Two Days

Following Beijing Osmanthus Wine and My Eternal Heaven, Luo Chen delivered Two Days, which critics regarded as a noteworthy achievement in the literary output of 2009. The three chapters are titled "Wind on the Mountain," "Rain in the Basin," and "Clouds in the City"; wind, rain, and cloud serve as metaphors for three stages of growing up and carry the setting from the mountains and the basin all the way to the city, in a structure that is clean and carefully considered. The author does not write as a detached observer of the times but uses a first-person voice close to confession, forcing himself to account for memories he would rather not mention, and the result has an unflattering honesty. It portrays a generation of southern youths, yet it is more than nostalgia: as material life grows richer, why do people become more lonely and more lost? That question still stings today. If you favor coming-of-age novels with high emotional intensity and the texture of the 1990s, this slim novel will make you suddenly recall, on some page, your own childhood and a place you never returned to.