Average customer rating:
- One of the great towns in our literary world...
- Poignant, innovative, thought-provoking
- May this book find its way to many, many readers.
- This book takes me back to my home and my childhood
- Maqiao Mysteries
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A Dictionary of Maqiao
Han Shaogong
Manufacturer: Columbia University Press
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ASIN: 0231127448 |
Book Description
One of the most-talked about works of fiction to emerge from China in recent years, this novel about an urban youth "displaced" to a small village in rural China during the Cultural Revolution is a fictionalized portrait of the author's own experience as a young man. Han Shaogong was one of millions of students relocated from cities and towns to live and work alongside peasant farmers in an effort to create a classless society. Translated into English for the first time, Han's novel is an exciting experiment in form -- structured as a dictionary of the Maqiao dialect -- through which he seeks to understand and translate the local life and customs of his strange new home.
Han encounters an upside-down world among the people of Maqiao: a con man dupes his neighbors into thinking that he has found the fountain of youth by convincing them that his father is in fact his son; to be scientific" is to be lazy; time and relationships are understood using the language of food and its preparation; and to die young is considered "sweet," while the aged reckon their lives to be "cheap."
As entries build one upon another, Han meditates on the ability of a waidi ren (outsider) to represent the ways of life of another community. In this light, the Communist effort to control the language and history of a people whose words and past are bound together in ineluctably local ways emerges as an often comical, sometimes tragic exercise in miscommunication.
Customer Reviews:
One of the great towns in our literary world..........2006-09-17
This remarkable novel was a random discovery; after finishing it I do hope that Han Shaogong finds a larger audience around the world.
A novel structured like a dictionary of a semi-real, semi-fictional town in a rather remote region of southern China, A DICTIONARY OF MAQIAO is a remarkable, dazzling creation - each 'dictionary entry' is a vignette unto itself, each of which gradually coalesce into something greater. Shaogong's Maqiao is a bit like Garcia-Marquez' Macondo or Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County, a semi-fictional place upon which one can examine (and also honor and satirize) the varied contradictions and conundrums of a changing nation.
A DICTIONARY OF MAQIAO is set against the backdrop of the cultural revolution, though these political events don't intrude into the center of the story. Shaogong instead emphasizes language, specifically it's mutability and restless, dynamic evolutions, symbolic of life itself, and this tactic (or fascination) does serve to also place external events into some sort of philosophical perspective.
The end result is a novel that is fascinating, inventive and endlessly playful, with a vast cast of intriguing characters, and a captivating, cinematic precision. It didn't seem to get much attention when published in translation, which is highly unfortunate - it's a novel worth going out of your way to read.
-David Alston
Poignant, innovative, thought-provoking.......2004-05-05
In 1970 16-year-old Han Shaogong was sent to the Southern Chinese village of Maqiao in Hunan Province to plant rice and tea as a member of the Educated Youth. During his years in Maqiao he carefully made notations of the differences in culture, customs, and language that he observed as a stranger. Later in his life Shaogong became a central member of the Root-Searching Movement that aimed to undermine and reverse the thought-control mechanisms instituted by the Cultural Revolution and rebel against the highly-structured controls on literature, language, and aesthetics. Shaogong returned to his observations of Maqiao and developed this book to further the movement. THE DICTIONARY OF MAQIAO is structured as a dictionary with 110 entries, but it is not a tedious index of words and meanings; rather this book provides small vignettes of how life, both human and natural, is lived in Maqiao. Shaogong's position as an outsider provides him with a unique perspective of the village. He detailed the often-eccentric habitants and their distinctive language that differs from his own. By documenting these cultural and custom differences Shaogong demonstrates how there is great variety and fluency of unlike the teachings of the Maoist doctrines. I loved reading this book and would highly recommend it to others.
May this book find its way to many, many readers........2004-03-19
Thank you, Han Shaogong, for a wonderful, thought-provoking novel. The fiction you deliver, cloaked in the garb of a regional history, transcends time, place, and language to offer an incredibly precise and well-crafted definition of 'being.' Your point concerning the importance of defining experience and expression on a scale less grand than that of global village is well-delivered and it imbues A Dictionary of Maqiao with a message of hope. As more readers come to this book, may it gain the recognition it deserves. We in Western culture are lucky to have this story available to us in translation.
This book takes me back to my home and my childhood.......2004-02-21
This book takes me back to my home, a village in Southern Hunan Province, China, and to my childhood. When I was reading, the stories and the people jump out of the book onto my memory. It reminds me of my childhood friends, my relatives, the village doctors, the traveling smith and craftsmen.
