990s.

The novel won't work for everyone - it is too weird in ways which really do not conform with anything I can think of. You can see different Chinese and Western influences (and some Eastern European ones) but it is something different (or at least I had never read anything like that before). It felt like some of the goriness in some scenes was there almost only for the shock value of it and the whole story could have used an editor to shorten it a bit - by the end the whole thing was getting too much. But at the same time, it had interesting points to make about the treatment of the disabled and of how China had been changing since the beginning of the Revolution (the current one anyway).

The translator's note at the start of the novel is very helpful. As the novel uses the Chinese 60 years calendar, the translator decided to assist the readers by mentioning the date as we will know it the first time the year is mentioned. I wish he had added it every time or had added all mentioned years in a glossary (with a few more things in there) but in a way that added yet another layer to the puzzle box which is masquerading as a novel here.

I almost did not finish the novel - the beginning was too absurd and bizarre. But it was the back story that drew me in and by the time I realized what was happening, I was halfway through so I just decided to finish it. And even if it did not completely work for me, there were enough in there for me to look for other books by the author.

As for the choice of cover and title of the English edition... I am still not sure what this was all about (yes, it is not absolutely illogical but it also pushes you into expecting a different kind of novel in a way).

[Chet]

I have 80 something books on my "currently reading" shelf so now I'm wrapping those up to thin that shelf because that's a ridiculous number. I started this novel awhile back then it was overdue at the library. I just finished it on ebook. Yan Lianke understands what Western publishers want from Chinese literature. He delivers for the translation market. He's not widely read in China. This is depressing, over-the-top. Lots of rape. Lots of violence in general. Every CPC official is corrupt. You get the gist. Way more "propagandistic" than socialist realism. It propagates nihilism.