Book Description
Marking the debut of a stunning new literary talent, Lisa Huang Fleischman's extraordinary saga -- inspired by her grandmother's life as an early feminist, political activist, and friend of Mao Zedong -- is a masterpiece about one clever and resourceful woman, growing up amidst the turmoil of twentieth-century China.
Dream of the Walled City
Born in 1890, the privileged and sheltered daughter of a high-ranking imperial official, Jade Virtue spends her childhood enclosed by the towering walls of her family's sprawling mansion, never glimpsing the desperate struggle of China's ancient society, as the old ways are challenged and the twentieth century?fast, fearsome, and tumultuous?rushes in. But when her father mysteriously dies, young Jade Virtue is suddenly thrust into poverty, and experiences firsthand a traditional culture falling apart under the onslaught of growing rebellion against the Emperor, rapid social changes, and the mounting aggression of Japan and the West.
Fleischman has rendered a richly textured, panoramic vision of Chinese life in the perilous years between the end of the empire and the Communist triumph of 1949, charting Jade Virtue's arranged first marriage to the corrupt opium addict Wang Mang, who harbors a terrible secret in his family's past; her awakening independence and ambivalent politics; her struggles with motherhood; and her fascinating acquaintance with a gifted, idealistic, fiercely ambitious young man named Mao Zedong. But the most important choices of her life are shaped by her conflicting loyalties to her intense lifelong friendship with Jinyu, a fiery woman revolutionary, and to Guai, a government official and sworn enemy of the Communists, with whom she finally discovers true and redemptive love.
Exquisitely nuanced and lyrical yet marked with a driving power, Dream Of The Walled City is an enthralling novel of hard-won personal independence set against the vivid backdrop of a rapidly changing world. From the final days of the last dynasty through the savage Japanese invasion during World War II to the formidable red dawn of the Communist triumph; from the backward rural province of Hunan to exile on the tropical shores of Taiwan; and from the binding chains of predetermined fate to the exhilarating liberation of a human spirit, this is a remarkable odyssey you will never forget.
Customer Reviews:
Fleischman tried too hard to write a good story........2004-11-14
I started this novel yesterday evening and decided to skim through the rest of it after one hour of intense reading. It utterly failed to engage me because I was constantly annoyed with the author's attempts to incorporate every possible life lesson at the end of each paragraph!!! While I applaud Fleischman's effort to bring forth another perspective of a China of the early 20th century, her prose does not flow smoothly and her plot tends to ignore the rules of a plausible timeline (e.g. her character ages eight years after two paragraphs!). As a result, her heroine, Jade Virtue, is disappointingly unconvincing as a possible historical figure. Overall, Fleischman should have spent more time tuning her plot than inserting superfluous adjectives into each sentence.
A good first novel.......2003-04-18
I believe this is Lisa Huang Fleischman's first novel, and it's a fine piece of work. From what I understand, this is her maternal grandmother's life story, and Fleischman relates it very well. The story is compelling and the characters are captivating. If anything, the greatest weakness of the story may be that of all the characters, the main character is the least interesting of all. The narrative itself, however, is quite interesting, if only for the observations it lends of life in China during the rise of communism.
Haunting, a thinly veiled memoir of an extraoridinary family.......2002-01-30
I have read quite a few books of this genre and was surprised to have become so engrossed in this one. The author gives an amazing description of an ordinary woman alive and trying to survive during extraordinary times. She sees the world through incredibly intelligent eyes. She is brave, strong, dependable, completely flawed and utterly human. I loved her.
The author describes places and events with beautiful language and clarity that lends itself to the dreamlike quality interwoven throughout this book.
A must read for anyone interested in China and Chinese history.
Accurate Historical novel about Hunan Province.......2001-12-06
Heart rending portrayal of women's lives in Hunan Province beginning at the turn of the century and continuing to the Japanese invasion during WWII. Great read for those who are interested in Chinese history, but find history books too dry. The author has woven figures important in the history of China beautifully into the tapestry of this story.
Enchanting.......2001-11-28
This book had me hooked after the first page. The writing is masterful and allows the imagination to run wild. This book is for anyone that enjoyed "Memoirs of a Geisha."