When I was 6 or 7 years old, I often grazed water buffalos with my friends in the slops of Wuling (Five Peaks) Mountain. One day we saw a World War II bomb delivered by the Japanese airplane. We were so curious, excited and naïve. We moved it to the grain yard of our agricultural production brigade on the buffalos?back. Fortunately, the explosive was already gone possibly because of aging and weathering. This book forces me to recall the detail of this incident and reassure that nobody was hurt by our ignorance.
During that time our village was often visited by a locksmith, who is the one spoke "xiang qi?accent. He was tall with broad shoulders and white beard. He carried two cabinets covered by glasses on a bamboo pole. Whenever he came, we surrounded his workshop area in the grain yard. He was always accompanied by a young boy of our age. I never figured out why that boy would play with us while the locksmith was making the 5 or 10 cent deals with the adults. The visit was usually about two to three hours. Then they left for other villages. We saw them off in sun and in rain. They did not take away anything from us. But they brought us excitements every time.
In our area, we had village doctors they used to practice Chinese medicine in Jianxi province. They always told us that people from Jianxi province were our relatives. We greeted each other "Lao Biao? I would always have remembered them because I was often sent by my mom to ask for medicine help when our family members felt unease.
Our village also hosted two youngsters from the city. At that time, there were about 16 or 17 years old. They worked hard to learn and to grow up. I didn't know what was their feeling when they lived in our village. But I know the villagers are still talking about them and wishing them well.
I never had the habit to keep a dairy for my past. I have forgot many things about my childhood. The author of this book recorded the language I have used and the stories I have experienced. It reminds me many of my happiness and sadness.
If you want to understand Chinese society, Chinese people, and the rural areas in China, I recommend you read this book. The writing is crisp, the information is practical, and the stories are true. The translation is great.
At this pint, a pop-rice master is walking towards me from the book, with the black, bomb-shaped and air-tight rice cooker, the charcoal stove and the bellow on his shoulder. The black soot covers his face. His smiling reveals only his eyes and teeth. I hear the explosion of the air. Now, I am going to put a bag of popcorn in my microwave so that I will progress with the book and step back to my hometown with my uncle.
Maqiao Mysteries.......2003-09-30
This masterful and quite heady novel tackles the history of a fictitious town buried deep in China, a place protected by rivers and mountains. When a a "sent-down" worker from the city joins a group of urbanites to live in the town, they discover a place that's almost a metaphor for Chinese life -- cast in reverse.
Han Shaogong guides the reader through the fictitious author's "dictionary" of Maqiao, which acquaints us with a baffling set of customs, and a people who view themselves as a kind of "Middle Kingdom," in which the outside world is shunned. The novel becomes an inventive expose of Shaogong's sometimes profound insights into the restrictions of culture and language. The book's episodes can be rigorously dry or unexpectedly moving.
The diligent reader will be rewarded. The depth and honesty of Shaogong's insights reach to the present day, and his small town of Maqiao is certain to leave a deep impression. This prize-winning novel is a dictionary that compels your interest and enjoyment..
Average customer rating:
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Han Shaogong. A Dictionary of Maqiao.(Book Review): An article from: World Literature Today
Fatima Wu
Manufacturer: University of Oklahoma
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
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ASIN: B00084BIH2
Release Date: 2005-08-01 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from World Literature Today, published by University of Oklahoma on September 1, 2004. The length of the article is 450 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Han Shaogong. A Dictionary of Maqiao.(Book Review)
Author: Fatima Wu
Publication:
World Literature Today (Refereed)
Date: September 1, 2004
Publisher: University of Oklahoma
Volume: 78
Issue: 3-4
Page: 85(1)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Customer Reviews:
Very pleased...Finally!.......2007-07-19
Description from the back of book:
Cash McQueen was a hard man, a man who believed in the land and nothing else. With the land, a man knew where he stood. It was different with a woman. There wasn't one alive who could be trusted-and Mariah MacKenzie was no exception.
The minute she showed up at the Rocking M Ranch with not much more than the clothes on her back and a map of a long-lost gold mine, Cash knew she was trouble. Yet he couldn't seem to stop wanting her brand of trouble. But nothing would ever again make him place his trust in a woman-not even a woman he wanted as badly as Mariah MacKenzie.
* Finally! I found one in this series that I absolutely loved. I hated book #1, which I feel you don't need to read to enjoy this series. Book #2 & #3 were better but I really fell in love with Cash & Mariah. I was so glad to finally read about Cash & I had wondered about Mariah for a minute in book #2 so I was really glad to get to meet her. I have to say that although I haven't really liked the setting & the history of this series it worked for me in this book & the ending was to die for. I couldn't stop the tears. I recommend the contemporary books (#2-#5) in this series & I say skip book #1. That being a historical & the others being contemporary I think you're safe to skip it.
