/lit/ - Literature

>>17736871
China Mountain Zhang - Maureen F. McHugh (1992)
This novel has a central narrative that alternates with one-off perspectives which present a wider sense of what there is, which is to say it's a mosaic novel. This doesn't have a plot as would be expected of a work of science fiction. It's much more a literary character study than anything else. Although I've seen this described as being cyberpunk, I believe many would find that to be a questionable assertion at best, because if it is, it's a fully deromanticized and staid interpretation. Maybe this excerpt sufficed for many to consider it as being cyberpunk: “Government is big, we are small. We are only free when we slip through the cracks.”
This is the life story of an average guy who can pass for a member of the majority culture but doesn't feel as if he's a part of it at all and isn't interested in it aside from the privilege that comes with it. Life isn't easy for a gay man living in the Socialist Union of American States, even though are far worse places to be than Brooklyn, such as China, where homosexuality is punishable by death. In our world China legalized homosexuality in 1997. The protagonist has gay romances and sex, the former is described though the latter isn't. Nothing about who he is or what he does particularly matters in terms of trying to convince the reader the one way or the other about anything.
This is world where the US Communist party won The Second American Revolution and China is the sole world power. Following this was the Cleansing Winds Campaign, an ideological purity spiral, which in some cases may well have been a circular firing squad. This is latter considered to have been an embarrassing overreaction. Overall though there's scant worldbuilding until the end where it's all provided in an infodump from a literal lecture. I would have preferred the information to have been provided throughout the story rather than just before it's ended. The secondary perspectives provide more information and have a tenuous connection to the primary narrative. They would've been far better served as a second novel of only short fiction stories that took place in the same world.
The author, McHugh, did well with her characters and their lives, but fell short in every other aspect in my estimation. The main problem to me is the absence of an overall vision for the story and lack of commitment to anything in particular. If this were a fix-up novel that would be understandable, though still not acceptable. It's unfortunate because if this were better structured and executed, I would have rated it much more highly. I will eventually try reading other works by her. In terms of other works, a moderately similar book to this one's style would be Station Eleven, which I enjoyed somewhat more.
Rating: 3.5/5