Attitude

班琳丽Henan Literature and Art Publishing House · ChinaNov 2021

Rating 2.4
Word count
139K words
Chapters
7
ISBN
9787555911715

Tags

Social Fiction Social ObservationPower GameHuman NatureComplex HumanityPsychological Insight

Summary

Attitude recounts the career twists of Liu Dahe, head of the “10·12” task force, who unexpectedly drops to a lower post and just as inexplicably rises again, mirroring the unpredictable rights and wrongs of society and the times and the way they intervene in and tear apart the fate and survival of “small people.” With meticulous, inwardly charged narration, Attitude creates a new ecology for fiction and draws close to the essence of fiction, thereby expressing an attitude of being present in life: no matter how a change begins, what matters is the attitude with which one grasps the ending.

Editor's review

Attitude is writer Ban Linli’s latest story collection, gathering novellas and short stories including “The Year’s End,” “Attitude,” and “The Green Jade Bowl.” Most of these works are set against contemporary urban life and focus on the subtle emotions and moral choices of ordinary people amid everyday predicaments. Ban Linli’s prose has a distinct personal style—she excels at capturing overlooked folds in life and depicting her characters’ inner storms with delicate strokes. In the title story, “Attitude,” through what appears to be an ordinary family dispute, she peels back layer after layer of the power struggles and emotional undercurrents in a marriage, revealing the inexpressible weariness and persistence of modern marriage.

In literary terms, Ban Linli’s work extends contemporary women’s writing’s deep exploration of emotional complexity, but its distinctiveness lies in refraining from overstating drama and instead letting conflict ferment naturally within ordinary daily life. Her narrative pace is composed and restrained, her dialogue precise and full of tension, and she can touch a reader’s inner points of resonance when least expected. Though these stories are not long, each works like a prism refracting the emotional and ethical dilemmas contemporary people face.

For readers who enjoy literary short fiction, this collection offers a high-quality reading experience. Ban Linli’s grasp of character psychology is especially commendable: her characters are not simple black-and-white constructions but reveal the many sides and contradictions of human nature within specific situations. This attitude in writing may itself be the true meaning of the title—literature should preserve reverence for and honesty about a complex world.

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Reading tips

  1. Reading in order is recommended to experience the continuity and variation in the author’s style
  2. Pausing briefly after each story allows its details and lingering resonance to sink in
  3. Pay attention to the varied manifestations of the theme of “attitude” across the different pieces

About the publisher

Henan Literature and Art Publishing House China · Founded in 1996

Founded in 1996, Henan Literature and Art Publishing House mainly publishes books on literature and art, social sciences and broadly cultural subjects, and also edits and publishes the journal Celebrity Biography, gradually forming a publishing style characterized by full-length historical novels and biographical literature. Judging from the 269 titles in the database, its publishing scope also covers mystery and detective fiction, foreign literature, classic works and world classics. Representative books include Ellery Queen's four tragedies, Slaughterhouse-Five, Blindness, The Siege of Lisbon, The History of the Siege of Lisbon, the ten-volume Collected Works of Wang Zengqi, Old Tales Retold and the two-volume Classic Short Stories of Stanisław Lem, the God of Science Fiction. In terms of authors, it includes foreign masters such as Kurt Vonnegut, José Saramago and Ellery Queen, as well as translators such as Yang Xi, Yu Jianhua and Fan Weixin.

Contents

  1. 版权信息
  2. 态度
  3. 最后的告别
  4. 来生不要错过我
  5. 寻梳记
  6. 出租时代
  7. 女人如花

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a short story collection? It is a collection of novellas and short stories, comprising several independent narratives.
What are the characteristics of Ban Linli’s writing style? Her style is delicate and understated; she excels at portraying character psychology within everyday scenes, and her narrative pace is relatively unhurried.
Is this book suitable as an introduction to literature? The works are strongly literary and require some reading patience, making them better suited to readers with some grounding in literary reading.

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About the author

班琳丽 Author

Ban Linli is an author about whom relatively limited public information is available. One work by her is currently included in the collection: the social novel Attitude. Based on the available information, her writing takes social reality as its subject and uses the novel form to present questions of circumstance and attitude in social life. Because her dates of birth and death, nationality, educational background, and writing career are not clearly recorded, her personal biography cannot yet be systematically outlined. As for Attitude, the work is classified as a social novel, indicating that its focus falls on real social relationships and the choices characters make rather than on invented legendary plots. Readers may take it as an entry point for understanding contemporary social fiction. In the absence of further material, an introduction to Ban Linli can only center on this work, and her writing style and literary influence still await confirmation through more public sources.