Curdled Love is a witty, humorous, occasionally absurd but wholly realistic novel. The story is refreshingly concise, with an effortless, graceful style that allows the reader’s eye to dance lightly from word to word. Beneath its simple and light-hearted style, the plot runs a twisted and unconventional course, and from the many vicissitudes there emerge several profound messages. It combines wit and stylistic elegance with down-to-earth bawdy humor and self-consciously vulgar situations. Various subplots combine to give the overall tapestry a vibrant, richly textured feel. It has the spontaneity of sketch comedy, the allusive quality of “crosstalk” comedy, the fantastical, exaggerated quality of anime, and the accessibly quality of an eccentric folk novel. The reader is sure to be thoroughly entertained and rolling in laughter at the expense of the characters.

The story grows out of one of the strange deaths in Dr. Anton’s clinic. Nearly all of the witnesses believe that Niu Cheche, owner of a dairy farm, committed suicide by jumping from the top of a tall building after suffering from depression due to his financial problems. But Dr. Anton isn’t convinced. He suspects that a man who looks just like Niu Cheche fell from the building and that Niu Cheche might still be alive. As Dr. Anton investigates the circumstances surrounding the strange death, Dr. Anfeng, the city coroner and good friend of Niu Cheche, relates uproarious episodes from Niu Cheche’s romantic life and reveals clues about the missing Niu Yaya, Niu Cheche’s unwanted love.

The story’s protagonist, Niu Cheche, is a simple, good-natured, honest peasant from rural China. The female lead, the infamously ugly Niu Yaya, is also simple, good-natured, and honest but contains the qualities of a strange, unique, elusive figure. Through his youthful romantic escapades, Niu Cheche experiences all the bizarre travails of life. He suffers bitterness from his failed hopes, shame from his mistakes, and embarrassment due to his accidental and unwanted love affair. Other equally vivid characters appear throughout the story: the match-maker Ying Ernai, the village femme fatale Niu Huahua, the loner Niu Laowu, and many more. The author is able to breath life into these singular characters through his nuanced descriptions.

Curdled Love is effused with a tangibly earthy aura, evoking the remote prairie land of rural western China from decades past. The reader is immersed into the hardships of Chinese peasant life, where diligence, relentless hard work, austerity, and an almost machine-like persistence are necessary for survival. There is an essence, a soul to this form of gritty realism, and the author is fully able to express it while successfully conveying the comedic elements of the plot. The unfolding of the story is so palpably realistic, it is almost as though the comedy has occurred in real life. It lingers in the mind somewhere between the written word and true reality, causing the reader to crave for more.

Curdled Love is Ningfu Anton’s fourth novel. Ningfu Anton is a cardiovascular surgeon and best-selling author of The Devil’s Morgue, Red Stone Prairie, and Dr. Anton’s Clinic: Mysterious Deaths.

Helen Hailun Wang and Joseph Mansell Cronin

January 24, 2016