- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Viking USA; 1 edition (April 7 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0670020591
- ISBN-13: 978-0670020591
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 14 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 408 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #848,018 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
One of The Wall Street Journal's Two Best Works of Fiction of the Year about Asia
"Its story-telling and its narrative are both straightforward and clear . . . allow[ing] the drama of the story to open up naturally, unpretentiously . . . and yet also to crescendo into a tour de force of a conclusion. . . . [The translators'] English-and their English-is as fluid and conversational as Wang Gang's Chinese."
-Rain Taxi
"Refreshing . . . Anyone who has dreamed for something bigger in life will relate to the story."
-Lijia Zhang, The Wall Street Journal Asia
"Equally tender and searing . . . More than any other book I've read about Communist China, English conveys a sense of the time and place with clarity, authenticity and compassion."
-Tiffany Lee-Youngren, The San Diego Union-Tribune
"Deftly explores the politics of language during those treacherous times."
-Travel + Leisure
"A fascinating and loving portrait of a painful childhood full of fond memories [that] allows us to glimpse the humanity we all have in common. For that reason, the book does what good literature should always do."
-The Quarterly Conversation
"A heart-wrenching coming-of-age story during one of the most tumultuous periods of modern history."
-BookDragon
"A 'Catcher in the Rye in China.' . . . This book's style reminded me of Waiting, the 1999 National Book Award-winning novel by Ha Jin. . . . I truly enjoyed this book."
-Sarah Phoenix, Minnesota Reads
"This compelling coming-of-age novel . . . paints a vivid picture of what life was like during the Cultural Revolution, with paranoia, suspicion, and distrust informing every relationship, even the closest ones."
-Booklist
"The pure friendship between the teenage boy and his English teachers is movingly beautiful; the depiction of the intellectuals of that particular period cuts to the bone. I highly recommend it."
-Mo Yan, author of Red Sorghum
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
"Its story-telling and its narrative are both straightforward and clear . . . allow[ing] the drama of the story to open up naturally, unpretentiously . . . and yet also to crescendo into a tour de force of a conclusion. . . . [The translators'] English-and their English-is as fluid and conversational as Wang Gang's Chinese."
-Rain Taxi
"Refreshing . . . Anyone who has dreamed for something bigger in life will relate to the story."
-Lijia Zhang, The Wall Street Journal Asia
"Equally tender and searing . . . More than any other book I've read about Communist China, English conveys a sense of the time and place with clarity, authenticity and compassion."
-Tiffany Lee-Youngren, The San Diego Union-Tribune
"Deftly explores the politics of language during those treacherous times."
-Travel + Leisure
"A fascinating and loving portrait of a painful childhood full of fond memories [that] allows us to glimpse the humanity we all have in common. For that reason, the book does what good literature should always do."
-The Quarterly Conversation
"A heart-wrenching coming-of-age story during one of the most tumultuous periods of modern history."
-BookDragon
"A 'Catcher in the Rye in China.' . . . This book's style reminded me of Waiting, the 1999 National Book Award-winning novel by Ha Jin. . . . I truly enjoyed this book."
-Sarah Phoenix, Minnesota Reads
"This compelling coming-of-age novel . . . paints a vivid picture of what life was like during the Cultural Revolution, with paranoia, suspicion, and distrust informing every relationship, even the closest ones."
-Booklist
"The pure friendship between the teenage boy and his English teachers is movingly beautiful; the depiction of the intellectuals of that particular period cuts to the bone. I highly recommend it."
-Mo Yan, author of Red Sorghum
Book Description
A captivating coming-of-age novel in the tradition of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
During the darkest days of Cultural Revolution, a twelve-year-old boy named Love Liu wonders what life is like beyond the region of Xinjiang in China's remote northwest. Here conformity is valued above all else, and suspicion governs every exchange among neighbors, classmates, and even friends. Into this stifling atmosphere comes a tall, clean-shaven teacher from Shanghai, wearing an elegant gray wool jacket and carrying an English dictionary under his arm.
With the dictionary as his disposal, Love Liu turns to it for answers to his most pressing questions about love and life, and a whole new world opens up for him. His classmates--the bright, troubled Sunrise Huang and the rowdy, impoverished Garbage Li--also find hope in the unfamiliar and tantalizing sounds of English, but in an atmosphere of accusation and recrimination, one in which their teacher is deemed morally suspect and mere innuendo can cost someone his life, their ideals face a test more challenging than any they'll take in the classroom.
A major bestseller in China, where it was voted best novel of the year independently by the critics and the general public, English is a transcendent novel about the power of language to launch a journey of self-discovery.
