"Partner" by Zhang Ji

This book contains eight short stories, namely Zuo Zi, Xiao Jing, Boat-fruited Sterculia, Aquilaria Resinatum, Ningning, Li Tiandao, Couple Shop and a distant cousin. Some of these short stories are briefly introduced as follows:

seed of boat-fruited sterculia

The sea was given to others by parents since childhood, and childhood life was unhappy. When I grow up, I feel alienated from others and have fewer friends. Until my sister suddenly came to see her and felt the warmth of her family again, she found that her family only wanted her to transplant bone marrow to her sick brother. ...

partner

Yafei people live alone in middle age after divorce and make a living by playing cards with others. She met Mr. Chen at a card game, and they hit it off. Just as they were planning to move in together, something happened to Xiaomei, Yafei's former brand partner. ...

mom-and-pop store

Husband Li took his wife KINOMOTO SAKURA to a small fishing village. The daughter was drowned in the jealousy of the villagers. His wife KINOMOTO SAKURA fell in love with someone else and wanted to leave Li. At this time, Li made a difficult decision. ...

About the author:

Zhang Jiyu was born in Zhejiang, China on 1979. Novelist, winner of People's Literature Newcomer Award. He began to write novels in 2003 and published nearly one million words in magazines such as Harvest and People's Literature. Once published (20 16), his novel "becoming a monk" attracted widespread attention, and it was one of the recommended works in Douban's annual reading list. It was copyrighted by Sallim Publishing House in Korea at a high price, listed in Korea, and another traditional version will be published soon. In 20 17, Zhang Ji won the first JD.COM Prize for Literature with famous writers Ge Fei and amos oz. Among the partners, the one in the mom-and-pop shop is about to be adapted into the movie "Summer of Killing" by him.

Wonderful book review:

One:

I first knew that Zhang Ji was a novel "Becoming a Monk". This novel, which I like very much, seems to have more complicated meanings. This complexity mainly comes from the special space of the temple. In this space, every mortal's transcendence tendency and desire for survival naturally interweave and transform, as if one foot is on the earth and one foot is about to step on the invisible steps in the void. In contrast, the short stories in Iron Son are more secular and daily, with both feet firmly stepping on the mud, and every move seems clumsy and slow.

Because of the daily life in space, Tiezi has a more thorough low-key narrative. The characters are very small, lacking the ability of thinking and introspection, and often only have some ignorant life desires, some indescribable sensitivity and vigilance; The narrator is also very young. He seldom evaluates characters with more detached values or crushes them with more information. He just told a story in a plain and beautiful way. Xiao Jing in the impression, the most likely thrilling story, has the gentlest background color. When I read it, I feel that the whole novel is a calm and muddy river, without rapids and rapids, mixed with sand and covered with dangerous reefs.

Zhang Ji himself mentioned an interesting comment in the interview, saying that home can also be literally understood, that is, leaving home. But some of my favorite stories in the collection of short stories are all about "going home". The "going home" of the girl's ashes in Xiao Jing is the bright color of the whole book, while the "going home" in other novels is intertwined with the protagonist's unavoidable loneliness.

The two heroines, Boat-fruited Sterculia and Ningning, give people the feeling that heaven and earth are all alone, which may also be added to Yafei in the ladder. Although she once had a husband and now has a son, neither of them can and will save her from loneliness. The occupations of these three people, whether playing mahjong as a "technician" or opening a steamed stuffed bun shop, are not promising long-term businesses in the eyes of others. They have neither retreat nor future in the vast sea of people. Three women who have fallen into such deep loneliness have pinned their hopes of being rescued on the same sex who are not relatives but like relatives and friends. Yafei and Xiaomei, Dahai and Xiao Gan, Ningning and Little Sisters have no social contract to protect this indescribable relationship, like a delicate silk thread, but they are trembling with a person's turbulent and dense emotions.

This kind of desperate sustenance, to a large extent, probably stems from family betrayal. The sea was sent away by the family of origin, and her position was replaced by a boy; Ningning was sent to the city by her parents to sell herself to make money; Yafei and her son are completely separated emotionally, and Xiaomei, who is regarded as her daughter, betrayed her. However, these people have healed their scars, forgotten their pain, and embarked on the road home again: both the sea and Ningning have real "homecoming" actions, which are often accompanied by an old warmth, a natural care of parents for their children, and a childhood ignorance of nature, which easily moves readers. But we will soon know how the realistic desire shatters the immature picture-this picture may not be illusory, but it is too short and fragile in front of the solid wall of survival.

At the end of the story, they may have been drained of their strength and will to survive, but in the course of the story, they actually embarked on the road of "going home" again and again. Their persistence in strange men and women who have no blood relationship or contractual relationship is the witness of repeated defeats and wars-they try to find their hometown in the arms of others.

Two:

The waistcoat of Tiezi reads: "Zhang Ji, an earthly storyteller, will write about our mixed life. Eight stories to explore the hidden pain and affection of ordinary people. "

This introduction is very appropriate. This book is a silhouette of ordinary people's lives, with mixed feelings of sadness and joy, and sadness is greater than joy.

There are two kinds of stories, one is a complete story with an ending, and the other is a life without an ending. Most stories we read have endings. Whenever the protagonist appears, it is necessary to explain its coming and going. Every clue in it has an ending.