Book Description
It was the best thing that ever happened to him.
It was his god’s blessing.
It was hell.
Vell was content to be a mere warrior in the Thunderbeast tribe, staying behind on the hunt to guard the camp.
But then something alien awakened deep within him, the spirit of a behemoth that he could not control. With it came attacks from the sky, visitors from far lands, and a mysterious command from their ancestral totem: Find the living. And this time, no one was going to let him just stay behind.
Customer Reviews:
Good.......2007-01-23
"Son of Thunder" is a novel about a group of Uthgart barbarians set on a quest by their deity to find their totem animals. The problems start when the Zhentarim take interest in the powerful magic somehow connected to those animals... This short description maybe sounds a bit dull and rehearsed, but this is, after all, an interesting book.
The thing I liked the most in this novel are the antagonists. Since they get almost an equal share of the page count, you can't say it is a small factor. Leeder's villains are rich in character, interesting and believable. They act logically and in accordance with their natures and/or histories. They have all those little quirks and habits that make them unique and memorable. This book even features a hobgoblin with identity crisis.
The plot was well conceived, as well as two other notable subplots. One of the subplots has even a truly unpredictable twist towards the end of the book. The book is also rich with Realms lore, especially concerning the origin and roots of the Uthgart barbarians. The characters gather the lore along the way, which makes it much more interesting than if a wise old guy gave them the whole story in one place (as it often happens in such novels). This book features a whole bunch of characters, and many of them get a page or two for their histories and exploits. I liked that a lot.
On the downside, the protagonists are a bit boring, to be sincere. The leading character is a well rehearsed unlikely-hero-who-doesn't-want-to-be-a-hero type. He is probably the weakest link of this novel. But since this is not one of those novels that center on only one character, it makes this complaint a bit milder. The book also features a totally unnecessary short romance, and that is about it on the things I didn't like.
All in all, a FR novel definitely worth reading.
Read something else.......2006-02-28
This particular Forgotten Realms book set in the Fighter Series is interesting for only one reason; the protagonist gains the ability into a very odd type of animal. As to the story, in order to save their people Vell the Brown and the rest of his barbarian tribe are commanded by the voice of their totem to seek the Thunderbeasts in the High Forest. Along the way this mission is complicated by Zhentil Keep baddies and Vell has to deal with the odd abiltiy he's acquired.
Not a very good FR story and it was hard to sit with a staight face through some of the ridiculous action that takes place. Eventually I just had to put the book down. If you're a Forgotten Realms reader and a fan of the Fighter series Ghostwalker and Bladesinger are both better choices. 2 out of 5 stars.
Deceit , Intrigue, Murder, Oh My!!! .......2006-02-11
It is definitly a must buy. It's jam packed with action, deceit, intrigue and it's share of twists. All the elements to making an excellent read. It's about a Barbarian by the name of Vell who is blessed by the God, Uthgar. If Vell isn't careful, his blessed power can easliy became a forsaken curse because Uthgar gave Vell the power to transform into a dinosaur and crush his enemys. But if he isn't careful he can loose himself while a dinosaur and accidentlly kill all that he loves. Vell and his Barbarian tribe, The Thunderbeasts, are on a holy mission to find the other sacred Behemoths and protect them from the vilest of evil. Will Vell find them in time?...........or will evil pervail....A good book. Check it out!
Average at best..........2006-02-11
Son of Thunder by Murray J.D. Leeder is the 3rd book in a series of stand alone novels focusing on the Fighter class set in the Forgotten Realms. This is Leeder's first full length novel in the realms and I must say it is less than stellar. That is not to say it's not a decent book, but not in the same league with others who have written these stand alones such as Erik de Bie, Jess Lebow, Kameron Franklin et al.
The basic plot behind Son of Thunder (SoT) is a decent enough story. It involves a barbarian tribe, their god, and the Zhentarim. This mix of players creates a story that covers lot of ground, but doesn't `accomplish' a whole lot for the reader. The characters are not very interesting - most I could really care less about. The book may be loaded with Realms Lore, but it is also loaded with cliché after cliché.
