You can love it or hate it, but there’s no denying that garlic has one of the most distinct tastes you’ll ever palate. Whether it’s roasted or sprinkled raw on a salad, even the tiniest hint of garlic leaves a lasting taste and smell. For the characters in Mo Yan’s “The Garlic Ballads,” the soul of their quaint Chinese town is driven by the government-ordained garlic plantations that rule not only their economy, but also their social standings.
Garlic has a way of permeating itself into every event, and its smell is infused into peasant farmers’ lives as they struggle against an oppressive government and their own social constraints.
Yan tells the story through a series of time lapses, flashing back and forth between all the steps that lead to the present moment. Two basic threads weave throughout, connecting the wisps of memories that essentially make up “The Garlic Ballads.”
The first thread involves Gao Ma, a heartbroken man whose love for an unattainable girl causes the two of them to live in misery. The second is the story of Gao Yang, a weak peasant farmer with a pitiful past that has the unfortunate tendency to keep repeating itself.
Both men live in poverty, either ignored or ruthlessly tortured by public officials who force them to plant garlic and then carelessly let them suffer when selling the crop becomes impossible. Both are also in trouble with the police, charged for rioting and storming Communist official headquarters in an act of desperation. Gao Ma, with his failed attempts to stand up for what he believes in, represents the stalwart and faithful citizen whose life shatters around him once society turns its back. Gao Yang is the picture of the helpless peasant farmer, absolutely crushed each day of his life by the heavy hand of an unflinching government. Overall, it’s a story of disillusionment—with government, with family and with long-standing social structures which once made so much sense, but in the end are completely baffling.
“The Garlic Ballads” sat on my dresser for a good week before I finally decided to reach for it. For whatever reason, I was intimidated. After reading the first few pages, it was pretty clear that this wouldn’t be a light read. The story starts off at a fast pace, with clear-cut good characters and shockingly evil antagonists. These antagonists are usually the police officers—who torture Gao Yang mercilessly—or the Fang family, who brutally attack Gao Ma when he declares his love for their daughter.
In his attempt to portray the miserable peasant farmer society, Mo Yan describes scenes of torture and abuse in excruciating detail. While it definitely gets the point across, these scenes also shock and disgust the reader to the point of nausea. There were times when I had to set the book down because it became almost unbearable to go on. As the lives of each character become increasingly destitute, these vivid scenes of abuse keep repeating to the point where the book seems to stop moving forward. “The Garlic Ballads” is definitely not a story for an impatient reader, or one with a weak stomach.
Despite the graphic nature of some of these scenes, the book is very well-written in a unique, poetic prose. The story is told in a mystical, almost dream-like tone and touches on many important issues. For a college-aged reader from Wisconsin, it gives a glimpse of a life unlike anything we’ve experienced here. Besides an oppressive government, “The Garlic Ballads” also touches on issues like courage, and what it means to live in a society where the only two options are either to be oppressed, or to be the oppressor.
In all, “The Garlic Ballads” is a bleak tale where the hopelessness of the characters’ lives is as unshakeable as the stench of the garlic that surrounds them each day.
Grade: BC
