Post-Apocalyptic Love: Masterpieces by Contemporary Artists

Author: Can Xu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: This book selects 11 short stories and novellas by the contemporary literary figure Can Xu. Among them, "Love in the Apocalypse" is particularly readable compared to her usual writing style. It is still a story set in a small town, where the Fourth Uncle is an elderly man living alone with an empty room. Due to this room, many people speculate that he is dating the widow of the Luo family's wine shop. Gradually, the Fourth Uncle really begins a romantic affair with the widow. Meanwhile, he also becomes obsessed with burning paper money for the dead with her. Later, the Fourth Uncle's house is scheduled for demolition, accompanied by rumors that the widow has found a new lover. In the end, the Fourth Uncle is arrested for allegedly disrupting the demolition, and the informant is none other than the widow. The novel remains full of Can Xu's characteristic mystery, but it also highlights the Fourth Uncle's deep and persistent love, the widow's ambivalent love psychology, her subsequent guilt, and the "spectator" mentality of the townspeople.