"The Setting Sun in the North Sea" is a novel set against the background of the reform of state-owned enterprises in the old industrial base of Northeast China. Through the micro-society of the machinery factory family area, it tells the story of a family's ups and downs and watchfulness in the torrent of the times.
The main line of the story revolves around the old lady Wang Guizhi, the "machinery factory Xiang Xiuli". She is the first generation of industrial workers in New China. She once had great success, but in her later years she had to face the cruel reality of factory bankruptcy, her children being laid off, and her neighbors being separated. She used her meager retirement salary to support the lives of her four laid-off children and grandchildren like a swallow holding mud. She kept the last warmth for the whole family on the fire bed in the official room.
The core of the work falls on the two granddaughters - Shanshan and Wenwen. Shanshan is frail and talented. During her adolescence, when she was bullied at school and scolded by her mother, she used words as a weapon to survive. Wenwen is cheerful and sunny, looking for her own love and life under the light of her cousin. Their growth is like two stubborn flowers blooming on the frozen soil of the North.
The narrative feature connects the fate of three generations from the perspective of Mrs. Wang: the eldest son is stupid and useless, the second son is slippery and divorced, the eldest daughter has an unfortunate marriage, and the younger daughter is smart and capable. At the same time, it outlines the joys and sorrows of many worker families such as the Dong family, the Li family, Zhao Kuaishou, Wu Jianping, etc. - Some commit suicide by eating poisonous dumplings, some go crazy until old age, some leave their hometowns, and some counterattack and are reborn. At the end of the novel, when the machinery factory was transformed into a themed cultural and creative park, the returning descendants looked back at the old site and discovered that the stories under the setting sun had long since become the spiritual home of a generation.
Purpose: How can people maintain their final dignity and warmth in the ruins of the times?