Hunger: Amazon.ca: Lan Chang: Books

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Review

"A work of gorgeous, enduring prose". -- The Washington Post

Book Description

Nominated for numerous awards, including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and PEN Center USA-West's annual literary award, this debut collection by a young Chinese-American writer has garnered stellar reviews and invited comparisons to Amy Tan and Maxine Hong Kingston. These stories reveal the lives of immigrant families haunted by lost loves: a ghost seduces a young girl into a flooded river; a mother commands a daughter to avenge her father's death; and a woman speaks from beyond the grave about her tragic marriage to a man whose own disappointments nearly destroy their two daughters. In luminous prose Lan Samantha Chang weaves the forces of war and magic, food and desire, ghosts and family, into haunting tales that signal the arrival of an exciting new writer and "a work of gorgeous, enduring prose" (The Washington Post).

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
OFTEN DREAM ABOUT THE RESTAURANT where I met Tian. Read the first page

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Concordance

Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover

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Customer Reviews

13 Reviews

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

4.4 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)

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Most helpful customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars "...how long must we wait to outlast sorrow?", Oct 4 2003

By

morgannie (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hunger (Mass Market Paperback)

This is by all means one of the few most beautiful and crafted I have come across in a while. The rich and quiet style of Chang's prose draws the reader deeply into an place where constrained madness leads to an isolated sorrow. Brilliant in its sweet and inevitable sadness.

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5.0 out of 5 stars HUNGER: Incredibly detailed., Oct 31 2002

By

Mark S. Smith (Fairfax, Va. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hunger (Mass Market Paperback)

I read HUNGER and was moved and amazed with the intricate detail of the thoughts and feelings of the subjects in the collection of short novella's.
The thoughts and inner feelings of the subjects were so brilliantly described I felt as though I could feel and understand just like any one of them.
The book is excellent and I recommend it to anyone!

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4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent debut effort., Jun 25 2002

By

David J. Gannon (San Antonio, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Hunger (Mass Market Paperback)

I once attended a lecture on the immigrant experience in America and one of the speakers posited that the type of experience an immigrant family would have depended on which type of immigrant they were: the sort who is running to something or the sort who is running away from something.

Both sorts populate Hunger: A Novella and Stories by Lan Samantha Chang. And, if these stories are any basis to go by, they refute the premise of the lecturer I heard that one day. The immigrant experience, as depicted by these stories, has little to do with what motivated the flight, and everything to do with the fact the immigrant is an island unto him/her self-a person who cannot be either a "citizen" of either whence they came or where they come to. This alienation and anomie is exemplified through various aspects of hunger throughout the text-hunger for love, for the past, far acceptance, for independence, for personal and/or professional "success".

These stories, like Chang's prose, are contained and spare yet rich in emotion, symbolism and emotional intensity. Through these few tales Chang is able to convey both a wide range of experience and attitude toward the immigrant experience as well as the psychological toll that such experience entails.

I have to admit that I have a predisposition towards appreciating oriental immigrant stories. I enjoy the primary players in the genre, such as Amy Tan and Gish Jen. Chang provides a nice counterpoint to their work as it is the polar opposite in terms of prose style and intensity-short, intense vignettes as opposed to richly textured, wide ranging more sedately paced prose. Both styles work and both are enjoyable. Chang may not be as accomplished as the others at this point, but this book provides strong evidence that she will be soon.

An excellent debut effort.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars An emotional and musical ride
Lan Samantha Chang offers an insightful view into the first generation immigrant experience from a mother's perspective. Read more

Published on Jun 9 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars Deeply moving
The title novella, Hunger, is beautiful and deeply moving. I look forward to Chang's next book.