The one basic plot line in this book, but it almost seems like Leeder tries to get the reader to believe that there are other plotlines as well. The basic premise is that a small group of barbarians need to trek across a large area for the calling of their god. Then trek all the way back to another area... then all the way back in the end. Lots of walking! Throughout this trekking the small group (12 people) meet up with a few people to `assist' their trek. The entire book, I just felt like I was reading the account of someone playing a video game. Group does this... group does that. Finally, the end of the book, the last 30 pages the author tries to throw in so many twists I literally groaned after the second one. Maybe one or two of them would have been effective, but the ending of the book left a bad taste in my mouth when I was finished. This book just did not resonate with me.
The characters in this book were far from interesting. To me these characters could be found in almost any other fantasy book on the shelves today. There was little to nothing that made the characters memorable, aside from one thing with Vell (main character) but I won't reveal that here as it is a spoiler of sorts. Beyond Vell the characters were simply blah to me. I didn't care about them, they didn't grab me in a way that wanted me to keep reading. They were just there.
This book did have some good points to it. Leeder's writing style is very inviting and allows the reader a fairly uninterrupted flow. I can definitely see that he has talent for writing, maybe this book was pushed on him. It just didn't seem like he was comfortable writing it, almost forced if you will.
If I had to choose between recommending or not recommending this book, sadly I would most likely go with the later of the two choices. It's an ok read at best and I think there are countless other books out there that would offer the reader more satisfaction. However, if the reader is looking for something rather formulaic and need something to satisfy a fantasy urge, they could do worse than this book. This is average at best.
Book Description
The Gulliver’s Travels of the nuclear age, the Alice in Wonderland of the arms race, this mordantly funny and visionary tale of the apocalypse was a Nebula finalist. The trouble starts when George Paxton ingenuously signs an admission of complicity in starting World War III. “The only book in the last ten years that I’ve read twice...a remarkable achievement” (Arthur C. Clarke).
Customer Reviews:
One nuclear bomb can ruin your whole day........2007-02-06
Written in 1986, _This Is the Way the World Ends_ is one unique book that combines elements of _On the Beach_, _Alice and Wonderland_, _Twelve Angry Men_, and _It's a Wonderful Life_. The hero of our story is a Massachusetts tombstone engraver named George Paxton. Paxton is just like any other muddle class man trying to support his family, but one thing stands in his way. The Cold War, which in the book extends well into 1995, keeps getting hotter and hotter every day. The media in conjunction with The Defense Department is trying to sell SCOPAS (Self-Contained Post-Attack Survival) suits. Unable to afford one for his only child on his meager salary, George travels to a mysterious hat shop in Boston to obtain one for free. However, there is a catch. In order for him to have the suit, he has to sign a paper that places him in direct complicity for perpetuating the arms race.
Just before he comes back home with the suit, the bombs fall and in one fell swoop destroy everything he holds dear. Before a second wave falls on his hometown, he finds himself "rescued" by a nuclear submarine crew. Paxton meets several other survivors including a former Air Force General, a young ultraconservative televangelist, an Assistant Secretary of Defense, a thing tank nuclear weapons genius, and an Arms Control Agent. As these survivors soon discover, there was a reason for their "rescue". The Unadmitted, the countless multitudes of people from the future who were denied the opportunity to even exist because of World War III, want answers in the form of a trial that will result in execution if the verdict is guilty. Being the last people on the planet, George and his fellow survivors must make not only the best case they can for their own survial, but for the future of the human race itself.
If one were to only read the first half of _TItWtWE_, one would believe that it is staunchly anti-nuke. The depiction of the blast in George's hometown is brief but extremely graphic. The long-term effects of the war (nuclear winter, starvation, sterility, disease, and radiation poisoning) leave even less room for optimism. Morrow also makes a good point by saying nuclear war is catastrophic for the present (causing massive destruction in the here and now), the future (denying future generations existence), and the past (invalidating all that our ancestors achieved). The word "deterrence" is thrown about in so many different ways that it seems to lose its meaning. Then, we also have self-contradictory phrases like "anticipatory retaliation".
