Women, Seated

Eventually, she finished the work she titled Woman, Seated. Yu Ling was disappointed: she found the woman in the picture much uglier than herself. Shoulders hunched, hands clasped, apparently anxious about something—perhaps the fact of being seated. Just being there, not doing anything, left her ill at ease.

Yu Ling is the nanny to a seven-year-old boy, the son of wealthy parents and grandson to a prominent provincial politician. She finds herself drawn to the boy and to a lesser extent his artistic mother, even as she chafes at the class and education differences that divide them. Despite having lived with the family for years, they all have secrets and separate lives that threaten the carefully constructed relationships. As the show more secrets are revealed, these relationships are tested.

I was completely engrossed in this fast-paced novel, and continually surprised by the developments. The writing (and translation) is crisp and clean, each chapter only lasting a few pages, all of which heightens the pace. At the conclusion I was left thinking about the position of women in society and what leverage they have or can find to help them succeed and survive. I really enjoyed this novel and will look for more of Zhang's works in translation. show less

People say the poor love to dream, but that isn't quite right. Dreaming is the privilege of the moneyed, and the world has all kinds of ways to protect their dreams.

Yu Ling is a nanny to the child of a wealthy Beijing couple. One day, she and her fiancé take the boy out for a Spring excursion, but while that's what she calls it, there is really another plan. But even as she has second thoughts, larger forces move against that family and now Yu Ling is just trying to figure out what to do.

In this novel, the experience of a woman working a job that includes being able to use luxuries like a modern kitchen and to take her charge to theater performances is balanced against the precarity of that employment, subject as it is, first to the show more whims of her employer, then to that family's status in Beijing. And as the focus of the story shares space with other women in Yu Ling's orbit, it becomes a story about how women survive and the compromises they make to get by.

I picked this book up because of the translator, Jeremy Tiang. He has chosen some very interesting and thought-provoking work to translate and this novel is no exception. My thanks to him for introducing me to the work of Zhang Yueran. I hope to read more by her. show less

This short novel engaged me. A story that keeps shifting your focus and your sympathies. The author has a strong hold on how things are revealed and when. Overall, an interesting and nuanced thriller.