I took

Author: Xiao Rui
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-09-01
Features: I Took the Exam is written based on the author Xiao Rui's personal experiences, telling the story of a high school dropout who decides to retake the college entrance exam. It is the first full-length novel in China that portrays the life of a student who retakes the exam. The novel depicts a teenager named Xiaotu who fails the college entrance exam and becomes a retake student. He must endure another year of waiting and suffering before fate decides whether he can leave his despised hometown to attend the university he dreams of in Beijing. And just in that year, Xiaotu begins an absurd romance with a classmate, his parents are also divorcing, his friend is stabbed to death on a street, and in the endless waiting and fear, Xiaotu starts having nightmares of killing his mother. He must break free from the entanglement of desires and the pain of a life that is constantly falling apart. Therefore, the college entrance exam takes on a deeper meaning in this story, becoming a symbol of fate. The young Xiaotu is entangled in a absurd realm composed of love, desires, future, pain, and family, unable to escape------In this new work, Xiao Rui abandons the unrestrained writing style and attitude common in youth writing, beginning to portray characters and narrate stories with a caring attitude. "I will hide my pain, just like hiding my ideals." In the novel, readers will be surprised to find that the former punk teenager is gone, replaced by a young novelist telling a fate story that most of us have experienced. It is cruel yet tender, yet restrained. It is both a retake student's experience and a coming-of-age story of how one constantly makes choices in the face of fate. On a certain summer, in a certain place, a teenager named Xiaotu fails the college entrance exam and becomes a retake student. He must endure a year of waiting and suffering before fate decides whether he can attend the university he dreams of in Beijing. In that year, Xiaotu begins an absurd romance with a girl named Lü, a classmate in his retake class. Xiaotu's parents are divorcing, his friend is stabbed to death on a street, and Xiaotu himself starts having nightmares of killing his mother in the midst of waiting and fear. In this story about the college entrance exam, the young Xiaotu is entangled in an absurd realm composed of love, desires, future, pain, and family, unable to escape. It is both a retake student's experience and a coming-of-age story of how one constantly makes choices in the face of fate.