Synopses & Reviews
A mystifying climatic incongruity begins the award-winning novel
Lenins Kissesan absurdist, tragicomic masterpiece set in modern day China. Nestled deep within the Balou mountains, spared from the governments watchful eye, the harmonious people of Liven had enough food and leisure to be fully content. But when their crops and livelihood are obliterated by a seven-day snowstorm in the middle of a sweltering summer, a county official arrives with a lucrative scheme both to raise money for the district and boost his career. The majority of the 197 villagers are disabled, and he convinces them to start a traveling performance troupe highlighting such acts as One-Eyes one-eyed needle threading. With the profits from this extraordinary show, he intends to buy Lenins embalmed corpse from Russia and install it in a grand mausoleum to attract tourism, in the ultimate marriage of capitalism and communism. However, the success of the Shuanghuai County Special-Skills Performance Troupe comes at a serious price.
Yan Lianke, one of Chinas most distinguished writerswhose works often push the envelope of his countrys censorship systemdelivers a humorous, daring, and riveting portrait of the trappings and consequences of greed and corruption at the heart of humanity.
Review
One of Chinas most successful fiction writers.”
The New York TimesInternational praise for Lenins Kisses
Yan Lianke sees and describes his characters with great tenderness . . . this talented and sensitive writer exposes the absurdity of our time.”La Croix
Yan Lianke weaves a passionate satire of today's China, a marvelous circus where the one eyed-man is king . . . Brutal. And wickedly funny.” L'Express
Review
Yan Lianke is a finalist for the 2013 Man Booker International Prize!Winner of the Lao She Literary Award
* New York Times Editors' Choice
* New Yorker Best Book of 2012
* MacLeans Best Books of 2012
* Kirkus Best Fiction of 2012
"Both a blistering satire and a bruising saga . . . Yan boldly plunges into the psychic gap between Chinas decades-old conditioned response to communist doctrine and its redefinition of itself as a capitalist power, creating with bold, carnivalesque strokes a heartbreaking story of greed, corruption, and the dangers of utopia." Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"[An] epic jest of a novel . . . Yans postmodern cartoon of the Communist dream caving to run-amok capitalism is fiendishly clever." New York Times Book Review
"Yan, one of Chinas most successful writers, is still gaining attention abroad, but this story of a village that decides to buy Lenins corpse is Yan at the peak of his absurdist powers. He writes in the spirit of the dissident writer Vladimir Voinovich, who observed that 'reality and satire are the same.'" The New Yorker
"Lenins Kisses wickedly satirizes a sycophantic society where money and power are indiscriminately worshiped." Wall Street Journal
"A funny yet dark satirical novel . . . [that] offers Western readers a unique perspective on rural China . . . Lenins Kisses [is] hard to put down." Chicago Tribune
"[A] complex, captivating masterpiece. . . . [Lianke] summons rare wonder: he manages to create a wretched, absurd and beautiful universe both brand-new and newly eternal." Macleans
"Yan Lianke is one of the best contemporary Chinese writers. . . . As incisive as his social criticism is, he manages to protect his literary strength." The Independent
"Sprawling, sometimes goofy, always seditious novel of modern life in the remotest corner of China . . . Set Rabelais down in the mountains of, say, Xinjiang, mix in some Günter Grass, Thomas Pynchon and Gabriel García Márquez, and youre in the approximate territory of Liankes latest exercise in épatering the powers that be . . . A satirical masterpiece." Kirkus Reviews
"[A] mind-blowing story . . . incorporating satire, social and political criticism of life under Chinese Communism, as well as the limitations of capitalismespecially when the formerly oppressed become filthy richunder such a political system. Lenins Kisses provides illuminating insight." Counterpunch
"Lenin's Kisses is a grand comic novel, wild in spirit and inventive in technique. It's a rhapsody that blends the imaginary with the real, raves about the absurd and the truthful, inspires both laughter and tears. Carlos Rojas's translation captures the vigor of the original, funny, poised, peculiar but always rational. The publication of this magnificent work in English should be an occasion for celebration." Ha Jin, author of Waiting and Nanjing Requiem
"A masterpiece on many levels, most pertinently literary. It is crafted in the most lyrical prose style, and in an intimate voice filled with poetic flourishes and narrative craftsmanship. This is a tale of modern China with all its wonders, marvels and absurdities and ironies roped together, making it a must-read. It's little wonder that the author has won both China's equivalences of the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. And this book is the finest gem to reflect this man's gift." Da Chen, author of My Last Empress
"Lenin's Kisses shines with both the lyrical flourishes of magical realism and the keenly sharpened knives of great satire. The reader joins the inhabitants of the village of Liven as they confront the great upheavals of 20th Century Chinese history armed with both whimsy and their obsessive determination to prevail. This tale is at once breathtaking and seriously funny. Anyone who wishes to understand the psychic world-view of the modern People's Republic of China must read this fine novel." Vincent Lam, author of The Headmaster's Wager
Praise for Yan Lianke:
"One of China's greatest living authors and fiercest satirists." The Guardian
"[Yan Lianke] is one of Chinas most successful fiction writers." The New York Times
Synopsis
Winner of the Lao She Literary Award but also why Yan Lianke was asked to leave the army, Lenins Kisses unites communism and capitalism in an absurdist masterpiece that moves between the founding of the Peoples Republic and modern day China.
Deep within the Balou mountains lies a town populated by disabled people. Blind, deaf, and disfigured, the citizens of the Village of Liven enjoy a peaceful lifestyle with plentiful food and leisure, spared from the governments watchful eye and regulations. But when an unseasonal snowstorm wipes out the grain crops, a county official dreams up a money-making scheme to boost his career and raise money for the district, disrupting the balance of their trouble-free lives. He convinces the villagers to set up a traveling freak-show showcasing their disabilities, including Blind Tonghuas acute listening act and One-Eyes one-eyed needle threading. With the money, he intends to buy Lenin's embalmed corpse from Russia and install it in a great mausoleum to attract tourism; however, even the best intentions go astray.
Provocative and bitingly humorous, Lenins Kisses is a rollicking tragicomedy that stands as a cautionary tale of the all-consuming desire for power and wealth.
About the Author
YAN LIANKE was born in 1958 in Henan Province, China. He is the author of numerous novels and short-story collections, including Serve the People! and Dream of Ding Village, which was short-listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize and adapted into a film, renamed Til Death Do Us Part.