For example, the first story is the partner. The introduction is simple. A middle-aged divorced woman who was counting on playing mahjong and living with her son suddenly discovered that Ma Jiu's partner and son had betrayed her. The partners are two people in the partnership alliance of Mahjong Bureau.

At the beginning of the story, you see that the protagonist's life is as calm as stagnant water, without a partner, and she has a bad relationship with her son, surrounded by people who are considerate of her. One day, the original mahjong partner left her because of a man, and she had to find another partner (a man).

Later, when she suddenly learned that her old partner had been kidnapped, she thought she had the moral responsibility to redeem someone and borrowed a huge sum of money from her new partner.

When the old partner came back, she invaded her new life. She turned down a new partner, and her life returned to the hopeless origin. She thought it was great or right, but it happened that the ending was reversed, and the old partner and the person who caused her kidnapping were still separated. ...

Is this a joint lie to her, or is the old partner still alive and dead? It doesn't matter. Anyway, her life is hopeless.

This is the main line of the story. The author Zhang Ji used a lot of pen and ink to shape the roles of new and old partners, sons, neighbors, poker players and kidnappers, as if in front of him. A seemingly ordinary thing is actually an undercurrent of crisis.

Watching and thinking, what would I do if I were her? Throw away the wayward mahjong partner and hate her from now on? Love your son more, or wronged yourself to drive him to his ex-husband? Either way, it seems impossible to escape from the abyss of despair.

If you can't escape, it's fate.

The touching part of the novel lies in the detailed description of the complex inner activities of the protagonist and the inevitable mental obstacles she faces, which together constitute her fate.

There is another one that has no ending. It's just a silhouette. For example, Ningning and Xiaojing have no ending. It's just a silhouette of the protagonist's life, from which we can see his life and his character. What he experienced was fruitless, but it happened to be the life of ordinary people: dull as water, suffocating.

Real life will not develop according to the plot. The crisis lurking in us is not angular and ups and downs, but an ordinary person with many faces, good and bad, and always influenced by others and other things. For example, the villagers and the protagonist in the "Couple Shop" are ruined because of ignorance, gossip, jealousy and indifferent gossip in the countryside. Looking at those people, can you say that you are not like this? It's just that there is no tragic result yet.

They are like the butterfly effect, seemingly unrelated, but heading for an irreversible tragedy. Perhaps the best way is to go back to the womb and kill yourself in the embryonic state.

Looking at Zhang Ji's collection of novels "Iron Son" is to stand on the sidelines and look at ordinary people who are bound by fate and photographed underwater. We haven't experienced it, and we can feel the same when we look at other people's experiences. As for what you get after that, only you know.

Three:

On the surface, the novels in "Take the Son" are all ordinary stories written by ordinary people, and the language is also very plain and popular, which is very easy to read. The author seems to be a storyteller, facing the most ordinary people, easily telling what he saw and heard. But he is different from ordinary storytellers. He just entertains the audience, or makes the audience laugh and savor each of his stories, as if it were like a turbulent undercurrent under a calm sea. After reading it, people will fall into deep thinking.

For example, the novel Boat-fruited Sterculia tells the story of a girl who made steamed buns and was given to others by her parents when she was young. Since then, her family has never contacted her again. When she grew up, she felt alienated from others and had few friends, but suddenly one day her sister found her. When she felt the warmth of her family again, she found that her family only wanted her to transplant bone marrow to her sick brother.

For example, The Husband and Wife Shop tells the story of Li and his wife KINOMOTO SAKURA coming to a small fishing village to make a living. At first, KINOMOTO SAKURA was very popular with the villagers. Later, she fell in love with someone else and wanted to leave her husband, but Li silently killed her on the eve of her departure. For a long time, the villagers always thought that Li was the victim of the incident. Li's killing of his wife was actually hidden from everyone in the village.

Every story of Zhang Ji seems to have such similarities. He will inadvertently bury a turning point in silence. His plain language and smooth plot will make you likely to ignore this turning point and read quickly, but when you read the whole story, you will feel dissatisfied.

In the whole collection of short stories, I like agarwood best. It is about a middle-aged man who runs a factory. He is old-fashioned and accidentally finds a string of agarwood beads under the sofa. His life is not satisfactory. To outsiders, he is a factory owner and made some money, but they don't know that it is very difficult for him to run a factory brick by brick. However, the world is changing so fast that my son refuses to inherit his industry and insists on being an e-commerce. People around him also began to persuade him not to work so hard. The price of land sold by the factory is much higher than that of products made by other factories. On the surface, Lao Duan does not oppose or adopt these suggestions, but in his heart, he is exclusive. He doesn't know what wifi is. He just wanted to keep the factory he founded and kept the string of agarwood beads.

In fact, each of us is an old man to some extent. We watch the world change rapidly, and we can't escape these changes, but there are always some things in our hearts that we can't bear to part with. We always stubbornly don't want to change or discard them, even though we know that these things will eventually leave us because we can't keep up with the times.

A few years ago, Zhongxin Dafang also published Zhang Ji's novel "Becoming a Monk". I haven't seen it, but it is said that it also discusses the predicament and confusion of middle-aged men in modern life. Be sure to watch it when you have time.

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