Ma Bo

Excellent Memoir

"Blood Red Sunset" is the biography of Ma Bo's time spent in the Chinese laogai/gulag system. While participating in the Cultural Revolution, he is accused of being a counter-revolutionary and is sent to the frontiers of China. He describes his desolate and lonely decade that included living among semi-nomadic herders. There are a few people who come in and out of the book, such as a romantic interest and several other inmates, most of whom have ambiguous morals. While Ma Bo clearly lost faith in communism, the book is less of an academic judgement than it is his story.

The language and style of the translation are easy to read, although some of the details are not very pleasant. All in all, this was a very informative and very interesting book.… (meer)