Mobile phone

Author: Liu Zhenyun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-12-01
Features: The Phone is a leap in Liu Zhenyun's novel writing. In his early works, Liu Zhenyun, with his keen and delicate observations, exquisite and precise language skills, wrote classic works such as A Patch of Hair and later Tapestry, The Official World, and Looking Back on 1942, which became widely discussed. However, Liu Zhenyun felt that his early creations were fragmented and only focused on people's material lives. Thus, he boldly denied himself and began a new exploration. After eight years of arduous writing, he completed the massive two-million-word epic Hometown Noodles and Flowers, whose enigmatic imagination and unrestrained, boundless prose left readers in awe. At the same time, it also left many readers utterly bewildered. Liu Zhenyun once again reviewed his own writing. In his exploration, Liu Zhenyun entered the creative process of The Phone, bringing readers joy—good themes, good stories, and good narrative styles. Concise, materialistic, and specific, yet profound, philosophical, and humorous, it embodies the strengths of Liu Zhenyun's writing. The Phone tells a story about "speaking." The protagonist, Yan Shouyi, is a host of a talk show on TV. The novel begins with Yan Shouyi's childhood in the 1960s, describing his quiet father, his cousin, his friend, and his grandmother. It then shifts to the present, where the grown-up Yan Shouyi engages in a profession that surprises the entire village—making a living by "speaking" as a TV host. The novel then returns to the 1920s and 1930s, tracing the origins of Yan Shouyi's words. In the fully developed middle section, many mouths grow in the work, all speaking—some telling lies, some telling the truth, some not speaking much, some speaking with hidden meanings, and some speaking from the heart. Through the phone, Liu Zhenyun vividly reveals the relationship between the mouth and the heart. The cover of The Phone adopts the overall design of Hometown Noodles and Flowers, with intricate cutouts on deep blue, exquisite craft paper, printed in black, silver, and ink, exuding a solemn and grand atmosphere. It aims to reflect the profound depth of the work and the forceful, paper-penetrating power of its words.