cover image Black Snow: A Novel of the Beijing Demimonde

Black Snow: A Novel of the Beijing Demimonde

Liu Heng, Heng Liu. Atlantic Monthly Press, $20 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-87113-530-8

Despite some fine, unnerving descriptions of violence in contemporary Bei jing, this gritty second novel by the author of Ju Dou ultimately disappoints. Recently released after a three-year detention in a labor camp, 25-year-old Li Huiquan struggles for survival and self-awareness. His peddler's cart, his painful memories and his profoundly misanthropic outlook accompany him as he mulls over his past and tries to find a future in the seedy bars near his house on Spirit Run Street. Simultaneously detesting and yearning for human contact, he becomes obsessed with Zhao Yaqiu, a lounge singer he sets up as his virtuous ideal in a dark world peopled with slippery friends and supposed enemies. However, a relationship with any human being, especially a woman, proves almost impossibly difficult for the intensely bitter Li. While his acerbic misogyny remains largely unexamined, existential questions--about the meaning of life, the definition of happiness, etc.--are endlessly and repetitively discussed, usually in cliches. Heng tends to pontificate--regrettably, since the novel's more engaging sections feature imaginative, telling details and a skillful intermingling of action and dialogue. At its best, Black Snow is a disturbing, richly alive portrait of a disillusioned young man trying to gain control over a chaotic society; at its worst, the narrative is preachy and static. ( Apr. )