John of The Book Mine Set reviewed this short story back in April.
A man is riding a bicycle with a baby carriage mounted to the front. Not a real safe thing to do anywhere, let alone the busy city streets of China. As bus collides with the man, the baby and carriage are thrown. The man’s legs are caught under the wheel of the bus.
This isn’t a story about the man, as one may expect. It is about the reaction of the people who saw the accident or happened upon it later. It is also about the people in the city that were effected by it indirectly. For instance, “The street cleaners have no way of knowing that an accident took place here a few hours ago.”
The story unfolds slowly but not in a boring sort away. There are details of significance but the story moves forward. Xingjian’s writing is beautiful prose and with it he invites the reader to share in the story with him. Reading it for myself, was like sitting down to a cup of tea with the author, himself. I defiantly want to read more by him. Gao Xingjian won the Nobel Prize for Literature in the year of 2000. You can read this story on The New Yorker website, here.
If you would like to participate in Short Story Mondays or just find out about some great short stories, go to John of The Book Mine Set. He has a short story review every Monday and a place for you to link your short story reviews. Come join in the fun!
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Glad you enjoyed it. I loved the unraveling and retying approach of this story.
Me too John. Thanks for pointing me to it.
You’re right, I would have expected it to be about the man. Sounds like the story is is written in a really engaging way. Thanks for including a link, too.
This sounds like my kind of story – thanks for including the link. I’v been wanting to read something by this author.
Carol, it is quite engaging.
JoAnn, I think you will like this one.