Not a bad read.......2006-06-14
From the back cover:
Cash McQueen was a hard man, a man who believed in the land and nothing else. With the land, a man knew where he stood. It was different with a woman. There wasn't one alive who could be trusted-and Mariah MacKenzie was no exception.
The minute she showed up at the Rocking M Ranch with not much more than the clothes on her back and a map of a long-lost gold mine, Cash knew she was trouble. Yet he couldn't seem to stop wanting her brand of trouble. But nothing would ever again make him place his trust in a woman-not even a woman he wanted as badly as Mariah MacKenzie.
This book stinks!.......2006-04-13
How anyone can continue to read Elizabeth Lowell's tired formula for her books is beyond me. I decided to give her one more try, but once again was trapped in the dreadful plot. Basically all her novels come down to some emotionally retarded hero who has been deeply wounded in the past by someone or something (this part varies)who desperately want to be with some extremely young girl (usually gets the hots for her by age 16 but manages to hold off his passion in the usual Lowell way by drinking too much when the urge gets great). Innocent young girl tries to declare her love to the wounded hero & gets hurt by his rejection which then conveniently hurts her so badly that she can't function sexually with another man and this psychological chastity belt keeps her a virgin until she becomes old enough that the guy won't be charged with sex with a minor, at which time he decides to help her heal & they get together (usually with her pregnant at the end of the book & thrilled that she has given up whatever career she had planned to stay home & take care of the Wounded Man and the brood of babies she has started). I can hear the sound of retching even now! Don't waste your time with this stinker, or any of the other crummy throwaway romances she writes. Find someone who writes characters who actually have lives & don't spend all their time trying to prove how unfit to breed they truly are!
EXCELLENT READ.......2006-01-14
I just loved this book. I fell in love with all of the characters. I enjoyed the large extended family living on a ranch; envisioning the beautiful surroundings. Mariah was great. She was full of passion; was a kind person. Cash was wonderful. He was strong and sexy. I loved the things he said to her. He also had a hard time trusting women; having been burned by another. This makes the coming together of Mariah and Cash even more special. I also loved the ending. It made me cry; it was so heartfelt. This was an excellent read; it just swept me away.
Great Book !.......2001-12-27
This is only the second book I have read by Elizabeth Lowell and I must say both were fantastic! I just could not put this book down for a second, although, I could have done without such vivid decriptions of their sexual intimacy. But overall this book is great, definately worth your money!
Average customer rating:
- Three super books in ONE!
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Summer Lovers : First, Best and Only / Granite Man / Chain of Love
Barbara Delinsky ,
Elizabeth Lowell , and
Anne Stuart
Manufacturer: Harlequin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Anthologies | Romance | Subjects | Books
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Paperback | Delinsky, Barbara | ( D ) | Authors, A-Z | Romance | Subjects | Books
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Customer Reviews:
Three super books in ONE!.......2002-09-20
Three powerhouse writers Anne Stuart, Elizabeth Lowell and Barbara Delinksy with three full size novels in one!! This is how reprints should be done!!!
Anne Stuart the Queen of the blacksoul, blackhearted bad boys we loves, gives a change of pace with a smiling, kinder-gentler hero in Chain of Love. Cathy Whiteheart was barely pulling out of the deep depression after an abusive relationship, so her sister drags her on board aa yacht for a day in the sun. What she did not count on was Sin - Sinclair McDonald the owner of the boat being handsome, and pure male. He is imposing, terrifying and so bloody attractive that he send conflicting emotions running wild in a woman that has been hiding for life.
Sin is more than just sexy, he is funny and kind...something she is not used to in a man. These characters are warm, real and easy to love.
The dynamite Lowell gives us one of her best in Granite Man - the rock em - sockem Cowboy hero with a chip on his shoulder and a past bearing down on him. But is does not stop Mariah Mackenzie was slipping past his defences.
The Third is Delinsky's First, Best and Only - A CEO Marnie Lang meets with her first and best lover Drain Webster, could they make it work this time around? The Character captive your heart.
I love it when they reprint these books you might have missed first time around, but show respect to the readers and no try to push them off as individual books at big book prices.
a super buy of three super reads!!
Customer Reviews:
Granite man & Warrior.......2007-05-22
I had read these 2 books a long time ago and lost them; it was briiliant to find them again and meet the tough yet tender Blackthorns and the descriptions of the area has made me want to visit the West!
Product Description
5 massmarket paperback Titles in Mackenzie-blackthorn Series -Reckless Love - Fire and Rain - Outlaw - Granite Man - Warrior
Book Description
Davis brings cultural and historical colour to the task of interpretation and adds a pastor's heart for personal application. You will find a point of contact with the lives of Samuel Saul Jonathan and David as Davis answers the question 'What does God seek when he looks on the heart' Davis presents simple exposition of the literary and theological character of the text in a bright and fascinating way.
