Mo Yan's works draw praise from Romanian critics
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E-mail Xinhua, November 25, 2012
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| Photo taken on Nov. 24, 2012 shows the Romanian version of Chinese writer Mo Yan's novels at the 19th edition of International Book Fair Gaudeamus, in Bucharest, capital of Romania. Mo Yan is the winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature. [Xinhua] |
"A devastating novel," "a magnific writer"...Those were the words of Romanian literary critics as they launched the Romanian edition of the novel "Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out," written by the renowned Chinese Nobel laureate Mo Yan.
The book by Mo, who won the 2012 Nobel award in literature, is a historical fiction exploring China's development during the latter half of the 20th century through the eyes of a noble and generous landowner, who was killed and reincarnated as various farm animals in rural China.
The event was hosted by the prestigious publisher house Humanitas in the capital city of Bucharest, where the novelist's another masterpiece "Red Sorghum" was also published.
It was the climax of the Saturday evening at the Gaudeamus Book Fair, the main event of the Romanian publishing industry in this fall.
Romanian literary critics have praised the author lavishly and with reverence. They compare Mo with the great South American magical realists Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas Llosa.
"I have never read something as rich, as brilliant since 'One Hundred Years of Solitude,'" said literary critic Elisabeta Lasconi. She glimpsed at Denisa Comanescu, the organizer of the event and publisher of the book.
She may have seen approval in Denisa's eye as she continues: "I rather tend to think that it's better. Once in a decade the Nobel prize goes to a magnificent writer."
"It's a brilliant storyteller. He opens our minds to the beauty of classical Chinese stories, cosmogonies and myths. It's a storyteller who plays with real and imaginary universes, in the same symbolic pattern of shadow and light, of Yin and Yang," said professor Florentina Visan from the Bucharest University.
Mo, who is best known to Western readers for his 1987 novel "Red Sorghum," was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work as a writer who "with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary."
Thanks to famous Chinese director Zhang Yimou's film adaptation of "Red Sorghum," Mo first came to Romanian public notice and critics.
"I saw the movie a few years ago, and I was impressed. I'll never forget the Chinese wedding I've seen. The movie impressed me and made me feel my ignorance. I've read the book almost instantly and I felt an enormous joy," Lasconi said.
Alexandru Bora is a young man in his 30s, rushing to buy the book after listening to critic's presentation. He was so impressed that he became eager to read Mo's book.
"I'm prepared for a tense experience. Zhang Yimou's movie reminded me of Bergman," he said.
Denisa Comanescu brought "Red Sorghum" to the Romanian public a few years ago. She grubs the world's literary scene with a hawkish intensity looking for the brilliant mind behind the great books. She's determined to publish at least two of Mo's books a year.
The readers flick the two books. The critics and academics chat with people still wanting more information about the Chinese novelist. But what is amazing is perhaps the moment when Romanian critics, always keen on latin literature and also prepared to feel the rhythm of Spanish words, admitted that the Chinese writer is, maybe, greater than Marquez.
For a critic living in this so-called small Paris of eastern Europe to say that, there must be a magical reason, or an enthusiastic and superb translation.
It was indeed the art of sinologist Dinu Luca who made it possible to reveal the magical genius of Mo.
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