Half of Man is Woman

Poet Zhang Yonglin is sentenced to a labor camp he ironically describes as a haven amidst the hysteria of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. After he marries a woman he had seen eight years earlier, the story becomes, on one level, an analogy between his temporary sexual impotence and the postion of intellectuals. A year later he is ready to abandon his wife and escape from the camp. Cameo appearances by philosophic and literary figuresMarx and Meng-tz, Othello and Song Jiandiscussing China and sex allow the incorporation of non-novelistic elements while indulging in gallows humor. The references to Western culture and the translator's historical notes should make this complex and fascinating book easily accessible. Ethan Bumas, Fudan Univ., Shanghai
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.