Title Binu and the Great Wall Series --- Author Su Tong Cover Art HOO-HA Publisher Alfred A. Knopf - 2006 First Printing 2006 Category Mythology Warnings None Main Characters Binu, Qiliang Main Elements Fairytale

In Peach Village, crying is forbidden. But as a child, Binu never learnt to hide her tears. Shunned by the villagers, she faced a bleak future, until she met Qiliang, an orphan who offered her his hand in marriage.

Then one day, Qiliang disappears. Binu learns that he has been transported hundreds of miles and forced to labour on a project of terrifying ambition and scale - the building of the Great Wall.

Binu is determined to find and save her husband. Inspired by her love, she sets out on an extraordinary journey across Great Swallow Mountain, with only a blind frog for a company. What follows is an unforgetable story of passion, hardship and magical adventure.

Most of the Cannogate re-tellings are about 150 pages long, this one is double that and that was to its detriment.

I know very few Asian fairytales and myths (does Disney's Mulan even count?) so I was really looking forward to this one and learning something new. And at the start I was drawn in to the tale of a woman who lives in a village where it is not allowed to cry, so the women learn to release their tears from other parts of their body. A bit gross but that's fine.

Then, Binu's husband it taken a thousand li away to work on the Great Wall and Binu is distraught. It's clear she loves him dearly, though in nearly 300 pages, he's in it for maybe a paragraph so as a reader you don't get to build that emotional connection, you just have to take it as a given, or assume Binu is insane which is not so nearly romantic as if she were devotedly in love.

Anyway, she heads out to walk the thousand li to bring her husband winter clothes because he had been taken when he hadn't even been wearing a shirt. Being isolated even in her own town, and clueless about the big world, she bumbles about in cringeworthy fashion, nearly gets raped a handful of times, and well, cries a lot. She cries from her breasts, her hair, her toes, her palms, and even to her shame, her eyes. She does this every few pages. And then she just gives up and tries to die. For an endless number of pages she fights with a young boy to get him to bury her in just the right spot so she can turn into a gourd.

And did she ever once eat? I don't think so. Maybe she could live off her own tears?

Unfortunately Binu is portrayed as weak, annoying, clueless, helpless, despairing and in no way whatsoever a strong heroine who will make it to the Wall and do something mythical. She only got to the end of her journey by fluke luck and near psychotic determination (she crawled the last part on her hands and knees with a rock on her back because...well, not sure, it seems on the surface that should show how strong she was but it just came off kind of pityful) I just couldn't wait till it would end since there were so many side stories (like finding out about "horse men" and "deer boys", the things the poor will do to please the rich) it was interesting but we spent soooo much time there.

I got a very dim view of all the other people she runs into, I don't think there was a single nice person that was willing to help her. They all wanted to rob her, kick her when she was down, or just have nothing to do with her...my view of feudal Chinese society kind of went down the drain there. This wasn't just the need to provide obstacles to the protagonist of the story, this came off as a deeply cruel society. I'm sure that wasn't the intention. You'd think there would be at least 1 person who would take pity on this poor woman and let her sleep in the barn, or give her a bit of rice, but nope.

And then there was the blind frog, that seemed to be a big thing that would lead to some payoff later...but she just loses track of it part way through and that was that. Very disappointing.

If this tale was half the length, it would have improved a lot. The reader wouldn't have had time to get tired of the constant crying, wouldn't have gotten bored on some of the side stories, would have cut down on some of the irrelevant stuff (like the whole King coming to Five Grain City that had no impact at all on the overall story since he dies before he gets there), then it would have been exactly what it should have been, a myth, a legend, a fairytale about the power of love.

BTW...who thought it would be good to put a person on a horse on the cover? The whole point was she could NOT get a horse (they had all been taken for the Wall or for wars), it just seemed to clash so oddly.