Love In The New Milennium by Can Xue

 

In this novel of China, women seem to have limited choices.  Work is either in a factory or a brothel run from the community baths.  Men and women seem to fall in love at a glance but the relationships never work.  The men don't do much better.  Either they don't have any love or friendship in their lives or if they have a relationship, they end up in prison so that they can work on their attitudes towards the woman they love.  

Along with love, there is much talk of ancient ancestral villages and caves, and the gathering and use of traditional plant-based medicines.  There is a doctor who uses this type of medicine and he and the only woman with a traditional job fall in love but it doesn't work out any more than any of the other relationships.

Can Xue comes from a family that was severely persecuted during the Cultural Revolution of the 1950's and she was only allowed to attend school through the elementary years.  She taught herself English and is now regarded as China's most prominent author of experimental fiction.  This novel is my first of her works and it takes quite a lot for those unused to this type of writing to read and appreciate it.  I feel like I, and maybe most readers, will need several reads of this work to gain all of her meaning.  She seems to be saying that love is temporary and that men and women are rarely able to make it work in the long term.  This book is recommended for literary and multicultural readers