A Thousand Years of Good Prayers: Stories
by Yiyun Li
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Book Summary Information
Author: Yiyun LiEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2006-09-12
ISBN: 081297333X
Number of pages: 240
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Book Reviews of A Thousand Years of Good Prayers: Stories
Book Review: Great, but nothing new
Summary: 4 Stars
I admire and respect her writings very much. However, as a Chinese person who grew up in China and having read many contemporary Chinese authors, I have to say I find her stories copycats of some of the greatest writing ever written in the last ten years by Chinese authors that have not been translated into English. Her stories do have a lot of impact and force, but I can't help but see her as simply taking great Chinese writings and re-writing them in English with the exact same style, same kind of narratives, and same kind of plots. Maybe that's why she refuses to translate her stories into Chinese, because she knows that some Chinese will realize what she has done. It's like me taking Hemingway and Miller's writings and re-writing them in Chinese and publishing them as my own work in China.
I sent this collection to my Dad and he started laughing as soon as he finished the first story, because it's almost exactly like the writings by Cao and some of the greatest contemporary Chinese authors, whose works have not been picked up by major Chinese publishers because of pressures from the government and as a result have not yet been translated into English.
However, I do admire Li's writing very much since she is not a native speaker and only became fully immersed in English when she came here for grad school.
I think I would give her more respect if she can actually write something new. Because the way I see it, the only thing new about her stories is that they are written in Engish. What's more, they are writen for Americans, and Americans only.
Summary of A Thousand Years of Good Prayers: Stories
Brilliant and original, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers introduces a remarkable new writer whose breathtaking stories are set in China and among Chinese Americans in the United States. In this rich, astonishing collection, Yiyun Li illuminates how mythology, politics, history, and culture intersect with personality to create fate. From the bustling heart of Beijing, to a fast-food restaurant in Chicago, to the barren expanse of Inner Mongolia, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers reveals worlds both foreign and familiar, with heartbreaking honesty and in beautiful prose."Immortality," winner of The Paris Review's Plimpton Prize for new writers, tells the story of a young man who bears a striking resemblance to a dictator and so finds a calling to immortality. In "The Princess of Nebraska," a man and a woman who were both in love with a young actor in China meet again in America and try to reconcile the lost love with their new lives.
"After a Life" illuminates the vagaries of marriage, parenthood, and gender, unfolding the story of a couple who keep a daughter hidden from the world. And in "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers," in which a man visits America for the first time to see his recently divorced daughter, only to discover that all is not as it seems, Li boldly explores the effects of communism on language, faith, and an entire people, underlining transformation in its many meanings and incarnations.
These and other daring stories form a mesmerizing tapestry of revelatory fiction by an unforgettable writer.
From the Hardcover edition.
United States Books
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