A widower's entertainment

Chapter 313 [The Executioner] (Please Subscribe)
The moment Lin Youcheng's novel "The Reader" appeared in the latest issue of People's Literature magazine, the entire literary circle in Beijing was abuzz. All eyes were drawn to it, and countless young people who love literature and literary workers rushed to buy the latest issue of People's Literature magazine.

There's no other reason than Lin Youcheng published a new novel!

Lin Youcheng's new novel is called "The Reader"!
Rumors had already circulated that Lin Youcheng's latest novel, "The Reader," was also a love story, and a rather daring one at that. Such rumors naturally fueled the anticipation of many young literary enthusiasts, who were eager to know what kind of love story Lin Youcheng would bring to the table.

Just like the previous sell-out of *People's Literature*, the publication of Lin Youcheng's latest novel, *The Reader*, has also made *People's Literature* a highly sought-after book. There's no way around it; it's Lin Youcheng's new novel, and it's absolutely attracting widespread attention. Otherwise, why would editors of literary journals keep commissioning articles from him? Because the name Lin Youcheng already signifies the moving power and excellence of his work.

"It was really hard to get this issue of People's Literature!"

Ma Wei walked into the Haima Studio and saw Wang Shuo holding a copy of "People's Literature". He couldn't help but laugh and said, "Hey, I was thinking of bringing it to you to read, but I didn't expect you to have already taken a liking to it. Everyone says that Lin Youcheng's 'The Reader' is pretty awesome. What do you think?"

"Is it really that amazing? Even more amazing than his previous film, 'Atonement'?"

Upon hearing Ma Weidu's words, Wang Shuo shook his head and uttered three words, "It's different."

"no the same?"

"Completely different stories, but both are incredibly awesome!"

Wang Shuo genuinely admired Lin Youcheng and was completely amazed by Lin Youcheng's "The Reader." Looking at Ma Weidu, he said, "You haven't read it yet, have you? Hurry up and take a look; it's really well-written!"

Ma Wei heard Wang Shuo's words and was naturally very curious. He was even more eager to read Lin Youcheng's novel and asked, "Is it really about love again this time?"

"Yes."

Wang Shuo looked deeply moved, seemingly still wanting to watch "The Reader." Her heart was still somewhat unsettled, and she said with some excitement, "The love between a fifteen-year-old boy and a thirty-six-year-old woman."

Really?

When Ma Wei heard Wang Shuo's words, his expression changed completely. He stared at Wang Shuo with wide eyes, clearly not expecting what Wang Shuo said. Lin Youcheng's latest "The Reader" was about the love between a fifteen-year-old boy and a thirty-six-year-old woman. That was really bold. No wonder there were rumors that the new manuscript was very daring.

"Yes, and it's not your average love story. It also touches on humanity and war, sin and redemption, but the story is completely different from Atonement."

Wang Shuo was deeply moved. He had always been very confident, even arrogant, believing that his novels were amazing and that he would write works like "Dream of the Red Chamber" or "Gone with the Wind." But after reading Lin Youcheng's "The Reader," he was truly impressed and deeply moved.

"Lin Youcheng truly lives up to his reputation; he's incredibly awesome!"

Clearly, as Wang Shuo said, Lin Youcheng's "The Reader" truly left readers speechless and deeply moved.

Readers never expected Lin Youcheng to write a love story about a twenty-year age gap. The key is that the descriptions of this love story are so wonderful and absolutely thrilling. But what is truly thrilling is that Lin Youcheng has written this heart-wrenching love story to another extreme. The complexity and contradictions are beyond imagination. The story is about inferiority, shame and self-esteem, about May-December romance, about war killings, trials and the extreme conflict between good and evil. All of these have made readers' scalps tingle.

It was truly thrilling and terrifying.

Readers never imagined that Lin Youcheng would write such a story: a woman who, driven by desire, begins to study with a boy more than twenty years her junior in bed, and each time the woman has the boy read the texts to her. Moreover, the woman's most astonishing secret, or rather, her greatest shame in life, is that she is illiterate, and she is willing to suffer imprisonment to keep this secret.

