The Dark Road: A Novel Hardcover – June 13, 2013

There are several ways to read this novel . One way is to read it as a denunciation of communism. Another is to take a more abstract point of view, the difficulty of instituting value change in a society. Alternatively it can be seen a novel about human resilience. At some level, it reads like a soap opera .

Very difficult to review and to read. It took me a while to get into the story but once in, I was gripped. A beautiful written prose, BUT also a very difficult and disturbing subject to read about. Part truth, part mythical/fantasy, a story about the One Child Rule in China. How many women like Meili and her family suffered and still do. Forced abortions and sterilizations; government killing baby girls. How daughter Nannan suffered for feeling guilty she wasn't a son. So many horrific parts in their story. It's a lesson in how China treats its women. Very sad AND powerful. Unless you know something about the Chinese culture, this book is not recommended.

This novel was difficult to read, as it contained some very disturbing aspects of China's "One Child Policy." It also revealed much about the rampant pollution and waste at the bottom of the Chinese economic "miracle." Yet it was very informative as well as evocative. I really felt for the characters in this novel. Glad I read it, but I'll never think about China the same way again. Those who liked Ma Jian's "Beijing Coma" will definitely find this book rewarding.

This book was a real eye opener. I was well aware of China's one child policy, however I was not aware of the horrible methods used to enforce it. The awful conditions that these people live in are inhumane. China has become the dumping ground for the world's obsolete computers. Chinese people work in deplorable conditions taking them apart for their livelihood. The pollution they are exposed to is toxic.I was overwhelmed by this book and the story it told.t

I liked this book because it told the story of the working people in China that we don't see or hear about. This is a story that takes you out of the tourist areas and takes you into the lives of people trying to survive in spite of unbelievable hardship and persecution. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to know how China really treats its own people. It opened my eyes and made me think about the stories I had heard from my Chinese friends that hinted of what I read in Dark Road.

An inside look at the casual cruelty, banal brutality and horrifying living conditions that rural Chinese endure.

I was disappointed. I understand the author making a point and perhaps all the detail was felt to be necessary but I felt the book was way too long and would have had a more powerful impact if edited to a shorter story. I was not expecting an upbeat tale or a happy ending. I just got tired of reading.

I'm writing this on behalf of my husband. He is very interested China and enjoys learning about the people. It is, however, not for the faint of heart. I could not read it because of the disturbing scenes, especially about the one child policy, he has described. I just felt obligated to warn folks to read a little before they purchase it.

It is the filial duty of the village teacher Kongzi – who claims to be a descendant of the great sage Confucius – to keep his noble lineage alive. It is his drive to bring another male member of the Kong clan into the world, which has his family on the run, for Kongzi had impregnated Meili before they could apply for an official approval to have a second child. They move through the waterways of the sprawling Yangtze River and it’s nearby towns as ghosts for the best part of a decade, in order to remain unknown to the brutal government enforcers of the one child policy.Kongzi is driven, but often primitive and irrational. He often finds himself faltering along the way, his path so often changing to suit his failings as a father and a protector. Meili, his young bride, is meek and dutiful. She is the vessel by which a new generation of Kong will be born, and often times nothing more in the eyes of her husbnad. She resembles a bird with clipped wings trying to take flight, repetitively beaten down with the burdens Kongzi and the state thrust upon her body, physical ransacking and emotional encroachment, her mind haunted by the infant spirit which has yet to be born, tormenting her to chose between subservience and freedom. Together with their young daughter Nannan, they stumble along hoping to evade forced abortion and sterilisation, whilst foraging for a life from the ruin.Ma Jian's justified critique of China’s horrific human rights violations in the name of policy is plain to see across his body of work, and the thread is sustained here. The Dark Road is a novel, artfully translated by his wife Flora Drew, that does not mollify life under China’s regime, or its’ polluted skies, lands and waterways. It is a grim novel in which every glimmer of beauty is quickly snuffed out by suffering and loss, where light breaks through the cracks but never quite finds its way in.

I'm looking forward to reading this book

A Quite stunning piece of writing. Unbelievably tough reading at times and moving, yet this kind of work has to be read to understand fully the horrendous policies that the Chinese communist party have inflicted upon China.

Very happy, book just as described, definitely use again

A powerful book, not a happy read at all but contains a poignant commentary on the ongoing one and two child policies in china. Some incredibly gripping scenes, including a "live" abortion, so definitely not for the feint of heart. Overall the book really engaged me.