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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.92
EAN num: 9780385525923
ISBN number: 0385525923
Label: Nan A. Talese
Manufacturer: Nan A. Talese
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 176
Printing Date: August 05, 2008
Publishing house: Nan A. Talese
Release Date: August 05, 2008
Sale Popularity Level: 121186
Studio: Nan A. Talese
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
From the author of the 2007 Orange Prize finalist A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers comes a wholly original and thoroughly captivating coming-of-age story that follows a bright, impassioned young woman as she rushes headlong into the maelstrom of a quickly changing Beijing to chase her dreams.
Twenty-one year old Fenfang Wang has traveled one thousand eight hundred miles to seek her fortune in contemporary urban Beijing, and has no desire to return to the drudgery of the sweet potato fields back home. However, Fenfang is ill-prepared for what greets her: a Communist regime that has outworn its welcome, a city under rampant destruction and slap-dash development, and a sexist attitude seemingly more in keeping with her peasant upbringing than the country’s progressive capital. Yet Fenfang is determined to live a modern life. With courage and purpose, she forges ahead, and soon lands a job as a film extra. While playing roles like woman-walking-over-the bridge and waitress-wiping-a-table help her eke out a meager living, Fenfang comes under the spell of two unsuitable young men, keeps her cupboard stocked with UFO noodles, and after mastering the fever and tumult of the city, ultimately finds her true independence in the one place she never expected.
At once wry and moving, Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth gives us a clear-eyed glimpse into the precarious and fragile state of China’s new identity and asserts Xiaolu Guo as her generation’s voice of modern China.
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Rated by buyers -
What is modern China like? What is it like to come of age there?
Fenfang Wang grew up living on a sweet potato farm. Her family is uncommunicative and seems to be depressed. There doesn't seem to be much opportunity there in that village. So Fenfang gathers up her belongings at the age of seventeen and heads eighteen-hundred miles to Beijing.
There she takes many jobs. She is a cleaner at a hostel, a factory worker, usherette at a movie theater, and finally she becomes a movie extra. She gets many roles, such as woman-walking-over-bridge and waitress-wiping-a-table. She also writes a movie script. She has two relationships with men but they don't seem to be going anywhere and she is constantly hungry.
The feel of this story is depressing. The main character is very brave and yet scary. At the beginning of the story, she witnesses a fight between a mother and daughter. They are hit by a car and taken away. Fenfang then just takes over their apartment. No one seems to care.
That is the main theme of TWENTY FRAGMENTS OF A RAVENOUS YOUTH, that people just don't seem to care. I would have liked some more explanation of the cultural differences between China and the U.S., because I don't feel that I quite understood all of the nuances of the culture. My daughter lived in Ghana for a year and when she tells a story she needs to explain many ideas and things that she encountered there.
This is a short book and would be very enjoyable for those interested in the Chinese culture.
Reviewed Author name: Marta Morrison
Rated by buyers -
Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth is the story of young Fenfang's journey away from the sweet potato fields of her village and into life as a twenty something in modern day Beijing.
Fenfang works as a film extra among other jobs. There she meets Xiaolin an Assistant to the Producer. Though there isn't much actual romance between them they live together with his family for several years. She also befriends an American student named Ben and his cast of friends.
I really enjoying seeing the world through Fenfang's eyes be it her use of the phrase "Heavenly Bastard in the Sky" to the cockroaches in her apartment to her film script outline of "The Seven Reincarnations of Hao An" to the Old Hens in her apartment watching her every move. Fenfang's is a quiet story and for that I truly enjoy it. I don't believe I have ever read anything quite like this before, it's a beautiful portrait of what it's like to be a young woman in modern day China. It's funny, exciting and a little bit sad.
This book is literally told in twenty small atmospheric fragments. I really like how each fragment has a descriptive title. There are also small grey and white pictures sprinkled throughout the book. The dust jacket art is just beautiful. I really can't think of a more beautifully designed book and cover.
Rated by buyers -
Fenfang is seventeen years old when she escapes from her tiny, suffocating village, where all that awaits her is a life full of sweet potato farming. She travels to Beijing, where she works many odd jobs to stay afloat, before finally managing to become a film extra. In between making minute appearances in TV shows and films, Fenfang struggles to build a modern life for herself in the vast city of Beijing, facing sexist men, the strict Communist rules, and struggles to learn where her own destiny lies.
Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth is a highly intriguing and scintillating novel that will leave the reader with much to ponder. Fenfang is a very easygoing narrator and the story unrolls smoothly from her perspective, giving the reader an educational, but still very substantial glimpse into the bustling life of China's younger generation, all in an honest and sure voice that will make a lasting impression. This is a book that demands your complete attention, through random observations, inquisitive contemplations, and a gritty and realistic grasp on life, making the connection between readers and author an instantaneous one.
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