But as one reads along further, Morrow also allows the pro-nuke side have their say. During the trial, the defense attorney presents a very strong case stating his clients were ultimately acting in the best interest of peace. He accurately states that the tyrannical Soviet government frequently violated many arms limitations treaties, sent people to hellish gulags for dissenting political opinions, and murdered tens of millions in the name of the soul destroying ideology known as Communism. Furthermore, the notion that disarmament works when one side disposes of their weapons while another side secretly keeps theirs is absurd. I have to borrow a quote from the movie _Air Force One_: "Peace is not merely the absence of conflict, it is also the presence of justice."
By presenting both views of the arms debate, Morrow comes up a valid third opinion. The nuclear weapons problem is not an easy one to solve, but it is an essential one. It is not only the responsibility of our elected officials, it is also the responsibilty of the average citizen to assume a greater role in ensuring the survival of our world. Again, not an easy task, but an essential one.
In closing, I believe that books like _TItWtWE_ are just as important now as they were 20 years ago. The Cold War may have ended, but we still face threats from Iran and North Korea while the vast majority of world leaders seem content to sit back and twiddle their thumbs. If that thermonuclear Sword of Damocles descends upon us what will we say? "Non mea Culpa!" "We were only following orders!" "You can't fight city hall!" Or better yet, will we be smart enough to just say nothing and grab the sword by the hilt before the rope breaks?
Kurt Vonnegut Wannabe.......2006-07-24
I was disappointed in this novel. I was expecting science fiction and got fantasy.
Morrow seems to want to be Kurt Vonnegut. His plot twists, unfortunately, don't measure up to those of Uncle Kurt.
The Lewis Carroll references were overdone.
I can't see this being recommended along side THE LAST SHIP, ON THE BEACH, and similar books. If you are looking for apocalyptic fiction, look elsewhere.
This is the way it's done.......2006-07-04
It's easy to guess from the opening pages exactly how James Murrow plans to conclude This is the Way the World Ends, his dark satire of the demise of people. Nevertheless, by the time he finally tosses that last shovelful of dirt onto the grave of humaity he sees to it that a good time has been had by all. Morrow has managed to craft a brisk and economical tale that wades hip deep into the nonsensical details of nuclear war doctrine while never forgetting to bring the funny.
Read this book.
Brilliant Satire.......2006-01-18
This is the Way the World Ends is an apocolyptic piece of fiction written by James Morrow In this title the Russians and United States engage in a nuclear war all but annihilating the human race in the process. Tombstone carver, George Paxton loses his wife and daughter in the war, but survives and is rescued only it seems so he can be put on trial for the extinction of the human race.
This novel is dated in some respects as we are obviously no longer much concerned with a nuclear war with Russia. Reading it it was obviously written and published during the height of the cold war. Yet the themes still ring true today. Some of the writing I would argue is more relevent today than it was when published. Morrow has written a btilliant satire that although he often writes with the subtlety of Swift has its share of laugh out loud momwnts. In fact reading this tome I would not draw direct comparisions to Pratchett, but I detected a hint of the same type of humour and observations of the occassional absurdity of the human condition in this novel as I did in some of Pratchett's novels.
To conclude, if you are looking for an original tale with well drawn characters and an interesting plot I would recommend you do not let the age of this story put you off reading it. It was far from a perfec novel but much better than average with interesting ideas and the right balance of humour and seriousness attending its main subjects and as I stated earlier this book almost is more relevent now as when it was published.
Satirizing Nuclear Warriors.......2005-10-08
As he does in his other books, Morrow here uses fantastical elements for maximum satirical effect. The question is whether these elements detract from the story's satirical force, which is what Beth Ann Mills' Library Journal review above suggests. This isn't just a question of the reader's ability to suspend disbelief, since the author obviously has some responsibility to make the story plausible. Mills, though, doesn't appreciate that far from conflicting with the book's satirical power, Morrow's satire depends on the novel's fantastic parts.
