Book review: The Four Books - biting satire offers some hope
A ray of hope in the resilient human spirit shines through a tale of oppression and treachery
by Yan Lianke
Grove Press
Deep in the Chinese countryside, far from the puppeteer's hand, a band of characters in a depressing labour camp suffers through a slow, grinding loss of human dignity. They are starving, thanks to Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward, and their only hope for survival is to pander to their mindless masters.
It's based on a true story, as Mao's reckless and ill-conceived economic reforms killed about 36 million people. But author Yan Lianke is telling a fictionalised version in The Four Books, taking the reality of degradation, starvation and humiliation, and twisting them into a satirical tale about abuse of power and the vicious survivalist psychology of people who have been robbed of their moral and intellectual compass.
In order to push China into becoming a world superpower, the villagers of the 99th district of a massive re-education compound are expected to produce record grain crops and steel to catch up with the economic success of England and the US. The fiction is derived from Yan's push into the themes of madness, suffering and the loss of independent thought.
The Four Books is filled with brilliantly chilling metaphors. The main character hacks at his flesh to nourish the wheat with his blood so that it will grow the biggest heads in the region, and thereby win favour and eventual freedom. The constant search for approval is a theme that runs strongly throughout the novel.