I’ve just finished reading Wolf Totem, by Jiang Rong. It tells the tale of a student from Beijing who spends twelve years living with nomadic herdsmen in Inner Mongolia. As the title suggests, it focuses on the role of wolves on the plains and their relationship with the land and people.
I really wanted to like it, as I have a fascination for Mongolia, a love of all things lupine, and an interest in environmental issues. But it took me two weeks to get through it. I kept putting it down in disgust and tutting to myself, “Razor-sharp teeth”? Honestly. Or, “....sides and chests spurted blood, the stench of which drove the crazed predators to commit acts of frenzied cruelty.” These are wolves and horses we are talking about.
Aside from the cliché, there was the fact that the book was peopled by caricatures rather than characters, from the wise old Mongol and his eager student to the ignorant, rapacious Chinese settlers. Throw in some clumsy metaphors about wolves and sheep to represent the herdsmen and Han Chinese, add a bit of patronizing didactic about spirituality and ecology, and you’ve got 500 pages of instant irritation.
I don’t know how it got past the Chinese censors, but more than that, I don’t know how it got past the judging panel of the Man Asian Literary Prize.
5 comments:
Or how it got past the commissioning editor. Just because a book's in print... (Sorry - am I sounding bitter?)
Welcome Dotterel. Shouldn't you be lavishing praise on clever editors for selecting wonderful novels?
Have you seen Wolfman Shaun Ellis?
He's a bit Lupy with the non-timorous beasties.
AAAAAGH!! and I thought you'd love it. Oh well :-(
I didn't look past the story itself and the sadness of the impossible hope that things might turn out OK in the end. And I liked all the wolf bits - tooth and claw.
I have read about Shaun Ellis. He's very lupy.
Darling Che, I thought I'd love it, too. I did like some wolfy bits, but I found the writing distracting. I still love you, though ;-))
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