Average customer rating:
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Wind against the stone: She reached beyond his granite exterior, he captured more than her image
Katherine Myers
Manufacturer: CFI
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books | 18th Century | 19th Century | 20th Century | African American | Asian American | Classics | Collections & Readers | Drama | General | Hispanic | History & Criticism | Humor | Jewish American | Letters & Correspondence | Native American | Poetry | Short Stories | Women Writers
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Product Description
10 Books: 1- The WRONG HOSTAGE / 2- Always Time to Die / 3- Chain Lightning / 4- Granite Man / 5- Only Love / 6- Fire and Rain / 7- Eden Burning / 8- Remember Summer /9- Whirlpool / 10- Pearl Cove, in either Hard or Softcover, (See Seller Condition Comments), Shipped in one package to save on shipping costs.
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Granite Man
Manufacturer: Harlequin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000HZKIUK |
Amazon.com
The Real Story was just a preview to this action-packed tome... The Gap series steps on the accelerator with Forbidden Knowledge. Beautiful cop Morn Hyland, desperate and in pain aboard Captain's Fancy, controls her body and mind with her illegal zone implant, recreating herself as a superbeing worthy of holding Captain Nick Succorso's affections. Jealousy among the crew, threats of rape and ship self-destruction, prisoner torture, and government cyborg programs keep things moving along. Alien Amnioni seeking genetic domination over humankind enter the scene with new technologies such as mutagens and force-growing fetuses. Bite your fingernails while you live it all (vicariously!) through brilliant survivor Morn and villain-turned-conspirator Angus Thermopyle.
Book Description
Author of The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, one of the most acclaimed fantasy series of all time, master storyteller Stephen R. Donaldson retums with the second book in his long-awaited new science fiction series--a story about dark passions, perilous alliances, and dubious heroism set in a stunningly imagined future.
Beautiful, brilliant, and dangerous, Morn Hyland is an ex-police officer for the United Mining Companies--and the target of two ruthless, powerful men. One is the charismatic ore-pirate Nick Succorso, who sees Morn as booty wrested from his vicious rival, Angus Thermopyle. thermopyle once made the mistake of underestimating Morn and now he's about to pay the ultimate price. Both men think they can possess her, but Morn is no one's trophy--and no one's pawn.
Meanwhile, withing the borders of Forbidden Space, wait the Amnioin, an alien race capable of horrific atrocities. The Amnion want something unspeakable from humanity--and they will go to unthinkable lengths to get it.
In Forbidden Knowledge, Stephen R. Donaldson spins a galaxy-wide web of intrigue, deception, and betrayal that tightens with inexorable strength around characters and readers alike.
Customer Reviews:
Good source of information..........2007-01-20
The Handbook of Yoruba Religion Concepts, by Baba Ifa Karade is a good source of information about the Yourba traditions and ways of life. The Priest/Chief Balba Ifa Karade of Yoruba culture revels his knowledge throughout the book by keeping the reader aware and interested in all aspects of the Yoruba traditions and religion.
While reading "The Handbook of Yoruba Religion" Priest/Chief Balba Ifa Karade keeps the reader well aware and open to change for the betterment of life itself. This book is filled with truths and life advancements to change one's thinking in gaining spirituality.
I grew up with this tradition, thanks for bringing me back!
Great intro to Ifa.......2006-11-15
I bought this book about 5 years ago and have loved it ever since. This is one of those rare gems among all the "new age" stuff flooding the market. Baba Ifa Karade has given the reader the basics of Ifa in a straight foward no nonsense fashion. There are several great black and white photos through out the book, as well as some great correspondance tables. I would have liked a little more information on Oshosi, but other than that, it's a truly wonderful book. Ase Baba Ifa Karade.
Straightforward, good beginner information.......2006-10-20
This is actually a pretty good book for those first entering the realm of the Yoruba religion. It has some good straightforward beginner information.
I don't agree with every aspect of this book however - as I dont see the need to constantly compare our religion to others, our elemental energies to chakras, etc. But simply because I don't agree with everything included does not change the fact that it is a good Yoruba primer.
Very light book... don't recommend it.......2005-12-01
This book has nothing to offer, except for those of you who now nothing about Orisha Tradition, and are curious. Otherwise don't waste your time and money...
In the True Tradition of Spiritual Growth.......2004-06-24
Ifa Karade has taken the intrigue and desire for power and prestige out of the mix. He reminds us that indigenous faiths are about spiritual evolution, not personal manipulation.
This book is straightforward, "forward thinking", and spiritually challenging. Its not a rehash of every book before it. It serve a unique place and quiet as kept, more than a few "old school" devotees would do well to let go of their egos and read the book. It has serious intentions written in a welcoming and light tone. Ase to Baba Ifa Karade. A Classic book on the religion.
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