Not only the literary circles in Beijing, but the entire literary world was surprised that writer Lin Youcheng would bring such a powerful literary work as "The Reader" after "Atonement".

The previous book, "Atonement," can be described as the humanity of a cultured literary writer, while this book, "The Reader," is about the humanity of an illiterate woman.

The stories of literature and illiteracy are so different, yet they both resonate deeply within the literary world.

It can be said that for a time, the discussion about Lin Youcheng's latest novel "The Reader" spread throughout the literary circle, or rather, not only the literary circle. It had a very strong impact. Whether it was Lin Youcheng's breakthrough in love that pushed the boundaries of imagination, or the discussion about dignity, freedom, and even life, it had a great impact on the literary world.

Literary circles across the country are abuzz with discussion about Lin Youcheng's explicit and unimaginably risqué piece, *The Reader*. It was reprinted by numerous literary journals almost immediately; for example, *Selected Novellas* featured it as its lead story, and *Northern Literature* was among the first to reprint it…

There's no way around it, the impact and influence of Lin Youcheng's novel are just too great!

Or perhaps, the novel's depiction of love and sex, along with the unrequited love between a couple with a more than twenty-year age gap, drew even more readers. Thus, the novel's impact on the literary world was far more than just a sensation.

On April 5th, *Literary Review* published a review article by critic Zhang Hui on the novel *The Reader*, in which she made no secret of her appreciation and praise for Lin Youcheng's work. The review stated: "We may all find it difficult to understand why the woman, Yang Ju, would rather take all the blame than reveal her illiteracy. This process of exploration is our pursuit of the complexity of human nature, even life itself, and it is also the beauty of Lin Youcheng's literary work. Perhaps everyone has secrets they don't want others to know, and they might even be willing to pay any price to keep them, actions that are often incomprehensible to outsiders."

"The image of him reading aloud to you in his youth is so beautiful and moving. Yang Ju's desire for Jiang Xia to read aloud stems from her thirst for knowledge, but was sleeping with Yang Ju a descent into desire or a madness of love? In the end, Jiang Xia didn't tell anyone the evidence that could reduce Yang Ju's sentence. When he turned back on the way to the cell during a prison visit, I believe Jiang Xia wasn't just selfishly running away, but also because he understood Yang Ju, understood all her pride and inferiority. He hid this feeling in the cassette tapes of her readings. He first influenced her, and then broke her, while her influence on him lasted from the age of 15 for a lifetime. He and she were only entangled for one summer. The brilliance of Lin Youcheng's novel lies in its ability to use love to tell stories about things that cannot be defined. Yang Ju's panic upon hearing the first syllable on the tape, and then her struggle to learn to read, writing her name stroke by stroke in letters—those days have all faded away, only love remains."

This commentary undoubtedly resonated with many readers, reflecting their own thoughts, but their opinions went beyond that.

Many literary journals and periodicals have reprinted and published related commentary articles.

Northern Literature reprinted Lin Youcheng's "The Reader" and published a commentary article: "Love is perhaps the most contradictory aspect of this novel. Yang Ju's image in Jiang Xia's eyes is fragmented; on one hand, she is the woman who seduced him and led him to his first taste of forbidden fruit, and on the other hand, she is the civil war criminal who killed so many comrades. Jiang Xia undoubtedly deeply loves the female protagonist but cannot accept her, which ultimately leads to Yang Ju's hopeless suicide upon her release from prison..."

A literary critic in the *Wenlun Bao* commented: "Lin Youcheng's novel *The Reader* has a tight plot and its climax gradually emerges as the story unfolds. It's like being entangled by a rope, getting tighter and tighter. From the initial thrill to the final breakdown and weeping, it's hard to say whether it's the charm of the words or the charm of the plot. The entire text and imagination are dazzling and amazing. Why is Yang Ju ashamed to admit she's illiterate? Why is Jiang Xia unable to talk about this love affair shrouded in guilt? There was a time when I sobbed sadly in Jiang Xia's arms over the plot of the novel. Driven by innate desires, mixed with complex factors of morality, history, and war, the value differences between insiders and outsiders can only be revisited in the relatively objective world of recordings and literature. Unable to write a reply, it was eventually extinguished by time and became a memory..."

