From Powells.com
The Best Books of 2019 (So Far)
Staff Pick
China Dream depicts the episodic efforts of Ma Daode, an aging apparatchik in the Chinese government intent on wallpapering over the violence of the Cultural Revolution with a REM-hijacking microchip that replaces dreams with nationalistic propaganda. While juggling a full schedule of political jockeying and wanton philandering, the beleaguered pencil pusher dodges his own visions of the past while becoming increasingly detached from reality. A masterwork-level bureaucratic satire about the need to remember and the desire to forget. Recommended By Justin W., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
A Financial Times Best Book of the Year
The Millions Most Anticipated Book of the Month and Year
One of Vulture‘s Spring Books to Watch Out For
O, The Oprah Magazine 1 of 25 Books to Give the World’s Best Dad on Father’s Day
An Entertainment Weekly New & Notable Hot Fiction Title
One of the year’s most anticipated novels in translation, written by an acclaimed Chinese author whose entire body of work has been banned by his home country, and published in the 30th anniversary year of the Tiananmen Square Massacre
Ma Daode is feeling pleased with himself. He has just been appointed Director of the China Dream Bureau, tasked with overwriting people’s private dreams with President Xi’s great China Dream of national rejuvenation. He has an impressive office, three properties and a bevy of mistresses texting him night and day.
But just as Ma Daode is putting the finishing touches to his plan for a mass golden wedding anniversary celebration, things take an uneasy turn. Suddenly plagued by flashbacks of the Cultural Revolution, Ma Daode’s nightmares from the past threaten to undo his dream of a glorious future.
In China Dream, Ma Jian takes the reader on a tragicomic ride through the horrors and absurdities of totalitarian power. His dystopian vision is set not in the future, but in China today. Written to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Cultural Revolution, China Dream is revealing of China’s moral crises, and what happens to a nation blinded by materialism and governed by violence and lies. In a moment when the characterization of reality is vulnerable to the whims of power, it also poses wider questions that are blisteringly resonant about the way we perceive, understand, and manipulate our histories, as individuals and as a society.
Review
“A masterwork of political satire, meaningful without heavy-handedness.” Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
Review
“A bold, searing indictment of present-day China and a lyrical exposé of the false utopia created by the Communist Party and its current leader-for-life, Xi Jinping...[China Dream] is an inventive yet powerful confrontation of China’s past and present.” Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
Review
“A startling exposé of China’s moral crises in the rare dystopian book that is set in the present-day, rather than the future. That it’s an absurd, wild ride makes its eye-opening effect that much more unsettling.” David Canfield, Entertainment Weekly, 1 of 20 New Books to Read This Month
Review
“Jian, whose work has been banned in China for the past 30 years, creates a dystopian present-day China in this narrative about power, history and the effects of materialism on a society.” Annabel Gutterman, Time, 1 of the 10 New Books You Should Read This Month
Review
“China Dream....crackles with bruising satire of Chinese officialdom, and an acerbic wit...China Dream may be the purest distillation yet of Mr. Ma’s talent for probing the country’s darkest corners and exposing what he regards as the Communist Party’s moral failings.” Mike Ives, The New York Times
Synopsis
Blending fact and fiction, this darkly comic fable "may be the purest distillation yet of Mr. Ma's talent for probing the country's darkest corners and exposing what he regards as the Communist Party's moral failings" (Mike Ives, The New York Times). Called "Red Guards meet Kurt Vonnegut . . . powerful by Margaret Atwood on Twitter, China Dream is an unflinching satire of totalitarianism. Ma Daode, a corrupt and lecherous party official, is feeling pleased with himself. He has an impressive office, three properties, and multiple mistresses who text him day and night. After decades of loyal service, he has been appointed director of the China Dream Bureau, charged with replacing people's private dreams with President Xi Jinping's great China Dream of national rejuvenation. But just as he is about to present his plan for a mass golden wedding anniversary celebration, his sanity begins to unravel. Suddenly plagued by flashbacks of the Cultural Revolution, Ma Daode's nightmare visions from the past threaten to destroy his dream of a glorious future.
Exposing the damage inflicted on a nation's soul when authoritarian regimes, driven by an insatiable hunger for power, seek to erase memory, rewrite history, and falsify the truth, China Dream is a dystopian vision of repression, violence, and state-imposed amnesia that is set not in the future, but in China today.
About the Author
Ma Jian was born in Qingdao, China, in 1953. He is the author of Stick Out Your Tongue, four collections of short stories and essays, and six further novels. His work has been translated into more than 20 languages. He now lives in exile in London. Since the banning of his first book 30 years ago, none of his works have been allowed to appear in China.
Flora Drew’s translations from the Chinese include Ma Jian’s Red Dust, The Noodle Maker, Stick Out Your Tongue, Beijing Coma, and The Dark Road.