- Hardcover: 160 pages
- Publisher: WW Norton (Sep 28 1998)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0393046648
- ISBN-13: 978-0393046649
- Product Dimensions: 20.1 x 13 x 2.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 318 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,158,998 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
From Amazon
The characters in Lan Samantha Chang's Hunger are starved for any number of things: acceptance, love, success, and even dreams of home. In the title novella, a thwarted violinist struggles with his second-tier status, forcing his dreams on his daughters and his nightmares on his wife, the narrator. "Some Chinese make their fortunes in America," she realizes. "Tian and I were not among them. Perhaps we lacked the forgetfulness that is essential to moving on." Chang beautifully conveys the pressures on these bewildered immigrant parents, whose aspirations are rarely matched by reality, and their quietly rebellious children. And while Tian remains far more frightening than likable, his long-ago escape from mainland China instantly humanizes this paternal despot:
He struggled slowly toward the silhouette of the refugee ship, the Sonya, his throat dried hollow with seawater, his left arm numb from holding up the instrument. At one point, he slowed and floated in the waves, fitted the familiar shape against his chin, as if he were considering a melody. But he only rested for a moment.Though this novella is definitely the collection's standout, Chang's other stories are equally impressive explorations of desire and need, isolation and fear. When it comes to evoking the smash of cultures, national and familial, this superlatively gifted author has perfect pitch. --Kerry Fried
From Booklist
In this haunting fictional debut, Chang presents a novella and five short stories limning the immigrant experience. In "Hunger," a young Chinese couple meet and marry, and when the husband fails to live up to his overweening ambition to become a professional violinist, he passes on a terrible legacy to his daughters. As his wife listens to him continually berate their musical prowess, she realizes that his hunger has brought their family nothing but sadness and pain. Each of the succeeding stories picks up this theme of familial loss: a father addicted to gambling tutors his daughter in mathematics and then deserts the family for the lure of the dice; a Chinese immigrant couple moves to Iowa and systematically discards all evidence of their culture and previous life. In spare, evocative prose, Chang meticulously details the burdens imposed by family bonds and the cultural confusion of immigrants. Joanne Wilkinson
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Mediocre,
By A Customer
This review is from: Hunger (Hardcover)
The novella is uninspired and lacks genius. The characters are boring. I didn't care what happened to any of them. The short stories are better but nothing special. Overall the work was very stilted. Obviously workshopped to death.
4.0 out of 5 stars
The best is yet to come.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Hunger (Hardcover)
These stories are universally centered around the generation gap. Every parent has unfulfilled dreams and ideals that they transfer to their children. The burden inevitably becomes too heavy, or the expectations get lost in translation. Nothing ever turns out as either generation would expect. As appropriate to a book revolving around the theme of "Hunger", each story in this work is evokative of that vague feeling of sadness and disappointment that comes from unsatisfied loves and dreams.I think this book is a first step to a promising writing career. Chang has shown herself an expert at evoking sadness, I look forward to seeing her display her other talents.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Definitely not workshopped!,
By francis (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Hunger (Hardcover)
If there is anything that typifies this collection, it is that it is about spontaneity: the terrible result of impulsive actions, of the impulse to declare one's success too early, to hope for a new life in a new country, to gamble, to steal. The prose itself moves by fits of passion, alternately concealing and revealing the deepest secrets of its protagonists who are often outwardly mute when it comes to speaking of their desires: sometimes we never even find out what it is, only the tragic results. I've been in workshop and this is not workshopped. It is a carefully wrought and balanced work of art that moves like a bird.
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