The Shanghai Literary Gazette also published a review by literary critic Huang Hui immediately, stating: "This is not a romance novel, but a novel about human nature. The heroine, Yang Ju, places her last hope in her immature lover, but due to a misunderstanding, her hope is shattered, and she steps on a book to bid farewell to the world. When she sees him again before her death, he is no longer the 15-year-old boy who loved unconditionally. Do those who don't easily tell others about their past hide stories they dare not recall? The ingenious combination of history and human nature, her complex stubbornness, her ruthlessness towards history, yet the inability to hold back tears when hearing the plot of the novel—Lin Youcheng's portrayal of the character Yang Ju is so impressive and unforgettable. The scene where Yang Ju, in prison, opens a book to learn to write for the sake of the flame of love in her heart, is incredibly moving..."

Meanwhile, a literary critic in the magazine *Youth Review* praised this as another powerful work by Lin Youcheng on love and humanity, following *Atonement*, stating: "Following *Atonement*, this is another profound literary work by Lin Youcheng. The discussion of love and desire, as well as the deep exploration and multi-faceted analysis of human nature, are quite chilling..."

……

These discussions about "The Reader" are just the tip of the iceberg in the literary world. Because of Lin Youcheng's literary status and influence, every time his work is published, it receives a lot of attention. Now he has brought us "The Reader", which is no less than "Atonement" in its discussion of love and humanity. The seemingly linear narrative structure is still very impactful as the plot develops.

It's not just literary magazines that are discussing it intensely; literary schools are also having heated debates about Lin Youcheng's "The Reader."

Yu Hua said with an envious look, "Lin Youcheng's writing is really amazing!"

"Yes, it's really well written. The first part is light and pleasant, while the ending is heartbreaking and thought-provoking. It's quite shocking. Lin Youcheng's description perfectly captures Yang Ju's rough and rigid middle-aged woman nature as well as her primal maternal tenderness. The scene of the boy folding his clothes, sinking into the water, and floating alone on his back on the surface is also very vivid, capturing that wet summer confusion between immaturity and maturity!"

Su Tong was also full of admiration, nodding repeatedly, and said, "The whole story is quite vivid and very realistic, but it's really hard to imagine that a woman would rather admit that she has shot countless comrades than admit that she is illiterate. Is this what dignity is?"

Mo Yan also shared her opinion, saying, "Yang Ju has always been displaying her self-esteem and defending it in an extremely crazy way. The more she sheds tears for the beautiful parts of literature, the stronger her yearning for beautiful things becomes, and the more she hates her illiterate identity. As for Jiang Xia, the more she hides that memory, the more she loses herself."

"Jiang Xia's final reading gave her too much hope, but also a sense of guilt. Ultimately, the estrangement turned hope into despair, and she ended her contradictory life by stepping on the book. The struggle between reason and dignity, reason can never defeat the reality of life."

"Isn't this a stark contrast? Lin Xue, the author of 'Atonement,' uses books and novels to imagine atonement, while Yang Ju directly chooses suicide."

The other writers standing nearby nodded in agreement with Mo Yan's words, and even began to analyze and discuss the literature of "Atonement" and the illiteracy of "The Reader," as well as the humanity and good and evil in these two love stories.

Cheng Hong listened to her fellow writers discussing human nature without saying anything. Although she was also deeply moved by the struggle between humanity and dignity in the novel, what pained her more was the love between Yang Ju and Jiang Xia. Despite their age difference and the fact that one of them was a teenager, their love was mature and touching in its passion and purity.

Yet even such a mature love story ultimately ended in such a tragic way.

Even now, when Cheng Hong thinks of Yang Ju's final words to Jiang Xia, "Thank you," she still feels heartbroken and sheds tears.

In Cheng Hong's view, Lin Youcheng, this widower writer, is truly a love executioner; the love stories he writes are simply too cruel.

The worst part is that every stab is deadly; it's truly deadly!
(End of this chapter)