MixedWords Without Borders\"Shelly Bryant’s translation of this sprawling and chaotic novel is tireless and keeps up with Sheng’s often exhausting twists and turns ... many of the more interesting questions and details in the Tower Incident sections are glossed over, missed opportunities for deepening the world of political dissent and distrust in the novel ... Despite its length, Death Fugue doesn’t linger...long enough for us to understand Mengliu’s motivations, in part because he is too distracted by his pursuits of the various women around him ... Mengliu is in a constant state of arousal. This state yields some of the most dubious writing in the novel ... Sheng’s provocative approach could be refreshing and lighten a novel posing some very serious questions. But these passages—and there are a great many—remain unconnected to the overall political project of the book. There is only levity, when there could be much more ... It is a shame because there is otherwise so much to be excited about in Death Fugue ... There are moments of real clarity and elegance...clever observations, energy, wit, imaginativeness, and endless lush, colorful landscapes that toe the line between the beautiful and the fantastical. Its absurdity, while at times wholly unhinged, is also at times exciting and funny ... Death Fugue is long, vulgar, over the top, and addresses China’s most taboo subject. It is nothing short of ambitious and risky. But Sheng sought a provocative book, a place to say what she cannot say elsewhere ... Whether or not the reader can endure the provocation is another matter entirely.
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