Morrow typically begins with a fantastic premise that provides the perfect setting in which to skewer his targets. Take his book, Towing Jehovah. God's gigantic body drops dead from the sky. God is clearly now dead, but this means he was once alive. This is a rich starting point for showing that both atheists and theists (but especially theists) are ridiculously wrong. In the case of his satire on nuclear war, TITWTWE, Morrow mixes realism with fantasy. The nuclear war itself is described in horrifying detail. The arguments for and against nuclear deterrence are examined in a concrete way. Contrary to Mills, the giant prehistoric bird is explained in ordinary biological terms and is therefore, strictly speaking, science fictional not fantastic. The flying tailor shop is also science fictional.
This isn't to say that a prehistoric bird and a flying tailor shop aren't fantastic in a less technical sense. Even if we put to one side its genuine fantastic themes, TITWTWE still wouldn't be a straightforward novel. This is to that even speculative science fictional ideas are fantastic in the sense that they're highly unusual. Perhaps the overall strangeness of Morrow's novel detracts from the serious points he may want to make. My point, though, is that Morrow's extreme kind of satire depends precisely on the plot's strangeness. I'll show this below in the spoiler alert paragraph.
The book's main fantastic idea has to do with the nature of the people who conduct the trial of the nuclear holocaust's survivors. The reason these people are genuinely fantastic is that Morrow doesn't even attempt to explain in realistic terms how they come to be or what rules govern their abilities. He says that they're a strange consequence of a species extinction event, and that they "gain the continent." But the explanation Morrow does give establishes the book's satirical thrust. Contrary to Mills, these people are not aliens. If they were simply aliens, they would be science fictional not fantastic. Indeed, Morrow has a character say at one point that aliens might be observing the trial, and I would have been satisfied if they had turned out to be aliens or the work of aliens.
***Spoiler alert. Don't read further in this paragraph if you haven't yet read TITWTWE. The "unadmitted" people are simply the humans from the future that would have lived had there been no nuclear war. They come from the possible world that would have been actualized. So they're not aliens; granted, they have some strange powers, such as their shape-changing black blood and their inability to live past a year, but these powers clearly support the satirical point Morrow wants to make. (Their blood is black because they're outraged that they won't be "admitted" and their lifespan is short because their anger brings them into existence briefly, but they can't escape the overriding damage done by the war. Incidentally, the reason the flying tailor shop isn't properly fantastic is that the shop comes from the future.) Morrow shows that a nuclear war wouldn't be a crime just against the peace or against present humanity, but would be a crime also against the future, because the whole species might be rendered extinct. So why not have the future (somehow) visit the present to rage against those who could have tried harder to stop the war but didn't? Morrow could have made their presence realistic by appealing to extraterrestrials, but he doesn't do so. Now my main point is that even if the novel's strangeness allows a reader to get distracted, there would be no way to engage in Morrow's extreme level of satire without having the survivors literally confront the worst consequence of their inaction, which is the extinction of the species. Morrow makes this confrontation literal by having the future humans arrive in the present to take their revenge. There simply is a level of satire that depends on a strange plot. End of spoiler alert.***
Besides allowing him to ridicule those who would justify a buildup of nuclear weapons, Morrow's fantastic premise allows for some tear-jerking, bittersweet moments, especially near the end. As I was reading the book, I found myself hoping that Morrow would eventually explain in realistic terms the people conducting the trial. What Morrow does instead is use the bluntness of the fantasy to focus on the gut wrenching consequences of the end of the world. The book's ending is very sad indeed and would have been diluted with a science fiction-style explanation having to do with aliens.
Another reviewer, Robert Beveridge thinks Morrow was going for comedy. The book isn't simply a comedy, but Morrow uses humour in two ways. There is gallows humour which makes the best of an untenable situation. More importantly, some of the humour is meant to ridicule and to shame the satire's targets. The humour is bitter not lighthearted, so it surely makes no sense to fault the book for burying the humour under the "political message." The book is primarily satirical, and the humour as well as the fantasy serve the purpose of satirizing, which is to say ridiculing certain targets. The targets aren't just political (George the hero is an everyman), so neither is the book's message. But the political arguments are hardly one-sided. Both sides have their say in the trial. Morrow does come down against a nuclear weapons buildup, but mainly because of a single argument, which is the arrogance of booby-trapping the planet despite the likelihood of unintended consequences, accidents, and human error. I mostly agree with the reviewer Michael Battaglia except I don't think inconsistency is a problem when Morrow switches from dark humour to honest emotion. The aftermath of a nuclear holocaust would be multifaceted, and the sad ending is so effectively handled--especially one particular chapter--that I think the reader can be absorbed by it without being distracted by the earlier amusing parts. At worst the book is inconsistent in some academic sense.
