Brilliant ... A taut, tightly structured novel, ... Digs deep despite its brevity. Tiang...preserves Zhang’s crackling dialogue ... Offer[s] much to perceptive readers.
It is tempting to situate Women, Seated in the tradition of socialist realist fiction—its critique of class politics, its working-class narrator—but there is no revolutionary romanticism in Zhang’s work. For Yu Ling, the chips have fallen where they may, but life continues. In its examination of class in China, what feels truer to life in Zhang’s fiction is precisely its refusal of an easy resolution ... A meticulously constructed novel ... What propels it is the societal tension that it tries to make legible.
Suspenseful and layered ... Thanks to Yueran’s astute storytelling, characters that first appear to be villains become more complex as the years of disappointment and fractured ambitions that have shaped them come to light. This gripping drama offers an intimate view into contemporary China’s class dynamics.
These characters may live in your head for some time due to Zhang’s fine pacing and quirky scenes ... Tight ... The fowl’s appearances throughout the...book seem funny and in keeping with a spoiled child’s obsession. However, toward the finale, someone’s goose will be cooked because of Swan, and that’s not a hint about what’s for dinner—rather, it shows how carefully Zhang has planned the action ... Savvy readers may be able to work out the very sudden and very odd ending, yet the real reward of the novel lies in how we pay attention.