Inside This Book
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Uyghur boy learns English and much more,
By
This review is from: English: A Novel (Paperback)
ENGLISH, Wang GAng, Viking Press, 2004, pp.313A 40 year old Urumchi native from Xinjiang Province (northwest corner of China) recounts not only his young life as a student but a long tale of sexual arousement, one by a woman and the other a man. The story occurs right in the middle of the Cultural Revolution days and Mao's death in 1976. Even though the story teller confesses all these stories decades later when some of the worst instigators of excesses were condemned, and given the paranoid attitude of the dictatorial communist regime, I am astonished at the freedom in which he writes. The novel isn't exactly pro-communist but still living in Beijing, it shows the more relaxed policy of the Party in 2004. Wang Gang is not critical of recent policies or events, such as the Tian'an Men Square Massacre. Childhood memories lead to many descriptions of the predominately Muslim autonomous region of Xinjiang Province - not the most hospitable land of the Uyghur people who are also being over run by the Han Chinese, creating many contemporary problems. The novel has a disturbing dark side which revolves around a preteen and teen who are easily sexually aroused, given their age. It is not pornography but one has to wonder at the level of tolerance towards the English teacher, in the story. The teacher was treading precariously close to dangerous grounds especially when he habitually permitted one girl and boy to enter his dorm room. The incidents commence with the girl and later shift to the boy. The story's focus is the English dictionary and classes taught by a young well-dressed male. Second Wang gives one-one English lessons to the girl first and eventually to Love Liu. The switch itself is an omen of worse things to come. The prized position of carrying the teacher's phonograph machine is a competitive process - a bit hard to believe. They both have access to Second Wang's valuable English dictionary and this also is a frightful harbinger of things to come. We suppose the teacher to be innocent of immoral behaviour despite nasty rumors. Love Liu's behaviour slowly changes and folks begin to wonder about the "teacher's influence" especially in light of what develops towards the conclusion. The author spices up the story with the first female teacher, Abjitai who is swooned over by the boys and an object of hate by one girl. He neatly reveals more and more of the lives of each principle character and how they are interconnected. This is an English translation but I find many sections of useless babble and conversations to the last simple detail. As the plot unwinds, this boring chatter is reduced. Wang inserts brief glimpses of a troubled China under Mao and the Cultural Revolution in particular. There are also many examples of communist propaganda songs, communist politics and behaviour, and life in general. It is not a fairy tale novel - brutality, sex, abuse, power, penalties, vicious justice, constant fear, children criticizing parents, death, leering and finally the destruction of most of the chief actors. The novel did hold my attention.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews) 10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Charming Coming-of-Age Story,
By Glen L. Loveland - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: English (Hardcover)
This book is a wonderful gem, and we're so lucky that "English" has been translated into English! Perhaps even more importantly, we're fortunate that the translators did a superb job of the translation. Chinese to English translation is a daunting task for even the most talented linguists. What I appreciated is how the writer's were able to do it so eloquently and also create a real feeling of suspense in the book. Although not a mystery, the book has that page turner quality. I think you won't be able to put it down!I generally only read non-fiction books about China. What steered me toward reading "English" was the fact that it was essentially the autobiography of its author, Wang Gang. It's a deep look at a young boy's experiences growing up in West China - an area that even most Chinese people don't really know enough about. Love Liu's obsession with the English language and his bond with his teacher and classmates is poignant. The book will take you back to your own childhood when learning something new made it feel electric and almost dangerous. Finally, "English" is an important book for China watchers because it's not the run of the mill "Cultural Revolution" tome. This book is about the experiences of a young boy who is growing up during that era and doesn't really understand what is happening around him. This ignorance creates a sense of what that experience must have been like for everyone - adult or child - who lived through it. I attended a book talk that the author gave in Beijing, and he's very charming and humorous. He confirmed that each character in the book was a real person and that these experiences were each his own. I guess that's why this "novel" is so richly crafted. 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Pleasant Page-turner,
By J. Ta - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: English (Hardcover)
I started and finished reading this novel within a day because the story really drew me in.The setting of the novel, in Urumchi, (Western China) gave the novel a unique atmosphere that I found fascinating as it is not as popularized as major cities like Beijing. While at times the plot was a bit predictable, I found it to be a charming coming-of-age story and an overall pleasant read. 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Do NOT read the Washington Post "book report" above!,
By Dick Johnson - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: English (Hardcover)
If you have already done so, there is little of the book left to read! (I have asked Amazon to remove it.)This is a well written (translated) addition to the list of Chinese authors revealing the China of several decades ago. The 'hook' is the study of English and the relationship between the teacher, students, parents and officials. While there is nothing new here in terms of the terror of saying or doing the 'wrong' thing, the reality of the characters' lives draws the reader in. There are few characters to like and many to dislike; but some of each are like folks we know (and are?). This is a very good introductory book for readers new to Chinese authors. It's well worth the time invested to read it. |
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