Fiction Chronicle

By ALISON McCULLOCH

Published: February 17, 2012

Sunday Book Review

THE FAT YEARS
By Chan Koonchung. Translated by Michael S. Duke.
Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, $26.95.

China has been enjoying its Golden Age of Ascendancy for two years when this uncommon novel opens in 2013, with the nation in the grip of a pervasive happiness. The protagonist, a journalist and writer named Lao Chen, suspects that’s why he hasn’t been able to produce a really good novel: “Perhaps my life was too peaceful.” But there are exceptions. Chen’s old friend Little Xi is dissatisfied, distrustful and increasingly disturbed by a strange amnesia that seems to have gripped the population, while another acquaintance insists an entire month has gone missing from the country’s collective memory. This riddle unites Chen, Little Xi and a band of “nonforgetters” determined to learn what happened in those lost days. (Although Chen’s motivation may really be his smoldering love for Little Xi.) A preface and translator’s note argue the book is a window onto contemporary China, but at times “The Fat Years” is larded with the kind of analysis more common to foreign policy journals. With its offbeat puzzle and diverting characters, however, Chan’s story is not only absorbing in its own right, it also shines reflected light on the foibles of the West.