Green River Daydreams - Softcover

Liu Heng

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1903809150 ISBN 13: 9781903809150

Publisher: Atlantic Books, 2001

Synopsis

Liu Heng is one of contemporary China's most acclaimed and masterful writers, and with Green River Daydreams he has written "of the struggle between Western ideas and the old political system, all of it set against a supplely portrayed mountain and river landscape" (NPR's All Things Considered). Ears, the slave of a wealthy landowning family in the early twentieth century, bears witness to its spectacular corruption and decline. The family's prodigal son, Guanghan, returns from four years of study in Europe with a French engineer friend and a dream of starting a collectively run match factory, but has little interest in the bride his family has arranged for him. Her beauty and good heart have not gone unnoticed by Ears, however -- nor has her growing closeness to the Frenchman. Meanwhile, clashes between the Qing imperialists and the resistance are quickly becoming bloody -- and Guanghan's iconoclastic ideas do not remain free of suspicion for long. "[B]oth a coming-of-age story and a chronicle of the clash between forbidden love and duty." -- Publishers Weekly "A richly detailed realistic saga" -- Kirkus Reviews "A masterly blending of character and story in a compelling historical setting.... Highly recommended." -- Tom Cooper, Library Journal (starred review)

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

The frank, unprettified voice of Heng's narrator immediately imparts vigor and urgency to this dramatic story of tragic love set in politically turbulent, early 20th-century China. A wealthy family's slave, called Ears, spins out his tale in old age, recalling his life in the Cao household in the Green River valley in 1908. The Caos' second son, Guanghan, has just returned from university studies in France along with "the foreigner" (soon nicknamed Big Road), an engineer who is to help Guanghan establish a match factory. Guanghan's modern ideas are at odds with those of his stern elder brother and his aging parents, who cannot understand Guanghan's disinterest in his upcoming arranged marriage. When beautiful bride Yunan arrives, the balance in the Cao household is further upset. Ears who, at 17, is subject to the longings of any teenager sees and learns much in his stealthy comings and goings around the Cao family compound. Guanghan devotes himself to new ideas his match factory will be a workers' "commune" and his secret experiments with explosives and long absences from the family home are stranger still. As Yunan and Big Road draw closer together, political strife looms, and Ears realizes that even in his lowly position, he may know too much to be safe or to save those he loves. Finely crafted, with a sure rendering of time and place, this novel is both a coming-of-age story and a chronicle of the clash between forbidden love and duty. Agent, Sandra Dijkstra. (July)Forecast: Well known among China's young emergent authors (his first novel, Jou Dou, was made into a film in 1989, and he also wrote the novella upon which the movie Red Sorghum is based), Liu Heng will establish a literary presence with this novel.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

In this new work, Liu's second to be translated after the highly acclaimed Black Snow, a talkative centenarian known only as Ears relates his story to an unnamed auditor. Around the beginning of the 20th century, Ears was a domestic slave to the rich and influential Cao family, whose members are so self-involved that they scarcely know how the others spend their days. Only Ears talks regularly to them all and knows that each is heading toward a tragic fate. Though the older brother is fanatical about protecting the family's place in society, the younger brother, Guanghan, becomes involved in the nascent rebellion against the Qing dynasty. When Guanghan rejects his bride from an arranged marriage, she takes solace in the arms of her husband's business associate, a move that accelerates the impending tragedy. Ears remains faithful: he plays the hero at several key junctures, but in the end he cannot avert multiple disasters. The result is a masterly blending of character and story in a compelling historical setting. Goldblatt's rich and evocative translation strives to remain true to the nuances of the original Chinese. Highly recommended for most fiction collections. Tom Cooper, Richmond Heights Memorial Lib., MO
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Atlantic Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1903809150
• ISBN 13: 9781903809150
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304