Average customer rating:
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This Is the Way the World Will End, This Is the Way You Will End, Unless
Harold Freeman
Manufacturer: Schenkman Books
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ASIN: 0870736078 |
Book Description
A leading theologian reflects on the challenges of the American church and explores how it can faithfully survive in a peculiarly American Christian ethical system.
Customer Reviews:
Solid Essays from Hauerwas.......2004-08-06
Stanley Hauerwas, often called an essayist theologian lives up to his name once again offering yet another volume of hard-hitting, no nonsense essays on everything from homosexuality to murder mysteries. Readers of Hauerwas will not be disappointed with yet another provocative and insightful collection of essays that Hauerwas claims are his attempt to make his desire for the church to be a body that serves "for the nations" more determinative than his oft-characterized posture of being "against the nations." (p. 9) And he delivers on this attempt. Hauerwas grapples with significant issues of contemporary culture that the church in America currently faces.
His opening essay "On Being a Christian and an American" is yet another of his refutations of his common characterization as a "Sectarian, Fideistic Tribalist" (p. 23). He provides yet another reiteration of his message to Christians regarding the nature of their engagement with social and political issues in the public arena, again arguing that he does not seek to legitimate some sort of "withdrawal ethic." His second essay, "The Christian Difference, Or Surviving Postmodernism" is a splendid discussion of the postmodern situation and the resources that the church has in confrontation with postmodern culture. It is also an excellent corrective to theologians that have been all to eager to jump onto the postmodern bandwagon uncritically.
The remainder of the essays continue on the theme of Christian theology/ethics (see chapter 10) in America and the particular challenges that are presented to the church in this context. The only criticism to be made is that some of the essays lack cohesion with the rest of the book, for example, Hauerwas's chapter on murder mysteries, which he included "just for the hell of it" (p. 19). However, this is a solid collection of vintage Hauerwas with much that the American church desperately needs to hear. As such it is a must read for Christians that are concerned about the nature of the church and it's relationship to the strange world in which it finds itself.
A great collection.......2002-08-06
This collection of essays really gives some insight into Hauerwas' thought. Always provocative, Hauerwas expands on themes that he has touched on before, such as how Capitalism and the privatization of American life affect issues such as homosexuality (he deals with privatization and its affects on the Abortion debate in his essay ABORTION, THEOLOGICALLY UNDERSTOOD available in the Hauerwas Reader). Not content to rest on his laurels, Hauerwas dispenses irritation to anyone who us unwilling to think through the problems confronting the Church and society today, revealing that what we thought were the problems are merely symptoms and the solutions are both much more complicated than we can grasp and as simple as trusting in Jesus Christ.
Diverse Application of Hauerwas' thought.......2000-12-24
This collection of essays offers a great introduction to the thought of Stanley Hauerwas. The essays cover a variety of issues facing the Church today some of which are recognized by the wider Christian community and others that are not. Even those that are (i.e. the Church's response to homosexuality) Hauerwas offers a unique perspective that challenges the zealots in all camps. On the whole Hauerwas confronts the presupositious held by those of us in the West (in general) and in America (in particular) with typical ferocity and intellectual integrity.
Books:
- Enchanted Night: A Novella
- Geniuses of Crack
- Harlot's Ghost
- Hens Dancing: A Novel
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- I Hate To See That Evening Sun Go Down: Collected Stories
- I Was Amelia Earhart
- Ideal Boy, An: Charts from India
- In the City of Shy Hunters: A Novel
- Jack Maggs: A Novel
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