MCLC: Last Quarter of the Moon review

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Bruce Humes <xumushi at yahoo.com>
Subject: Last Quarter of the Moon review
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I translated Chi Zijian's "Last Quarter of the Moon" from the Chinese (额尔古
纳
河右岸) and it has just been published by Harvill Secker. The original won
the prestigious Mao Dun Literary Prize. Here is The Financial Times'
review of the novel.

Bruce

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Source: Financial Times ():
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/bb835fdc-5f0a-11e2-8250-00144feab49a.html#ax
zz2INNWURof

Independent Spirits
Review by Kelly Falconer

===============================================
The Last Quarter of the Moon, by Chi Zijian, translated by Bruce
Humes,Harvill Secker, RRP£14.99, 311 pages
===============================================

The Last Quarter of the Moon is the first novel from award-winning Chinese
novelist Chi Zijian to be translated into English. It is an atmospheric
modern folk-tale, the saga of the Evenki clan of Inner Mongolia – nomadic
reindeer herders whose traditional life alongside the Argun river endured
unchanged for centuries, only to be driven almost to extinction during the
political upheavals of the 20th century.

Their history is recounted by the 90-year-old, unnamed widow of one of the
clan’s last great chieftains. Her ethereal presence and memory, and
strength of will, allows her to speak for the tribe, breathing life into
their collective memories.

The story is full of allegory. There is the fire that is passed from one
generation to the next; the cycles of life and death; and the “coexistence
of mankind and the Spirits”. The clan’s reindeer are central to their
lives and “were certainly bestowed upon us by the Spirits, for without
these creatures we would not be”. Chi channels, Shaman-like, the
sentiment, emotions and experiences of another, much older woman (Chi was
born in 1964).

Inevitably the wider world intrudes: in 1965 the clan votes on whether or
not to “resettle”, leaving their mountains for a newly created township
away from their shirangju (open-roofed teepees), where they fall asleep
looking at the stars. Everyone yields to the communists’ persuasion, apart
from the narrator: “My body was bestowed by the Spirits, and I shall
remain in the mountains to return it to the Spirits.” Her simple-minded
grandson stays behind to look after her and their few reindeer.

The others realise their mistake when reindeer start to die in captivity.
The communists believe the precious animals to be like ordinary
domesticated beasts: they should eat “tender branches in the summer, and
hay in winter. They won’t starve”.

 The Evenki protest: “Do you take reindeer for cattle or horses? Reindeer
won’t eat hay. They can forage for hundreds of different foods in the
mountains. If you make them eat just grass and branches, their souls will
suffer and die!”

This nomadic clan has not kept pace with the world, and their lives (like
those of their reindeer) are irretrievably disrupted by the forces of
modernity. The pace of this tale is slow but certain, as though the story
unfolds to the beat of an ancient, sonorous drum. The animistic Evenki
have a symbiotic relationship with nature, and Chi’s narrative is
decorated with descriptions of the forests and the mountains, of the flora
and fauna: Autumn resembles “a thin-skinned person. If the wind utters a
few less than complimentary words about him, he pulls a long face and
beats a retreat”; there are falling leaves dancing “like yellow
butterflies in the forest” and a snow-white fawn, which “resembled an
auspicious cloud that had just fallen to the earth”.

The Evenki survive famine, disease, war and reform, drownings, lethal
snowstorms and accidental shootings. The one thing they cannot endure is
displacement. The book ends with a glimpse into their uncertain future,
“deeply shrouded in death’s shadow.”

The Last Quarter of the Moon is the English-language title. In Chinese it
is The Right Bank of the Argun, a hint that the story is based on fact.
The author’s afterword gives more useful background; unfortunately it is
not reprinted in the English book but is available on translator Bruce
Humes’ website, Ethnic ChinaLit <http://www.bruce-humes.com/>. In it, Chi
relates how she grew up in this landscape. “As a child entering the
mountains to fetch firewood, more than once I discovered an odd head-shape
on a thick tree trunk. Father told me that was the image of the mountain
spirit Bainacha, carved by the Oroqen [another nomadic clan]”.

Latterly, Chi researched her book by staying in an Evenki encampment. She
concludes: “I felt that I had at last found the seed for my novel ... The
vast stretch of forest I possessed as a child would serve as its seedbed,
and I was confident that this seed would sprout and grow in it.” Chi was
right to be confident. This is a fitting tribute to the Evenki by a writer
of rare talent.