Join Amazon Prime and get unlimited Free One-Day Delivery. Already a member? Sign in.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
29 used & new from £1.90
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather
 
 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather (Paperback)

by Gao Xingjian (Author)
2.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
Price: £7.19 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £0.80 (10%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Want guaranteed delivery by Tuesday, July 14? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
18 new from £3.15 11 used from £1.90
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover (1st) Order it used
Paperback (Reprint) 14 used & new from £3.03
Unknown Binding (4th ICPSR release) Order it used

Frequently Bought Together

Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather + Soul Mountain + One Man's Bible
Price For All Three: £22.17

Show availability and shipping details

  • This item: Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather by Gao Xingjian

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • One Man's Bible by Gao Xingjian

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Soul Mountain

Soul Mountain

by Gao Xingjian
3.3 out of 5 stars (14)  £5.99
One Man's Bible

One Man's Bible

by Gao Xingjian
3.2 out of 5 stars (5)  £8.99
The Tin Drum (Vintage Classics)

The Tin Drum (Vintage Classics)

by Gunter Grass
4.6 out of 5 stars (12)  £6.99
The Leopard: Revised and with New Material (Vintage Classics)

The Leopard: Revised and with New Material (Vintage Classics)

by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
4.9 out of 5 stars (22)  £5.39
Live in London

Live in London

~ Leonard Cohen
4.5 out of 5 stars (50)  £9.98
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 192 pages
  • Publisher: HarperPerennial; New Ed edition (21 Mar 2005)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0007170394
  • ISBN-13: 978-0007170395
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 509,576 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #6 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > X > Xingjian, Gao

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

The Times
'...the strength and grace of Gao’s prose, beautifully translated by Mabel Lee, is great enough to linger over.’

Guardian
'A showcase of Gao's literary talents.... an author who can communicate depths of feeling through snatches of conversation and images...' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Product Description

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
Check a corresponding box or enter your own tags in the field below
short fiction
oriental perfumes
nobel prize in literature
literature nobel prize winners
gao xingjian
east meets west
china

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather
60% buy the item featured on this page:
Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather 2.3 out of 5 stars (3)
£7.19
Soul Mountain
40% buy
Soul Mountain 3.3 out of 5 stars (14)
£5.99
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
5 star:    (0)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
2.3 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Wistful long prose poems, 17 Jan 2006
By Depressaholic (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
Gao Xinjian’s book is a wistful collection of writing. It is not so much a collection of short stories as a series of long prose poems. Each essay has no narrative structure, with beginning, middle and end. Instead the author describes scenes from ordinary lives, mundane but perhaps important moments for the characters involved. There are a honeymooning couple visiting a deserted temple, a day in the park, a swimmer with cramp, among other vignettes. In each case, the characters are glimpsed interacting with little apparent rhyme or reason as to why the story has chosen to access them at that particular moment of their day over any others. Their dialogue is often mundane and banal. The reader is consequently not being invited into a story, but rather simply to act as a voyeur into unremarkable moments in other people’s lives.
Although Gao is a beautiful writer, I have to admit that I just couldn’t get stuck in to this collection. The style doesn’t lend itself to involved reading, and my attention wandered easily. Though I often enjoy stories with no real narrative, they usually have some obvious theme or purpose. I struggled to see one in much Gao’s book. Nevertheless, he is obviously a skilled writer, and I would like to read more of his work, but, beyond the wistfulness of the style, I couldn’t find anything here to hold my attention. They were good as stand-alone prose poems, but it wasn’t the Nobel prize-winning stuff I had hoped for.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Crisp short stories, 11 May 2004
By Philippe Horak (Zug, Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather (Hardcover)
Gao Xingjian uses small events occurring in daily life such as the visit of a decaying temple by a young couple, a road accident involving a father and a his young child, a swimmer suffering from a sudden pain or conversation in a park to deal with topics which he cherishes: the lost innocence of youth, the quest for an environment ruined by modern architecture or the nostalgia for a lost tenderness that only a father or grandfather could provide. Often there is no plot in those short stories, but a simple succession of images, impressions, dreams and thoughts. An author well worth discovering.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
1.0 out of 5 stars Incomprehensible, 4 Jan 2009
By G. W. Strang (Leicestershire, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
These stories read like dream sequences with no logical structure. Two of the stories were completely incomprehensible whilst the others were, where I understood them, boring.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Feedback

The Body Shop

The Body Shop - Vitamin C Skin Boost
Protect and boost your glow with The Body Shop Vitamin C Skin Boost.

›Shop The Body Shop

  

More From Xingjian Gao

Soul Mountain

Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian, Mabel Lee

`Gao finds a Chinese identity and a history that has long vanished in... Read more
£7.99 £5.99

 

We've Got Converse

Converse
Stock up on your favourite styles with great deals on Converse shoes.

›Shop Converse

  

Treat Someone

Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificates--available in any amount from £5 to £500 With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is).

›Learn more about Gift Certificates

  
Ad

Where's My Stuff?

Delivery and Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.
Continue Shopping: Top Sellers
The Girl Who Played with Fire
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
4.5 out of 5 stars (72)£3.86
 Breaking Dawn (Twilight Saga)
Breaking Dawn (Twilight Saga) by Stephenie Meyer
4.1 out of 5 stars (460)£6.49
 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
4.1 out of 5 stars (162)£3.99
 The Host
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
4.2 out of 5 stars (80)£3.86

amazon.co.uk Amazon Home
International Sites:  United States  |  Germany  |  France  |  Japan  |  Canada  |  China
Business Programs: Sell on Amazon  |  Fulfilment by Amazon  |  Join Associates  |  Join Advantage
Customer Service  |  Help  |  View Basket  |  Your Account
About Amazon.co.uk  |  Careers at Amazon
Conditions of Use & Sale |  Privacy Notice  © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates