|
Praise of Lao She's
writings
(1952)
"There is an author today who
approaches the achievements of
one who was perhaps the greatest
novelist of them all, Leo
Tolstoi. He is a Chinese named
Lau Shaw [Lao She]. In
the Tolstoyan tradition he stands
head and shoulders above any
novelist living today. And just
as Tolstoi is immortal, so,
centuries hence, will Lau Shaw be
read."
--- Basil Woon, San Francisco
News (From The Drum
Singers book dust jacket)
Reviews for The Yellow
Storm (1951), Lao She's
Sishi
tongtangtranslated into
English by Ida Pruitt.
"More than any other European
or Western novelist, Lau Shaw
[Lao She] seems to many
Western readers the inheritor of
the `grand tradition' which gave
us Tolstoy, Dickens, Dostoevsky
and Balzac. In scope, energy,
variety, death, power, The Yellow
Storm, laid in Peiping during the
eight years of the Japanese
occupation, has greatness in it,
as our Western old masters of
fiction had greatness. ...You
find that you are, in this simply
written masterpiece, living
yourself into Chinese hearts,
Chinese thoughts, hopes, fears,
horrors, ignominies, heroisms.
The Yellow Storm's ending is
magnificent, an implied, wholly
justified, glorification of the
noble Chinese moral
tradition.
--- Dorothy Canfield
(Book-of-the-Month Club News,
1952)
"It is not only one of the
best China books to appear since
the war but it is also easily one
of the best novels to be
published in this country in the
same period. ...Like the work of
an exacting musician it is on
key, no beat is missed, no
undertone. It rings true. This is
Peiping and the Chinese as they
really are. It is also a book of
many levels. ...It is Main Street
anywhere. ...It is China. And it
is history. It is so a
fascinating tale, full of
excitement and suspense, of
murder in the night, revenge and
intrigue, and of humor and
entertainment too. But none of
these levels would have life and
substance if it weren't for the
master craftsmanship of Lau Shaw
in creating living people in all
their complex of emotion. ...An
extremely good book."
---Preston Schoyer (Saturday
Review of Literature)
"A long book rich in dramatic
incident and peopled by more than
a score of major characters whom
Lau Shaw [Lao She] makes
individual and disconcertingly
real."
--- New York Herald Tribune
Book Review
"The value of Lau Shaw's
[Lao She's] picture of
average Chinese citizens meeting
a conqueror's challenge is not
limited to its immediate occasion
here. It gives the key to how the
ordinary Chinese person reacts to
conquest."
--- New York Times Book
Review
"Realistic and intimate, vast
in its emotional portrayals ... a
truly great novel." ---
Christian Herald
|
