The Republic of Wine- Mo Yan (1992)

The Republic of Wine- Mo Yan (1992)

Maybe my favorite book ever is Gabriel Garcia Marquez`s Cien Años De Soledad, a book that means so much to me and that somehow made a strong connection between my mother and I, giving the book and even more important significance to me, in Mo Yan writing the “magic” qualities of Garcia Marquez writing somehow manage to ring, as Mo Yan take us to some really fantastic places hidden within the mysterious China and its traditions, yes Yan dwells on magic realism, Chinese magic realism, an approach that defies reality and put us directly in a strange and hallucinating world, sometimes wonderful, sometimes mysterious and sometimes menacing, sometimes a beautiful dreams, sometimes a dreadful nightmare it depends on what you had for dinner, in this case, Mo Yan`s The Republic Of Wine seems more like your alcohol inspired nightmare, and a hell of a metaphysical literate ride, one that takes time for one to get accustomed to, but once it is fully absorbed into our system it starts to give us a complete new vision on China and on Mo Yan amazing vision and amazing writing art.

The Republic Of Wine was the first Mo Yan`s book I had the chance of reading and it became a huge surprise for me, Mo Yan styles defies really common literature structure, he evokes as I said metaphysical matters and at the same time he gets the chance to expose us into the magic world of China and its mystic and traditions, being wine one of the them, being food another one and being sex another one, and with those elements Mo Yan really sets his mind free and starts taking us into a world all of his own in which he somehow manages to expose us to a three level of writing one in which the main story takes place, one composed of an admiration dialogue between Mo Yan and his writing disciple Li Yidou and the other one, a fantasy one in which Li Yidou sends Mo Yan his hallucinating stories taking place in the so called Land Of Wine, yes, that complex and fascinating is Mo Yan art, one that has captured my attention in a way few books have done in recent years.

Mo Yan one the 2012 Literature Nobel Prize, and he was heavily criticized by dissident writers in China for not being critic enough of the authoritarian communist rule in China, may that be true or not, Mo Yan writing is a rebellious one, he satirizes some of China most cherished traditions and while he might not be against the government in a way he shows a free vision of his own world, one that defies to commit to reality in the same way someone like Kafka used to do as we know for sure that when Mo Yan talks about The Republic Of Wine, he is talking about China and no place else, Mo Yan talks about the very well grounded tradition of alcohol in China, something that can be heart warming, but at the same time dangerous, and reality altering, as we learn that for example Russia alcohol related dependency is growing up at a fast and alarming rate, and that another tale like this The Republic Of W

ine may came out in the future from the land of Dostoyevsky, Pushkin and Gogol.

Mo Yan book starts with the shocking mission of special investigator Ding Gouer, a man commissioned by The Party (of course China only reigning Communist Party)to visit The Republic Of Wine and investigate the rumor of cannibalism taking place in that part of the country, Gouer investigation starts on a mine, were he is well received and quickly starts receiving continuous invitations by his hosts to drink, when in the republic of the wine one has to drink and rejecting it is seen as an insult to the hosts, so Gouer mind starts descending into madness and his mind starts losing its focus on the matter that took him there, he meets powerful people in charge of this land, and starts to discover the hallucinating traditions of that place, somehow falling in a terrible trap that starts putting Gouer mind and morals to test in a crushing way, but Ding Gouer bizarre tale in the Republic Of the Wine is just a piece in Mo Yan big puzzle, as he revels to us his dialogue with Li Yidou, a man with a doctorate in elaborating liquor and wine, but one with literary aspirations a man who starts inducting Mo Yan into the land of wine mystic while telling Yan about the traditions of this land and more important submitting his own stories to Yan, thus between Yidou tales about everyday life in the land of wine and Yidou fiction tales, we get the idea of how Mo Yan starts constructing Gouer tale, in a real funny way, somehow Mo Yan suggest in his mind that he is taking the idea of his book on an aspiring writer, of course all this happening just in Mo Yan`s mind, but exposed here in a masterful way.

The Republic of Wine takes time, but is an amazing book, full of surprises, full of pieces that we have to put together on our own, a big and complex game that show us the amazing nature of Mo Yan imagination and one that surprises us by giving us exposure to the magic land of China.